Terms 1
the occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words.
Alliteration
A conversation between two or more people in a book, play, or movie. It is written in a narrative using quotation marks.
Dialogue
a thing regarded as representative or symbolic of something else, especially something abstract.
Metaphor
A strong, regular, repeated pattern of movement or sound.
Rhythm
In his short story “Flight,” John Steinbeck writes:
“Five-fingered ferns hung over the water and dropped spray from their fingertips.”
Personification
an expression designed to call something to mind without mentioning it explicitly; an indirect or passing reference.
Allusion
a way of expressing oneself that does not use a word's strict or realistic meaning
Figurative Language
the basic rhythmic structure of a verse or lines in verse
Meter
correspondence of sound between words or the endings of words, especially when these are used at the ends of lines of poetry.
Rhyme
Shakespeare writes in Rome and Juliet: "But, soft, what light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun."
Juliet is the sun.
Metaphor
a word opposite in meaning to another (e.g. bad and good).
Antonym
a word or phrase used in a non-literal sense for rhetorical or vivid effect.
Figures of Speech
a form of poetry that is used to tell a story.
Narrative Poetry
Words or phrases used to describe the five primary senses — touch, sight, sound, smell, and taste. They're most commonly used to convey the specific details of scenes or add a more imaginative element to concept descriptions
Sensory Language
"Worrying is like paying a debt you don't owe."
— Author Mark Twain
Simile
the creation or construction of a fictional character
Characterization
exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally.
Hyperbole
the attribution of a personal nature or human characteristics to something nonhuman.
Personification
the comparison of one thing with another thing of a different kind, used to make a description more emphatic or vivid
Simile
"ONCE upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore, —
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping."
The Raven, Edgar Allen Poe
Alliteration
an idea or feeling that a word invokes in addition to its literal or primary meaning.
Connotation
a group of words established by usage as having a meaning that doesn’t actually connect to the words. Ex: It is raining cats and dogs.
Idiom
the action of repeating something that has already been said or written.
Repetition
a word or phrase that means exactly or nearly the same as another word or phrase in the same language, for example shut is a synonym of close.
Synonym
"Well now, one winter it was so cold that all the geese flew backward and all the fish moved south and even the snow turned blue. Late at night, it got so frigid that all spoken words froze solid afore they could be heard. People had to wait until sunup to find out what folks were talking about the night before."
From Babe and the Blue Ox
Hyperbole