Literary terms

• Allegory: A literary mode that turns abstract concepts into a tangible element
• Alliteration: The repetition of the same sounds at the beginning of words or phrases
• Allusion: When a text makes a reference to an earlier piece
• Analogy: A literary technique that compares to unrelated objects for their shared qualities
• Anaphora: A word that is repeated at the beginning of subsequent sentences or clauses
• Anecdote: A short story that tells a personal experience and knowledge
• Antagonist: A character who the protagonist opposes and which usually has negative values
• Anti-hero: A protagonist who does not have the qualities a hero would commonly have
• Assonance: The repetition of similar vowel sounds in words or phrases
• Archetype: An important and known idea or character which symbolizes something universal
• Ballad: A poem that tells a story, usually formed by quatrains
• Cacophony: The use of a combination of words, which have harsh sounds
• Cliche: An overused idea that has lost its initial power
• Connotation: A feeling or idea that a word conveys, apart from it literal meaning
• Consonance: The repetition of consonants in a line or sentence, which creates a rhythm
• Denotation : The literal meaning of a word
• Diction: The language used to describe events and characters
• Enjambment : Breaking a line in the middle of a phrase
• Epitaph : A short statement written about a deceased person, it is written in their tombstone
• Euphemism: A polite, nicer way to say something that may be unpleasant
• Figurative Language: A writing that appeals to the senses, using sounds and wordplays
• Flashback: A moment in which the story is interrupted and it moves to an event that happened in the past, it is used to give more information about the present and develop a certain plotline
• Foreshadowing: Giving hints about what is going to happen later on
• Hubris: When someone gets so confident they believe they are invincible, it is overconfidence
• Hyperbole: An exaggeration used for emphasis
• Idiom: A phrase that has a figurative meaning, which is different to the one from each of its words alone
• Imagery: Really vivid descriptions that evoke the senses
• Irony: Saying one thing, but meaning the opposite
• Juxtaposition: The placement of two thing side by side, to point out their differences
• Metaphor: A figure of speech, which uses a word or phrase to refer to another one, usually unrelated, by identifying similarities between them
• Motif: An idea that appears often in a story
• Oxymoron: A figure of speech which joins two opposite elements
• Parable : A short story used to illustrate a moral lesson
• Paradox: A statement that contradicts itself
• Parody: A writing style which mocks another work, by exaggerating some elements of the original work
• Pathetic Fallacy: A figure of speech in which the world is given human emotions, it is usually applied to nature
• Personification: Giving something human characteristics
• Point of View: The perspective of the narrator telling the story
• Protagonist: The main character, the story circles around them
• Pun: A joke which uses homophones to play with the different meaning the words have