English

An abbreviated synopsis of a longer work of scholarship or research

A saying or proverb containing a truth based on experience and often couched in metaphorical language

A story in which the narrative or characters carry an underlying symbolic, metaphorical, or possibly an ethical meaning

Repeating a consonant sound in close proximity to others, or beginning several words with the same vowel sound

A casual reference in literature to a person, place, event, or another passage of literature, often without explicit identification

Any wording, action, or symbol that can be read in divergent ways

Placing a person, event, item, or verbal expression in the wrong historical period

A comparison that points out similarities between two dissimilar things

A method by which a thing is separated into parts, and those parts are given rigorous, logical, detailed scrutiny, resulting in a consistent and relatively complete account of the elements of the thing and the principles of their organization

A short narrative account of an amusing, unusual, revealing, or interesting event

Used to refer to Old English

A brief explanation, summary, or evaluation of a text or work of literature

A character or force in a work of literature that, by opposing the protagonist produces tension or conflict

A rhetorical opposition or contrast of ideas by means of a grammatical arrangement of words, clauses, or sentences, as in:

• "They promised freedom but provided slavery."
• "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country."

A short, pithy statement of a general of a generally accepted truth or sentiment

In contrast to Dionysian, it refers to the most noble, godlike qualities of human nature and behavior

The act of addressing some abstraction or personification that is not physically present

An original model or pattern from which other later copies are made, especially a character, an action, or a situation that seems to represent common patterns of human life

Repeating similiar or identical vowels (especially in stressed syllables) in nearby words

A simple narrative verse that tells a story that is sung or recited

Ancient Celtic poet, singer, and harpist who recited heroic poems by memory; synonym for poet

The use of insincere or overdone sentimentality

French term for the world of books, criticism, and literature in general

A list of works cited or otherwise relevant to a subject or other work

A German word referring to a novel structured as a series of events that take places as the hero travels in quest of a goal

Poetry written in iambic pentameter, the primary meter used in English poetry and the works of Shakespeare and Milton; it is blank because the lines generally do not rhyme

Inflated, pretentious language used for trivial subjects

A work of literature meant to ridicule a subject; a grotesque imitation

Refers to the use of words that combine sharp, harsh, hissing, or unmelodious sounds

A pause separating phrases within lines of poetry

An approved or traditional collection of works

Refers to a common moral or theme in classical literature that the reader should make the most out of his life and enjoy it before it ends

An emotional discharge that brings about a moral or spiritual renewal or welcome relief from tension or anxiety

A highly regarded work of literature or other art form that has withstood the test of time

Deriving from the orderly qualities of ancient Greek and Roman culture; implies formality, objectivity, simplicity, and restraint

Refers to an artistic arrangement of a list of items so that they appear in a sequence of increasing importance

A word or phrase used every day in plain and relaxed speech, but rarely found in formal writing

A novel in which an adolescent protagonist comes to adulthood by a process of experience and disillusionment

An elaborate or unusual comparison, especially one using unlikely metaphors, simile, hyperbole, and contradiction

The extra tinge or taint of meaning each word carries beyond the minimal, strict definition found in a dictionary

Special type of alliteration in which the repeated pattern of consonants is marked by the changes in the intervening vowels (i.e., the final consonants of the stressed syllables match each other but the vowels differ)

Two lines, the second line immediately following the first, of the same metrical length that end in a rhyme to form a complete unit

The minimal, strict definition of a word as found in a dictionary, disregarding any historical or emotional connotation

Refers to the outcome or result of a complex situation or sequence of events, an aftermath of resolution that usually occurs near the final stages of the plot

An unrealistic or unexpected intervention to rescue the protagonists or resolve the story's conflict

Sounds, spelling, grammar, and diction employed by a specific people as distinguished from other persons either geographically or socially

The choice of a particular word opposed to others by the author

As distinguished from Apollonian, the word refers to sensual, pleasure-seeking impulses

Involves a situation in a narrative in which the reader knows something about present or future circumstances that the character does not know

A poem or prose selection that laments or meditates on the passing or death of something or someone of value

The artful omission of a word implied by a previous clause

A sentence containing a deliberate omission of words ("May was hot and June the same"; was is omitted from the second clause)

A feeling of association or identification with an object or person

In poetry, a line ending in a full pause, often indicated by the appropriate punctuation such as a period or a semicolon

A line having no pause or end punctuation but having uniterrupted grammatical meaning continuing on to the next line

The philosophical and artistic movement growing out of the Renaissance and continuing until the nineteenth century

A genre of classical poetry; a poem that is a long narrative about a serious subject, told in an elevated sense of language, focused on the exploits of a hero or a demigod, has a vast setting, etc.

