Definitions
Literature Examples
Song Examples
Your Examples
Famous Examples
100
A question asked for an effect, and not actually requiring an answer.
What is a rhetorical question?
100
An example would be Charles Dickens' David Copperfield or the Harry Potter series.
What is a bildungsroman?
100
An example would be:
"Ain't no mountain high enough,
Ain't no valley low enough,
Ain't no river wide enough,
To keep me from getting to you, baby”
Ain't No Mountain High Enough, Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell
What is anaphora?
100
A goalie kicks the ball into his goal when trying to block the shot.
What is situational irony?
100
An example would be the first "blonde" in the quote:
"I’m not offended by blonde jokes because I know I’m not dumb…and I also know that I’m not blonde.”
—Dolly Parton
What is metonymy?
200
Often termed “stock”; character types, plot points, and literary conventions
What is archetype?
200
When Scrooge wakes up in A Christmas Carol and exclaims: “I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach!”.
What is an epiphany?
200
An example would be:
"Boys only want love if it's torture"
Blank Space, Taylor Swift
What is hyperbole?
200
“One small step for a man- one giant leap for mankind.”
-Neil Armstrong
What is antithesis?
200
Mozart had this as a medical condition, where he could see colors as he heard music.
What is synesthesia?
300
A rhetorical device that describes or associates one sense in terms of another, most often in the form of a simile.
What is synesthesia?
300
An example would be the title of Mark Twain's book The Prince And The Pauper.
What is juxtaposition?
300
An example would be:
"You see I got more clothes than Muhammad Ali
and I dress so viciously"
What is allusion?
300
A hero is very prominent global _______ across cultures. Generally, heroes have similar plot lines, starting off in ordinary circumstances and being called to action by a significant event or disturbance.
What is an archetype?
300
An example would be the quote:
"Talent is a dull knife that will cut nothing unless it is wielded with great force."
-Stephen King
What is an extended metaphor?
400
A quotation or aphorism at the beginning of a literary work suggestive of the theme.
What is an epigraph?
400
In Dr. Suess' The Sneetches, the fictional and absurdly prejudice star-bellied Sneetches look down on Sneetches without stars on their bellies with a comedic resolution.
What is satire?
400
Example would be:
21 Savage, A$AP Rocky, Slim Shady, Metro Boomin, and Tyler The Creator
What is an epithet?
400
“Deafening Silence” contains the contrast between no sound and an unbearable amount of sound.
What is an oxymoron?
400
Stephen Sondheim said of this:
“Musicals are, by nature, theatrical, meaning poetic, meaning having to move the audience's imagination and create a __________, by which I mean there's no fourth wall."
What is suspension of disbelief?
500
The repetition of words or phrases that have similar grammatical structures.
What is parallel structure?
500
An example would be "All hands on deck!"
What is synecdoche?
500
An example would be:
"Hello darkness, my old friend
I've come to talk with you again"
Sound of Silence, Simon and Garfunkel
What is apostrophe?
500
"I don’t want to buy her a birthday present. She won’t get upset… Right? She won’t hate me, right?"
What is foreshadowing?
500
An example would be the quote:
“I went to a fight the other night, and a hockey game broke out.”
― Rodney Dangerfield
What is verbal irony?