Literary Terms
Terms
undefined, object
copy deck
- idiom
- a speech form or expression of a given language that is peculiar to itself grammatically or that cannot be understood from the individual meanings of its elements; a regional speech or dialect; a specialized vocabulary used by a group of people
- simile
- a comparison between two distinctly different things using "like" or "as"
- irony
- statement in which meaning that a speaker implies differs sharply from the meaning being ostensibly expressed
- allusion
- is a reference, without explicit identification, to a person, place, or event, or to another literary work or passage. Most _______ serve to illustrate or clarify or enhance a subject
- pun
- a play on words that are either identical in sound or very similar in sound, but are sharply diverse in meaning
- metaphor
- a word or expression which in literal usage denotes one kind of thing or action is applied to a distinctly different kind of thing or action, without asserting a comparison
- personification
- inanimate object or abstract concept is spoken of as though it were endowed with life or with human attributes or feelings
- antonym
- a word having ameaning opposite to a meaning of another word
- hyperbole
- (greek for "overshooting") is bold overstatement, or the extravagant exaggeration of fact or of possibility; it may be used wither for serious or ironic or comic effect
- alliteration
- repetition of speech sounds in a sequence of words - usaually applied only to consonants and when repeated sound occurs in conspicuous position at beginning of word or of stressed syllable within word
- homophones
- words that have the same sound but differ in spelling, origin, and meaning