Literary Terms
visually descriptive or figurative language, esp in literary work
Imagery
The formation of a word from a sound associated with what is named
Onomatopoeia
An internal or external struggle, disagreement, or fight
Conflict
A general idea or subject that relates to life or human nature
Theme
The reason an author decides to write about a specific topic; usually to inform, to entertain, to persuade, or to explain
Author's Purpose
a figure of speech involving the comparison of one thing with another thing of a different kind, used to make a description more vivid and using the words like or as
Simile
Exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally
Hyperbole
A final solution or outcome; ending
Resolution
Encompasses the attitudes toward the subject and toward the audience
Tone
The place, time and type of surroundings where an event or story takes place
Setting
a comparison between two seemingly different things that does not use like or as; the use of a word or phrase to refer to something that isn’t invoking a direct similarity between the word or phrase used and the thing described, but without the words
Metaphor
A group of words established by usage as having a meaning not deducible from those of the individual words
Idioms
The leading or main character or one of the major characters in a drama, movie, novel, or other fictional text
Protagonist
A warning or indication of a future event; the use of clues to signal later events
Foreshadow
The most action packed, exciting, or important point in a narrative
Climax
The occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words.
Alliteration
To describe or portray the qualities or peculiarities of a character’ to depict either through direct or indirect means
Characterization
A person who actively opposes or is hostile to someone or something; and adversary
Antagonist
A difference between what is said and what is meant or between what expected to happen and what actually occurs
Irony
A person who tells the events of story, esp. a character who recounts the events of a novel or narrative poem.
Narrator
To give human qualities to a non-human, usually non-living or abstract thing/concept
Personification
The ending, or summing-up of an argument or report
Conclusion
The main events of a play, novel, movie, or similar work, devised and presented by the writer as an interrelated sequence
Plot
A state or feeling or excited or anxious uncertainty about what may happen
Suspense
When one person or thing gives rise to a specific action or condition
Cause/Effect