Literary Devices
This device occurs when the audience knows something a character does not
The repetition of initial consonant sounds in neighboring words.
What is alliteration?
The appeal to logic or reason.
What is logos?
This term refers to the literal, dictionary definition of a word.
What is denotation?
When the author directly describes a character’s traits.
What is direct characterization?
A reference to another work of literature, person, or event
What is an allusion?
The repetition of vowel sounds within words.
What is assonance?
The use of personal credibility or character to persuade
What is ethos?
This refers to the emotional or cultural associations of a word beyond its literal meaning.
What is connotation?
When readers infer character traits through speech, thoughts, or actions.
What is indirect characterization?
a combination of contradictory or incongruous words (such as cruel kindness)
What is an oxymoron?
This device gives human qualities to inanimate objects.
What is personification?
Asking a question without expecting an answer.
What is a rhetorical question?
In the sentence “Her laugh was like the tinkling of delicate glass, suggesting fragility and elegance,” what type of vocabulary strategy helps infer the meaning of tinkling?
What are context clues?
A character who changes significantly throughout the story.
What is a dynamic character?
A seemingly contradictory statement that reveals a truth.
What is a paradox?
This uses language that appeals to one or more of the five senses: touch, taste, smell, sight or hearing.
What is imagery?
A reversal in the order of words in two otherwise parallel phrases (e.g., "Ask not what your country can do for you...").
What is chiasmus?
The prefix “bene-” in beneficial most likely suggests what type of meaning?
What is good or positive?
A character who highlights traits of another through contrast.
What is a foil character?
This device presents objects, events, or characters as having symbolic meanings beyond their literal sense
What is allegory?
When a line of poetry continues into the next without a pause.
What is enjambment?
Repeating the beginning of successive clauses for emphasis
What is anaphora?
In the word “unbelievable,” identify and define the function of each morpheme.
What are un- (prefix meaning “not”), believe (root word), and -able (suffix meaning “capable of”)?
A fully developed character with a complex personality.
What is a round character?