Figurative Language
A comparison of two unlike things using the words "like" or "as."
Simile
The time and place in which a story occurs.
Setting
A literary work based on the imagination and not necessarily on fact, such as Harry Potter.
Fiction
Words with similar meanings, such as "difficult" and "hard."
Synonyms
To restate a passage in your own words to clarify the meaning.
paraphrase
The use of words that mimic sounds, such as "Crackle," "Boom," or "Zap."
Onomatopoeia
The "Memory Moment" where the normal timeline of a story is interrupted to show an earlier event.
flashback
The story of a person’s life written by that person themselves.
Autobiography
An affix added to the beginning of a word to alter its meaning, like "dis-" in "disbelief."
prefix
A conclusion based on reasoning and "reading between the lines" rather than a direct statement.
inference
An exaggerated statement used to emphasize a point, like saying "I have millions of friends!"
Hyperbole
The turning point of a story where the action reaches its greatest conflict and the story changes.
Climax
A brief story that leads to a moral or lesson, often using animals as characters.
Fable
A word made up of two or more smaller words, like "wallpaper" or "bookstore."
Compound Word
When a writer takes the most important information from a text and uses it "word for word."
cited evidence
Giving human characteristics to a lifeless object, such as a tornado "dancing" across a prairie.
Personification
The part of the plot where the conflict is worked out and the story ends.
resolution
A story handed down from earlier times whose truth is believed but cannot be proven.
Words that are pronounced the same but have different spellings and meanings, like "witch" and "which."
homophones
The attitude of the author toward the audience or the characters, such as being serious or humorous.
tone
A saying whose meaning cannot be understood from the individual words in it, like "off the top of his head."
Idiom
Clues or hints given by the author about events that will happen later in the story.
foreshadowing
Fiction that is set in a real time period from the past, such as Little House on the Prairie.
Historical Fiction
A strategy where the reader looks at the words around an unfamiliar word to find its meaning.
context clues
An object in a story that represents a larger idea, such as a dove representing peace.
symbolism