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Literary Devices
All the terms you'll need to know for analizing a passage!
33
English
12th Grade
11/21/2012

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Cards

Term
Simile
Definition
A comparison usually between two unrelated things. A simile uses "like" or "as" to introduce the comparison.
Example: "John swims like a fish"
Term
Metaphor
Definition
A comparison not using "like" or "as" which indicated a likeness or analogy between attributes found in both things.
Example: "Time is money"
Term
Personification
Definition
Giving of human characteristics to inanimate objects.
Example: "Her heart cried out"
Term
Synecdoche
Definition
A technique of mentioning a part of something to represent the whole
Example: "All hands on deck!"
Term
Metonymy
Definition
The substitution of a work naming an object for another word closely associated with it.
Example: "The White House has decided."
Term
Symbol
Definition
A word or image that signifies something other than what it literally means.
Term
Allegory
Definition
A narrative or description having a second meaning.
Term
Overstatement
Definition
An exaggeration for the sake of emphasis.
Example: "Rivers of blood"
Term
Understatement
Definition
Saying less than one means, or saying something with less force than the occasion warrants.
Term
Antithesis
Definition
A balancing or contrasting of one term against the other.
Example: "Man proposes, God disposes."
Term
Apostrophe
Definition
Addressing someone or something usually not present but as though they are there.
Example: "Captain, My Captain! A fearful trip is done. "
Term
Dramatic Irony
Definition
When the author implies a different meaning from that intended by the speaker (literary work. A discrepancy between what a character says and what the reader knows.
Term
Verbal Irony
Definition
A figure of speech in which what is meant is the opposite of what's said.
Term
Paradox
Definition
A statement or situation containing apparently contradictory or incorrect elements.
Term
Oxymoron
Definition
A compact paradox
Example: "Bitter sweet" or "living death"
Term
Allusion
Definition
A reference in literature to a previous literature, history, myth or the bible.
Term
Anecdote
Definition
A short often personal story used to emphasize a point, develop a character, theme, or to inject humor.
Term
Antecedent
Definition
The word or phrase to which a pronoun refers.
Term
Aphorism
Definition
a statement that expresses a general truth or moral principle.
Term
Cacophony
Definition
In literature, the use of words that imply strong, harsh sounds within the phrase.
Example: "His fingers rapped and pounded at the door."
Term
Caesura
Definition
A pause somewhere in the middle of a verse
Example" "Alas how changed! | What sudden horrors rise!"
Term
Chiasmus
Definition
Any grammatical structure in which the elements are repeated in reverse order.
Example: "Now is the time, the time is now."
Term
Conceit
Definition
a far-fetched comparison between two seemingly unlike things.
Term
Connotation
Definition
An association a word calls to mind.
Term
Consonance
Definition
Repetition of the same consonant two of more times in short succession.
Example: "pitter patter"
Term
Assonance
Definition
Repetition on vowel sounds to create internal rhyming.
Example: "Do you like blue?"
Term
Enjambment
Definition
The thought of one line runs into the next, when the sentence or meaning DOES stop it is called END STOPPED LINE.
Term
Imagery
Definition
Anything that appeals to the readers senses.
Term
Litotes
Definition
A figure of speech consisting of an understatement in which an affirmative is expressed by negating it's opposite.
Example: "We are not amused."
Term
Parody
Definition
A comical imitation.
Term
Pun
Definition
Humorous plan on words that have several meanings.
Term
Satire
Definition
The use of humor to ridicule and expose the shortcomings of people and institutions.
Term
Syllepsis
Definition
A kind of ellipsis in which one work (usually a verb) is understood differently in relation to two or more words.
Example: "I live in shame and the suburbs."
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