A short verse or motto appearing at the beginning of a longer poem or the title page of a novel, at the heading of a new section or paragraph of an essay or other literary work to establish mood or raise thematic concerns

Attempting to group words together harmoniously, so that the consonants permit an easy and pleasing flow of sound when spoken

A short, poetic nickname - often in the form of an adjective or adjectival phrase - attached to the normal name

A term for the title character of a work of literature

Using a mild or gentle phrase instead of a blunt, painful, or embarassing one

Scholarly or theological interpreation of the Bible

A piece of writing that reveals weaknesses, faults, frailties, or other shortcomings

The use of authorial discussion to explain or summarize background material rather than revealing this information through gradual narrative detail

The interpretation or analysis of a text

A series of comparisons between two unlike objects

A brief story illustration human tendencies through animal characters

The action in a play or story that occurs after the climax and that leads to the conclusion and often to the resolution of the conflict

Any literature that is removed from reality

Form of low comedy designed to provoke laughter through highly exaggerated caricatures of people in improbable or silly situations

A deviation from what speakers of a language understand as the ordinary or standard word use of words in order to achieve some special meaning or effect

• A narrative told by a character involved in the story, using first-person pronouns such as I and we.

A method of narration in which present action is temporarily interrupted so that the reader can witness past events

A character that serves by contrast to highlight or emphasize opposing traits in another character

A basic unit of meter consisting of a set number of strong stresses and light stresses

Suggesting, hinting, indicating, or showing what will occur later in a narrative

Consists of a dignified, impersonal, and elevated use of language; it follows the rules of syntax exactly and is often characterized by complex words and lofty tone

The result of inserting one or more small stories within the body of a larger story that encompasses the smaller ones

Poetry based on the natural rhythms of phrases and normal pauses rather than the artificial constraints of metrical feet

A type of category of literature or film marked by certain shared features or conventions

A type of romance popular between 1760 up to the 1820s that has influenced the ghost and horror story

A forceful sermon, lecture, or tirade

Two successive rhyming lines of iambic pentameter; second line is usually end-stopped

Negative term implying both arrogant, excessive self-pride or self-confidence, and a lack of some important perception or insight due to pride in one's abilities

A Renaissance intellectual and artistic movement triggered by a "rediscovery" of classical Greek and Roman language, culture, and literature

Exaggeration or overstatement

A composition in verse or prose presenting an idealized story of happy innocence

A lightly stressed syllable followed by a heavily stressed syllable

Includes "mental pictures" that readers experience with a passage of literature

The classical tradition of opening an epic not in the chronological point at which the sequence of events would start, but rather at the midway point of the story

A rendering of a quotation in which actual words are not stated but only approximated or paraphrased

 Represents the plain language of everyday use, and often includes idiomatic expressions, slang, contractions, and many simple, common words

Speaking or writing that attacks, insults, or denounces a person, topic, or institution, usually involving negative emotional language

Trope in which a speaker makes a statement in which its actual meaning differs sharply from the meaning that the words ostensibly express 

The arrangement of two or more ideas, characters, actions, settings, phrases, or words side-by-side or in similar narrative moments for purposes of comparison, contrast, rhetorical effect, character development, or suspense

In this poetic device, the poet creates a new compound word or phrase to describe an object or activity

A coarse or crude satire ridiculing the appearance or character of another person

A variety of poetry meant to entertain or amuse, but sometimes with a satirical thrust

A form of understatement in which the negative of the contrary is used to achieve emphasis or intensity (ex. He is not a bad dancer.)

