literary terms for englisH
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Terms
undefined, object
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- hyperbole
- major exaggerated statement the that adds emphasis without intending it to be literally true
- symbol
- something that means more than what it is; an object, person, situation, or action that in addition to its literal mean suggests other meanings as well
- personification
- when human attributes are given to a non-human such as an animal, object, or concept
- monologue
- a long speech made by a character to other characters
- alliteration
- repetition of the same sound in a sequence of words, usually at the beginning of a word
- onomatopoeia
- words that imitate sounds
- 3rd person limited
- when the narrator is limited to only one character's thoughts
- dramatic foil
- a character in a play that contrasts with another
- foreshadowing
- use of hints and clues to suggest what will happen later in the story
- protagonist
- the main character of a narrative
- allusion
- a brief reference to a person, place, thing , or famous event
- plot
- the sequence of events in a story
- setting
- the and place in which the story takes place
- metaphor
- a comparison which is made between two seemingly unlike things
- 1st person
- when the story is told from a character's eyes
- theme
- the universal message in a piece of literary work
- climax
- the point in the plot that creates the greatest intensity, suspense, or interest; the greatest turning point
- conflict
- the struggle within the plot between opposing forces.
- allegory
- a symbolic story
- 3rd person omniscient
- an all knowing narrator
- antagonist
- the character, force, or collection of forces in a fiction or drama that opposes the protagonist and rises the conflict of the story
- pun
- a play on words that relies on a word's having more than one meaning or sounding like another word
- irony
- the general name given to literary techniques that involve differences between appearance and reality, expectation and result, or meaning and intention
- point of view
- the perspective or vantage point from which a story is told
- simile
- a comparison between two things using like or as
- archetype
- in literature, characters, images, and themes that symbolically embody universal meanings and basic human experiences
- soliloquy
- a long speech made by a character who is onstage alone and who reveals its private thoughts to the audience
- flashback
- scene that interrupts the normal chronological flow of events in a story to depict something that happened at an earlier time