English 10 Pre-AP Vocabulary & Literary Terms

Deserving to be treated with disdain

Warm and friendly

Story deals with issues of salvation and damnation

Influence by slyness

Clues to future events

14 line poem, usually written in iambic pentameter

Disgusting, highly offensive

Story deals with civilization, social structure which humans organize themselves

A preference, preferred way

Action begins "in the middle"

Difference or contradiction between appearance and reality

Play on words - based on mulitple meanings of a single word

Break or interruption

Liveliness and eagerness

A representation or image, a likeness

Character who provides a contrast to another character

Sentence structure

String of flowers

Something not human given human characteristics

Reference to a well-known person, place, or event

Freed from impurities

Character, place, thing, or event that represents a larger idea

Incapable of being understood

Go somewhere or do something unusual

Strong disapproval

Narrator speaks with I and is a character in the story

Fictional tale that describes the actions of gods/heroes to explain nature

Extremely painful

Non-living object is given human characteristics

To make clear, to explain

Incapable of being affected

Feeling regret for one's sins

Promising, favorable

Statement that expresses a clever obervation or advice

Invented without preparation

Give as a gift

The reason for a character's behavior

Long speech made by a character while no other characters are on stage

Not noticeable or not attracting attention

Suspense increases, learn more about characters and conflict

Character remains the same and does not change

Dictionary definition of a word

To instruct or enlighten

Directness in manner or speech

Tight, with no slack

Use of words that imitate sounds

To bring under control and fovernance as a subject

Short quotation or saying at beginning of book used to suggest the theme

Error in reasoning that makes argument false

Readily or plainly seen

The author tells the story to teach a lesson, usually one about good and evil

Category of literary work characterized by a particular style or form

Comparison using like or as

Sacredness, godliness

Also called unrhymed iambic pentameter

Lean and muscular

Short musical narrative  - song or poem

Happen or occur afterward or as a result

Loose ends are tied up, story ends

Writing that ridicules the shortcoming of people in order to bring about a change

Recurring word, phrase, or action which becomes important

Noisy and lacking in restraint

Clear and brief

Incredible exaggeration

Reference to a well-known person, place, event or literary work

Reference to a well-known person, place, event, etc

Intended to entrap or entice

Speaker or character who tells the story

Public show of respect or honor

Method of narration in which present is interrupsted so reader can witness past

Belonging to a particular region

Author's distinctive use of language to convey their personality

Descriptive language using the five senses

Central character who drives the action

Disbelief

Home or residence

An ideal instance; a perfect embodiment of a concept

Rhythmical patter determined by the number and types of stresses or beats in a line

Become friendly with someone after an estrangement

Questioning, prying

To spread over or through something

An unpleasant noise

Expression whose meaning is not understood from literal translation

Understood without being spoken

Calling out to an imaginary, dead, or absent person or thing

to gather, to store up

Unknown character tells the story, but focuses on thoughts of one character

Time and place of a story

When someone says one thing but really means something else

Situations, characters, images are so common that they have universal importance

Phrase that stands for something other than its literal meaning

Make indirect reference

Comparison between two or more things that are similar in some way and unalike in others

Free of deceit, innocent

Turbuenly like a storm

Comparison without using like or as

Usually the main character who suffers a downfall

One-dimensional character, showing a single personality trait

The provision of light to make something visible or bright

Story or tale with two or more levels of meaning

The tragic flaw of overwhelming pride

Superior ability or skill

Ordinary form of spoken or written language

Play in which a heroic character either dies or comes to some other unhappy end

Repetition of same or similar consonant sounds

Suspense decreases, learn impact of climax

When the audience knows something that the characters do not

Caustic language meant to hurt or ridicul

Description of something in a way that does not include all of the facts or details

Central character who lacks qualities associated with hero

Criticize or reprimand

Contradictory terms or words

Persuasive speaking or writing

No longer produced or used

Character develops, changles, and learns something

Poetry not written in regular pattern or meter or rhyme

Rising curiosity or anxiety in readers that makes you want to keep reading

Showing a desire to cause harm

A dishonest trick

Motherly

Introduces characters, setting, conflict

Shadow that covers with darkness and gloom

Opponent who struggles against the hero or protagonist

Almost always silent

Attitude which is scornful or mocking

Rise and fall in pitch of the voice

Choices an author makes when writing - such as diction, syntax, and other devices

Something that happens that directly contradicts what you expected to happen

Blocked from view

Highest point

Outcome of the situation is opposite than what was expected

To break away

Character struggles against an outside force

An account of one's personal life or experiences

Clues to future events

An author's main reason for writing

Story or tale with two or more levels of meaning where the characters, setting, are symbolic

Smaller than ordinary

To cause something to scatter in different directions

Complex character, showing many different qualities or personalities

A tooth-cleaning compound

Writing or speech that attempts to convince the reader to adopt a particular opinion

Turned to one side, slanting

Short story to tell a moral lesson often with animals

Mythological bird fabeled to burn itself on a funeral pyre

Growth or productiveness

Close in time, about to occur

Informal speech or everyday language

Moving quickly and lightly

Statment that is contradictory but is actually true

The author directly tells the reader what the character is like

Well-fortified position, fortress

Highest point

An authoritative statement, order, decree

Formal statement testifying to someone/something's character

Visual defect

Make the situation less important or serious

Long narrative poem abou the deeds of gods and heroes

Act of kindness

statement mostly based on limited knowledge about a large group

Foolish, stupid, silly

Lacking merit or value, unworthiness

Character struggles with his or her opposing desires, beliefs

Story told in fiction, nonfiction, poetry, or drama

An article or thing of very little value

Pack or push something down

When you say one thing, but mean the opposite

A furnace for destroying things by burning them

Harsh verbal reprimand

Mild word substituted for one considered to be too harsh

Absorbing, changing to conform

Impudent

Similar, comparable

Do something in a haughty way, look down

Expressing deep hatred

Hidden, incomprehensible, undiscoverable

Puppet worked by strings

Providing no shelter or sustenance

ridicule, mocker

Use of a comic scene to interrupt a series of intense dramatic moments

Deviation, moving away from somthing normal

Speech by a single character without another character's response while others are on stage

Powerless

Audience knows or understands something that the characters in the play do not

Speaker or writer's choice of words

Placing close together for comparison or contrast

Attitude the writer takes toward the subject of a work, characters, or the audience

Repetition of consonant sounds before and after different words

Associations and emotional overtones connected to a word

Calmly, quietly

A speaker of several languages

Attraction or liking for something

Not straighforward, shifty or crooked

Central message or insight about human life

Make or use gestures wildly

Serving as a sign or indication of something

Author gives clues about a character by descring what the character looks like, does, and says

Tendency to behave in a certain way

Obedient or attentive to a servile degree

Set of facts or circumstances surrounding an event or a situation in a piece of literature

Non-living object is given human characteristic

Verbal charm or spell

The feeling the reader gets from a piece of literature

Not susceptible or responsive

Repetition using the same sentence structure or verb tense

To ease, mitigate

A person who burns property for malicious reasons

Weakness in the tragic hero that leads to their downfall/death

Detect with the senses

Repetition of same or similar vowel sounds that end with different consonant sounds

To compel somebody to do something

Reflect deeply on a subject

Words spoken by an actro directly to the audience

Casual disrespect, rude

Brief story told to entertain or make a point

All knowing narrator tells the story about many of the characters

Using a minimum of words

Not transparent

Turning point, main event the entire story is leading up to