A sentence that follows the customary word order of English sentences, i.e., subject-verb agreement. The main idea of the sentence is presented first and is then followed by one or more subordinate clauses

Personal, reflective poetry that reveals the speaker's thoughts and feelings about the subject

A proverb, a short, pithy statement, or aphorism believed to contain wisdom or insight into human nature

Period of time roughly a thousand years long between the fall of the Roman Empire and the emergence of the Renaissance; marked by the disintegration of classical Greco-Roman culture

A dramatic form characterized by excessive statement, exaggerated emotion, sensational and thrilling action, and an artificially happy ending

A comparison or analogy stated in such a way as to imply that one object is another one

The work of poets, particularly those of the seventeenth century, that uses elaborate conceits, is highly intellectual, and expresses the complexities of love and life

A recognizable though varying pattern of stressed syllables alternating with syllables of less stress

Using a vaguely suggestive, physical object to embody a more general idea

The version of English spoken after the Norman conquest from 1066 but before 1450 or so

A long, heroicomical poem that merely imitates features of the classic epic

The general form, pattern, and manner of expression of a work of literature

A quick succession of images or impressions used to express an idea

The emotional tone of a work of literature

A brief and often simplistic lesson that a reader may infer from a work of literature

A phrase, idea, or event that through repetition serves to unify or convey a theme in a work of literature

One of the ancient Greek goddesses presiding over the arts. The imaginary source of inspiration for an artist or writer

An imaginary story that has become an accepted part of the cultural or religious tradition of a group or society; often used to explain natural phenomena

A form of verse or prose that tells a story

 The "voice" that speaks or tells a story

A term often used as a synonym for realism; also a view of experience that is generally characterized as bleak and pessimistic

A statement or idea that fails to follow logically from the one before

A work of fiction of roughly 20,000 to 50,000 words - longer than a short story but shorter than a novel

A novel focusing on and describing the social customs and habits of a particular social group

A lyric poem usually marked by serious, respectful, and exalted feelings toward the subject

The Anglo-Saxon language spoken in what is now England from approximately 450 to 1150 AD

A narrator with unlimited awareness, understanding, and insight of characers, setting, background, and all other elements of the story

The use of words whose sounds suggest their meaning

An eight-line rhyming stanza of a poem

A term consisting of contradictory elements juxtaposed to create a paradoxical effect

A story consisting of events from which a moral or spiritual truth may be derived

A statement that seems self-contradictory but is nevertheless true

Two or more words, phrases, or clauses that are similar in length and grammatical form

An imitation of a work meant to ridicule its style and subject

A version of a text put into simpler, everyday words

A work of literature dealing with rural life

Faulty reasoning that inappropriately ascribes human feelings to nature or nonhuman objects

That element in literature that stimulates pity or sorrow

When poetry consists of five feet in each line, it is written in pentameter; each foot has a set number of syllables

A sentence that departs from the usual word order of English sentences by expressing its main thought only at the end - in other words, the particulars in the sentence are presented before the idea they support

The role or facade that a character assumes or depicts to a reader, a viewer, or the world at large

A figure of speech in which objects and animals are given human characteristics

A sonnet consisting of an octave with the rhyme pattern abbaabba, followed by a sestet with the rhyme pattern cdecde or cdcdcd

The interrelationship among the events in a story: the plot line is the pattern of events, including exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution

An episodic novel about a roguelike wanderer who lives off his wits

The relation in which a narrator or speaker stands to the story or subject matter of a poem

A general (and often hotly debated) label referring to the philosophical, artistic, and literary changes and tendencies after the 1940s and 1950s up to the present day

The grammar of meter and rhythm in poetry

The main character in a work of literature

Also called "pen name/nom de plume"; false name or alias used by writers

Novels written for mass consumption, often emphasizing exciting and titillating plots

A humorous play on words, using similar-sounding or identical words to suggest different meanings

A four-line poem or a four-line unit of a longer poem

The depiction of people, things, and events as they really are without idealization or exaggeration for effect

A line or set of lines at the end of a stanza or section of a longer poem or song--these lines repeat at regular intervals in other stanzas or sections of the same work

A period of cultural, technological, and artistic vitality during the economic expansion in Britain in the late 1500s and early 1600s;  rediscovered and redistributed the legacy of classical Greco-Roman culture by renewing forgotten studies and artistic practices

