Literary Terms

When the reader or audience knows something that a character does not

A scene that takes the story line back in time from the current point

A concluding part added to a literary work that often foreshadows the future of the story

Showing similarities between two things that have a common relationship

Repeating the same vowel sound in words close to each other in writing

•\When an author describes a character and the character traits

A figure of speech that uses “like” or “as” to make a direct comparison betweentwo unlike ideas

Writing or speech that is not meant to be taken literally

The general atmosphere created by the author’s words

Anything that stands for or represents something else

A tool used to make your writing stronger or more interesting

Written or spoken conversation between two or more people that propels the action

An author’s use of clues to hint at what might happen later in the story

A commonly used phrase that has a figurative meaning

The problem a character faces in a story

Expressing the exact opposite of the literal meaning of what is being said, sarcasm

A literary work’s central message, concern, or purpose – the moral to the story

A type of figurative language in which a nonhuman subject is given human characteristics

A division or type of literature. 

Using several words that begin with the same or similar consonants

An introductory part to a play, poem, or novel

The time and place a story occurs

Using a word over and over for effect in writing

Perspective from which a story is told

An exaggeration of truth

Figure of speech that includes normally contradictory (opposite) terms

To narrate, to inform, to argue

An indirect reference to a well-known person, place, event, or object in a literary work

An outcome that turns out to be very different from what was expected

Slang used by a certain group of people

When something is described as though it were something else (without using “like” or “as”)

Using words or phrases that appeal to one or more of the five senses

A sequence of events, the main events of a story

A play on words, using a word in a humorous way instead of using the actualmeaning

The use of words that imitate the sound associated with something, sound words