Literary Terms Quiz

Vocabulary

• Adage/Proverb: A well-known saying expressing a widely accepted truth.
• Allegory: A story with a hidden meaning; characters, events, and settings represent abstract ideas or qualities.
• Alliteration: Repetition of initial consonant sounds in successive words or syllables.
• Allusion: Indirect reference to something familiar (literary, historical, biblical, mythological).
• Ambiguity: An event or situation with multiple possible interpretations.
• Analogy: Comparison between two similar situations to illustrate a point; one case parallels another.
• Anaphora: Repeating a word or phrase at the start of consecutive clauses or sentences.
• Antagonist: A character or force opposing the protagonist.
• Anthropomorphism: Giving human qualities to non-human entities.
• Assonance: Repetition of vowel sounds within nearby words.
• Asyndeton: Using commas to connect a series of words or phrases without conjunctions.
• Balance: Balanced structure of sentences, usually of equal length and importance.
• Blank Verse: Unrhymed iambic pentameter verse.
• Cacophony: Harsh, discordant sounds in a literary work.
• Characterization: Methods used to develop characters: direct or indirect.
• Climax: The most intense point in a narrative or drama.
• Cliché: Overused expression or idea losing its impact.
• Concrete Language: Descriptions of specific things, people, or places instead of abstract ideas.
• Connotation: Implied meanings of words; associations and feelings evoked.
• Consonance: Repetition of consonant sounds in nearby words.
• Diction: Word choice as a stylistic element.
• Didactic: Literature intended to teach a lesson or moral.
• Enjambment: Continuation of a sentence across line breaks without punctuation.
• Euphemism: A less direct, often less offensive way of saying something.
• Euphony: Pleasant, agreeable sounds in a literary work.
• Exposition: Background information revealing context.
• Farce: Comedy involving exaggerated situations and characters.
• Fiction: Imaginative writing.
• Figurative Language: Language that isn't meant to be taken literally but evokes a particular meaning.
• Flat Character: Character with one or two easily recognizable traits or qualities.
• Foil: Character whose traits contrast with those of another, enhancing the other's character.
• Foreshadowing: Hints about future events.
• Genre: Category of literature (e.g., tragedy, comedy, poetry).
• Hyperbole: Extreme exaggeration for effect.
• Idiom: An expression or phrase with a meaning that typically can't be inferred from the individual words.
• Imagery: Description evoking a particular sensory impression.
• Irony: Contrast between appearance and reality.
• Metaphor: Comparison between two unrelated things without using "like" or "as."
• Mood: Atmosphere or feeling of a literary work.
• Motif: Recurring theme, image, object or symbol.
• Mixed Metaphor: Using inconsistent or contradictory metaphors.
• Onomatopoeia: Words that imitate sounds.
• Oxymoron: Contradictory terms used together for effect.
• Parable: Short story with symbolic meaning illustrating a moral or religious lesson.
• Paradox: Statement or situation seemingly contradictory but potentially true.
• Parallelism: Similar grammatical structure in sentences or phrases to highlight ideas.
• Personification: Giving human qualities to non-human things.
• Periodic Sentence: Complete thought at the end of the sentence after a series of introductory elements.
• Plot: Sequence of events in a narrative.
• Point of View: Perspective from which a story is told.
• Polysyndeton: Deliberate use of numerous conjunctions between words or phrases.
• Protagonist: Main character in a narrative.
• Pun: A humorous use of words with similar sounds but different meanings.
• Repetition: Repeating words or phrases for emphasis.
• Round Character: Character with complex and multifaceted personalities that evolve.
• Setting: Time and place in a narrative.
• Simile: Comparison using "like" or "as."
• Situational Irony: Discrepancy between expectation and the result.
• Symbol: Something that represents something else beyond its literal meaning.
• Synecdoche: Part of something representing the whole, or vice versa.
• Synecdoche: A figure of speech in which a part is used to represent the whole, or vice versa.
• Syntax: Sentence structure.
• Theme: Central idea or message in a literary work.
• Tone: Writer's attitude toward the subject matter.
• Understatement: Deliberately representing something as less important than it actually is.

Poetry Analysis

• TSPFASTT: Method for analyzing poetry (Title, Speaker, Paraphrase, Attitude, Shifts, Figures of Speech, Title, Theme).