The language of a work and its style; words, often highly emotional, used to convince or sway an audience

Language that conveys a speaker's attitude or opinion with regard to a particular subject

The repetition of similar sounds at regular intervals, used mostly in poetry

The pattern of rhymes within a given poem

The pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables that make up a line of poetry

French for a novel in which historical events and actual people appear under the guise of fiction

An extended narrative about improbable events and extraordinary people in exotic places

Refers to the artistic philosophy prevalent during the first third of the nineteenth century (about 1800-1830). Typically asserts the unique nature of the individual, the privileged status of imagination and fancy, the value of spontaneity over "artifice" and "convention," the human need for emotional outlets, the rejection of civilized corruption, and a desire to return to natural primitivism and escape the spiritual destruction of urban life

A sharp, caustic expression or remark; a bitter jibe or taunt; different from irony, which is more subtle

A literary style used to poke fun at, attack or ridicule an idea, vice, or foible, often for the purpose of inducing change

The act of determining the meter of a poetic line. The pattern is called scansion. If a verse doesn't "scan," its meter is irregular

A synonym for view or feeling; also a refined and tender emotion in literature

A term that describes characters' excessive emotional response to experience; also nauseatingly nostalgic and mawkish

A poem with six stanzas of six lines and a final triplet, all stanzas having the same six words at the line-ends in six different sequences that follow a fixed pattern, and with all six words appearing in the closing three-line envoi

the total environment for the action in a novel or play; includes time, place, historical milieu, and social, political, and even spiritual circumstances

A sonnet consisting three quatrains and a concluding couplet in iambic pentameter with the rhyme pattern abab cdcd efef gg

A figurative comparision using the words like or as

A popular form of verse consisting of fourteen lines and a prescribed rhyme scheme

The narrative or elegiac voice in a poem (such as a sonnet, ode, or lyric) that speaks of his or her situation or feelings

A group of two or more lines in poetry combined according to subject matter, rhyme, or some other plan

A style of writing in which the author tries to reproduce the random flow of thoughts in the human mind

Framework of a work of literature; the organization or over-all design of a work

The manner in which an author uses and arranges words, shapes ideas, forms sentences, and creates a structure to convey ideas

A subordinate or minor collection of events in a novel or play, usually connected to the main plot

The implied meaning that underlies the main meaning of a work of literature

The use of one object to evoke ideas and associations not literally part of the original object

A figure of speech in which a part signifies the whole or the whole signifies the part

The organization of language into meaningful structure; every sentence has a particular syntax, or pattern of words

The main idea or meaning, often an abstract idea upon which a work of literature is built

A character whose name appears in the title of the novel or play; also known as the eponymous character

The author's attitude toward the subject being written about; the characteristic emotion that pervades a work or part of a work - in other words, the spirit or quality that is the work's emotional essence

A form of literature in which the hero is destroyed by some character flaw and a set of forces that cause the hero considerable anguish

 An American philosophical, religious, and literary movement roughly equivalent to the Romantic movement in England. The transcendentalist philosophy is not systematic or sharply defined, but it generally stresses individual intuition and conscience, and it holds that nature reveals the whole of God's moral law.

The generic name for a figure of speech such as image, symbol, simile, and metaphor

A discrepancy between the true meaning of a situtation and the literal meaning of the written or spoken words

A synonym for poetry; also a group of lines in a song or poem or a single line of poetry

Similar to the truth; the quality of realism in a work that persuades readers that they are getting a vision of life as it is

• The structural form of a line of verse as revealed by the number of feet it contains (ex. monometer = 1 foot, tetrameter = 4 feet)

Of or relating to the reign of Queen Victoria

A French verse form calculated to appear simple and spontaneous but consisting of nineteen lines and a prescribed pattern of rhymes

The real or assumed personality used by a writer or speaker; active and passive voice refer to use of verbs - verbs in active express an action performed by its subject; passive when an action is performed upon its subject or when the subject is the result of the action 

• Passive: The leaves were raked by the crew.
• Active: The crew raked the leaves.

The quickness of intellect and the power and talent for saying brilliant things that surprise and delight by their unexpectedness; the power to comment subtly and pointedly on the foibles of the passing scene