Literary Devices Terms

• Literary terms are techniques and tools used in writing to create specific effects or convey deeper meanings.

Alliteration

• The repetition of the same sounds, usually consonants, at the beginning of closely connected words.
• Example: "She sells sea shells by the sea shore."

Allegory

• A narrative in which characters, events, and details symbolize broader concepts/moral qualities.
• Example: Animal Farm symbolizes communism.

Allusion

• A reference to a well-known person, place, event, literary work, or work of art.
• Provides context and enhances meaning by connecting the writing to something familiar.
• Example: "He's a Romeo with the ladies" alludes to Shakespeare's Romeo.

Ambiguity

• A word or phrase with multiple meanings, leading to uncertainty or open interpretation.
• Example: "I saw her duck" can mean seeing her lower her head or seeing her waterfowl.

Analogy

• A comparison between two things, typically for explanation or clarification.
• Example: "Life is like a box of chocolates", implies unpredictability.

Anachronism

• Placing something belonging to a different time period in a story, violating temporal context.
• Example: The Flintstones' TV.

Anthropomorphism

• Giving human traits, emotions, or intentions to animals or objects.
• Example: Mickey Mouse.

Antithesis

• Contrasting ideas expressed in a balanced, parallel structure.
• Example: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times."

Apostrophe

• Addressing an absent or dead person, or an object/idea, as if it were present and capable of understanding.
• Example: "Oh, death, where is your sting?"

Archetype

• A typical character, action, or situation that appears to represent universal patterns.
• Example: Hero, damsel in distress.

Aside

• A short speech delivered by a character to the audience, unheard by other characters on stage.

Atmosphere

• The mood or feeling evoked by a literary work.
• Created through descriptive language and imagery.

Cliché

• An overused expression or idea that has lost its original meaning or impact.

Connotation

• The emotional or cultural meaning associated with a word or phrase.
• Example: Home → warmth, family

Denotation

• The literal or dictionary definition of a word.
• Example: Home → a place someone lives

Diction

• The choice and use of words and phrases in writing or speech.
• Can be formal or informal
• Example: Formal diction versus talking with friends.

Satire

• The use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people's vices or follies.
• Example: Using humor to expose flaws in society.

Simile

• A comparison between two unlike things using "like" or "as".
• Example: "She is as brave as a lion."

Situational Irony

• When the opposite of what is expected actually occurs.
• Example: A lifeguard drowns.

Soliloquy

• A speech delivered by a character alone on stage, revealing their inner thoughts and feelings.

Symbolism

• The use of objects, people, or ideas to represent something else.

Synecdoche

• A figure of speech in which a part is used to represent the whole, or vice versa.
• Example: Saying "Nice wheels" when refering to a car.

Synesthesia

• Describing one sense in terms of another, blending sensory experiences.

Litotes

• An understatement in which a positive statement is expressed through a double negative

Inversion

• The reversal of the normal order of words in a sentence for poetic or rhetorical effect.

Epanalepsis

• Repetition of a word or phrase at the end of a clause or sentence, where it also appeared at the beginning.

Juxtaposition

• Placing two or more things side by side in order to compare or contrast.

Parallelism

• Repetition of grammatical elements in writing speaking.

Couplet

• Two successive lines of verse forming a unit.
• Usually rhyme and have the same meter.

Elegy

• A reflective poem or song of lament for the dead.

Iambic Pentameter

• Ten syllables per line, 5 pairs of unstressed/stressed.
• A line of verse with five metrical feets, each consisting of one short (or unstressed) syllable followed by one long (or stressed) syllable.

Interior Monologue

• A narrative technique that exhibits the thoughts and feelings of a character

Meter

• The rhythmic arrangement of syllables in verse, usually according to stress.

Monologue

• A long speech by one actor in a play or movie, or as part of a theatrical or broadcast program

Quatrain

• A stanza of four lines, especially one having alternate rhymes.

Sonnet

• A poem of 14 lines using any of a number of formal rhyme schemes

Stanza

• A group of lines forming the basic recurring metrical unit in a poem

Tercet

• A set or group of three lines of verse rhyming together or connected by rhyme with the adjacent tercets

Trimeter

• A line verse, consisting of three metrical feet

Dramatic Irony

• Irony in which events or facts are unknown to a character but known to the audience
• Example: In Romeo and Juliet, the audience knows Juliet is not dead.

Enjambment

• The continuation of a sentence or clause from one line of poetry to the next without a major pause or break

Euphemism

• A mild or indirect word or expression substituted for one considered to be too harsh or blunt when referring to something unpleasant or embarrassing.
• Example: "Kick the Bucket" (meaning "He died").

Extended Metaphor

• A comparison between two unlike things that continues throughout a series of sentences in a paragraph or lines in a poem.

Foreshadowing

• A literary device in which a writer gives an advance hint of what is to come later in the story

Hyperbole

• Exaggerated statements or claims not to be taken literally

Imagery

• Visually descriptive or figurative language, especially in a literary work.

Metaphor

• A figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable.
• Does not use "like or as"

Metonymy

• The substitution of the name of an attribute or adjunct for that of the thing meant.
• Example: "The Crown" (referring to Royalty).

Mood

• A literary element that evokes certain feelings or vibes in readers through words and descriptions

Oxymoron

• A figure of speech in which apparently contradictory terms appear in conjunction
• Example: "Bittersweet."

Paradox

• A seemingly absurd or self-contradictory statement or proposition that when investigated or explained may prove to be well founded or true

Pathetic Fallacy

• The attribution of human feelings and responses to inanimate things or animals, especially in art and literary
• Example: "The angry storm clouds raced across the sky."

Personification

• The attribution of a personal nature or human characteristics to something nonhuman, or the representation of an abstract quality in human form

Poetic Justice

• A literary device in which virtue is ultimately rewarded or vice punished.

Pun

• A joke exploiting the different possible meanings of a word or the fact that there are words that sound alike but have different meanings
• Example: "I can't put down this anti-gravity book."

Test your knowledge on literary devices. Questions cover a range of definitions and examples of literary terms, poetic devices and figures of speech. See if you can identify literary devices.