Literary Devices
This device is when an object, color, or animal stands for a larger idea.
What is symbolism?
: A passage that gives events in the order they happened is using this text structure.
What is chronological order?
A word that names a person, place, thing, or idea.
What is a noun?
This sense is appealed to when an author describes how food tastes.
What is taste (gustatory imagery)?
This type of figurative language uses the words like or as to compare two things.
What is a simile?
The repetition of beginning consonant sounds, like Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.
What is alliteration?
A text that explains how two or more things are alike and different uses this structure.
What is compare and contrast?
A word that describes a noun.
What is an adjective?
The salty ocean breeze stung my face" appeals to which sense?
What is touch (tactile imagery)?
The leaves danced in the wind" is an example of this type of figurative language.
What is personification?
A reference to a famous person, place, or event from history, literature, or culture.
What is an allusion?
A passage that describes a problem and then tells how it was solved is using this structure.
What is problem and solution?
A word that shows action or state of being.
What is a verb?
The crack of thunder shook the windows" appeals to this sense.
What is hearing (auditory imagery)?
"Her smile was sunshine" is an example of this figurative device.
What is a metaphor?
When an author hints at events that will happen later in a story.
What is foreshadowing?
A text that gives information about a topic and its characteristics is using this structure.
What is description?
A word that takes the place of a noun, like he, she, they.
What is a pronoun?
An author describes "the smell of fresh pine needles." Which type of imagery is this?
What is smell (olfactory imagery)?
A phrase that uses extreme exaggeration, such as "I’m so hungry I could eat a horse."
What is hyperbole?
A contradiction between what is expected and what actually happens, often in a surprising or humorous way.
What is irony?
A passage that explains why something happens and the results that follow is using this structure.
What is cause and effect?
A word that connects clauses or sentences, such as and, but, because.
What is a conjunction?
This is the term for when writers use descriptive language to create pictures in the reader’s mind.
What is imagery?
A phrase that has a meaning different from its literal meaning, like "raining cats and dogs."
What is an idiom?