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eng vocab
eng vocab
59
English
12th Grade
09/12/2016

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Term
Allegory
Definition
A story in which the characters, settings, and events stand for abstract or moral concepts.
Term
Antithesis
Definition
A contrast of ideas expressed in a grammatically balanced statement.
Term
Aphorism
Definition
A concise, sometimes witty saying that expresses a principle or truth about life.
Term
Canto
Definition
A subdivision in a long poem, corresponding to a chapter in a book.
Term
Classicism
Definition
A movement in art, literature, and music that advocates imitating the principles manifesting in art and literature of ancient Greece and Rome.
Term
Conceit
Definition
A fanciful and elaborate figure of speech that makes a surprising connection between two seemingly dissimilar things.
Term
Denouement
Definition
When all problems or mysteries of the plot are resolved or unraveled.
Term
Deus Ex Machina
Definition
Any artificial or contrived device used at the end of the plot to resolve or untangle the complication.
Term
Elegy
Definition
A poem that mourns the death of a person or laments something lost.
Term
Epigram
Definition
A brief, clever and usually memorable statement.
Term
Epithet
Definition
An adjective or other descriptive phrase that is regularly used to characterize a person.
Term
Farce
Definition
A comedy in which ridiculous and often stereotyped characters are involved in farfetched, silly situations.
Term
In Media Res
Definition
Starting a story in the middle and then using a flashback to tell what happened earlier.
Term
Kenning
Definition
In Anglo-Saxon poetry, a metaphor used to name a person, place or thing directly.
Term
Neoclassicism
Definition
A revival of classical standards and forms during the late 17th and 18th centuries.
Term
Refrain
Definition
A repeated word, phrase, line, or group of lines in a poem.
Term
Stream of Consciousness
Definition
A writing style that attempts to depict the random flow of thoughts, emotions, memories, and associations running through a character's mind.
Term
Allusion
Definition
A reference to a statement , person, place, event, or thing that is known from literature, history, religion, myth, politics. sports, science or pop culture.
Term
Analogy
Definition
A comparison of two things to show that they are alike in certain respects.
Term
Antagonist
Definition
The character or force who opposes or blocks the protagonist in a narrative.
Term
Atmosphere
Definition
The mood or feeling in a literary work.
Term
Autobiography
Definition
An account of a person's own life.
Term
Biography
Definition
An account of a person's life as written or told by another.
Term
Climax
Definition
The point of greatest emotional intensity or suspense in a plot.
Term
Conflict
Definition
A struggle or clash between opposing characters, forces, or emotions.
Term
Connotations
Definition
All the meanings, associations, or emotions that a word suggests.
Term
Denotation
Definition
The literal, dictionary definition of a word.
Term
Dialect
Definition
A way of speaking that is characteristic of a particular region or group of people.
Term
Diction
Definition
A writer's or speaker's choice of words.
Term
Epic
Definition
A long, narrative poem that relates the great deeds of a larger-than-life hero who embodies the values of a particular society.
Term
Epiphany
Definition
A moment of sudden insight or revelation that a character experiences.
Term
Epitaph
Definition
An inscription on a tombstone or a commemorative poem written about a dead person.
Term
Essay
Definition
A short piece of non-fiction prose that examines a single subject.
Term
Fable
Definition
A narrative that seeks to deliver a moral message and usually features animals.
Term
Flashback
Definition
A scene that interrupts the present action and flashes back to events from an earlier time.
Term
Foil
Definition
A character who is used as a contrast to another character.
Term
Foreshadowing
Definition
The use of clues that hint at what is going to happen later in the plot.
Term
Irony
Definition
A contrast or discrepancy between expectation and reality.
Term
Lyric
Definition
Poetry that is full of emotion and seems music-like.
Term
Motif
Definition
A word, character, object, image, metaphor, or idea that recurs in a work or several works.
Term
Novel
Definition
A long, fictional prose narrative usually of more than 50,000 words.
Term
Ode
Definition
A complex, generally long lyric poem on a serious subject.
Term
Oxymoron
Definition
A figure of speech that combines apparently contradictory or incongruous ideas.
Term
Parable
Definition
A short, allegorical story that teaches a moral or religious lesson about life.
Term
Paradox
Definition
An apparent contradiction that is actually true.
Term
Parallelism
Definition
The repetition of words, phrases, or sentences that have the same grammatical structure or restate a similar theme.
Term
Parody
Definition
The imitation of a work of literature, art, or music for music or instruction.
Term
Personification
Definition
A kind of metaphor in which a non-human thing or quality is talked about as if it were human.
Term
Plot
Definition
The series of related events that make up a story or drama.
Term
Point of view
Definition
The vantage point from which a writer writes.
Term
Protagonist
Definition
The main character in a work of literature.
Term
Pun
Definition
A play on the multiple meanings of a word, or on two words that sound alike that have different meanings.
Term
Realism
Definition
The attempt to depict people and things as they really are, without idealization.
Term
Romance
Definition
Historically, a medieval verse narrative chronicling the adventures of brave knights or other heroes who must overcome grave danger for the love of a noble lady or a high ideal.
Term
Satire
Definition
A kind of writing that ridicules human weaknesses, vice, or folly in order to bring about social reform.
Term
Soliloquy
Definition
A long speech in which a character who is usually alone or onstage expresses his or her private thoughts or feelings.
Term
Suspense
Definition
The uncertainty or anxiety we feel about what is going to happen or happens next in a story.
Term
Symbol
Definition
A person, place, thing, or event that stands for itself and for something beyond itself.
Term
Theme
Definition
The central idea of insight of a work of literature- it is expressed in the form of a sentence and generally tells the author's opinion on a topic.
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