The character who works against the main character and is usually the source of the conflict.
Antagonist
100
The part of the story where setting, characters, and background information is established.
Exposition
100
A category of literature or film.
Genre
100
A feeling or emotional state that a piece of literature creates in the reader such as comedic, suspenseful, tragic, joyous, etc.
Mood
100
An affix that comes after the base word to create a new word, such as forget + able = forgettable.
Suffix
200
From the Greek word for ladder, it is the moment in a story when the conflict or crisis reaches its point of greatest intensity and is usualy the turning point in the story's action.
Climax
200
The strict definition of a word as found in a dictionary regardless of its emotional connotation.
Denotation
200
Exaggeration or overstatement
Hyperbole
200
The part of the story where conflict starts and escalates. These parts are necessary to bring about the climax.
Rising Action
200
A major character in a work of fiction whom the reader knows much about, also known as a dynamic character since the reader is aware of the changes they made.
Round Character
300
A word formed from the first letters in a phrase. For example, RADAR is word that was formed from the phrase “Radio Detection and Ranging.
Acronym
300
The “extra” meaning a word carries beyond its strict dictionary meaning. For example, “home” means the same as “house” but “home” also carries the meaning that certain qualities and personal possessions are also implied.
Connotation
300
The events that follow the climax and help to bring closure or a resolution to the conflict
Falling Action
300
A base morpheme without affixes attached to it or a word from an older language that has become the source for words in a newer language, such as Greek words are a source for English words.
Root
300
NAME THE LITERARY TERM: The way an author conveys his/her attitude about particular characters and subject matter. In poetry, it is called “voice.” It is the feeling the author brings to the piece or the attitude the author takes (towards the subject, audience, or character[s].
Tone
400
A morpheme added to a base or root word to modify its meaning, such as the word unforettable has un- and -able that modify the root word forget.
Affix
400
A round character who changes or evolves over the course of the story.
Dynamic Character
400
Mental pictures that a reader experiences with a passage of literature.
Imagery
400
NAME THE LITERARY TERM: 'Pink is what red looks like when it kicks off its shoes and lets its hair down. …Pink is as laid back as beige, but while beige is dull and bland, pink is laid back with attitude.'
Personification
400
A flat character who does not change or alter his personality over the course of a story.
Static Character
500
A reference to something famous to make a point. For example, if your teacher calls your class a horde of Mongols, students would have no idea if they were being praised or reprimanded unless they know what the Mongol horde was.
Allusion
500
NAME THE LITERARY TERM: In many medieval literature pieces, a raven, a wolf, eagle or vulture appear and because these creatures scavenge bodies of fallen warriors, they allow the reader to predict a battle is about to begin.
Foreshadowing
500
A minor character in a work of fiction who the reader knows little about, also known as a static character since the reader is not aware of any changes they made.
Flat Character
500
Words or phrases used by a particular group of professionals or other defined group, such as urban teenagers would use these phrases or words not commonly used by rural teenagers.
Jargon
500
An arrangement of lines of verse in a pattern that may be subdivisions of a poem.