GDRHS Sophomore Literary and Language Terms

Kelly Cook (United States of America)
These are the terms about language and literature sophomores have studied up to this point in their academic career.
183 words 50 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. action
    something done (usually as opposed to something said)
  2. allegory
    a short moral story
  3. alliteration
    use of the same consonant at the beginning of each word
  4. allusion
    passing reference or indirect mention
  5. anachronism
    locating something at a time when it couldn't have existed
  6. analogy
    drawing a comparison in order to show a similarity
  7. anecdote
    short account of an incident
  8. antagonist
    someone who offers opposition
  9. antithesis
    exact opposite
  10. aphorism
    a short pithy instructive saying
  11. apostrophe
    a mark used to indicate the omission of one or more letters
  12. arc
    a continuous portion of a circle
  13. archetype
    something that serves as a model
  14. argumentation
    the methodical process of logical reasoning
  15. aside
    on or to one side
  16. assonance
    the repetition of similar vowels in successive words
  17. audience
    a gathering of spectators or listeners at a performance
  18. author
    a person who writes professionally
  19. authority
    the power or right to give orders or make decisions
  20. autobiography
    a book or account of your own life
  21. ballad
    a narrative poem of popular origin
  22. biography
    an account of the series of events making up a person's life
  23. blank verse
    unrhymed poetry, usually in iambic pentameter
  24. burlesque
    a theatrical entertainment of broad and earthy humor
  25. cacophony
    loud confusing disagreeable sounds
  26. caesura
    a break or pause in the middle of a verse line
  27. caricature
    a representation of a person exaggerated for comic effect
  28. chorus
    actors who comment on the action in a classical Greek play
  29. clause
    a separate section of a legal document
  30. cliche
    a trite or obvious remark
  31. coherence
    the state of sticking together
  32. colloquialism
    an expression that seeks to imitate informal speech
  33. conceit
    the trait of being unduly vain
  34. conclusion
    a position or opinion reached after consideration
  35. connotation
    an idea that is implied or suggested
  36. consonance
    a harmonious state of things and of their properties
  37. context
    the set of facts or circumstances that surround a situation
  38. conundrum
    a difficult problem
  39. couplet
    a stanza consisting of two successive lines of verse
  40. dactyl
    a finger or toe in human beings or corresponding body part in other vertebrates
  41. denotation
    the most direct or specific meaning of a word or expression
  42. denouement
    the outcome of a complex sequence of events
  43. description
    the act of depicting something
  44. dialect
    the usage or vocabulary characteristic of a group of people
  45. diction
    the manner in which something is expressed in words
  46. discourse
    an extended communication dealing with some particular topic
  47. dissonance
    disagreeable sounds
  48. drama
    a work intended for performance by actors on a stage
  49. elegy
    a mournful poem; a lament for the dead
  50. empathy
    understanding and entering into another's feelings
  51. end-rhymed
    rhymed on the terminal syllables of the verses
  52. end-stopped
    (verse) having a rhetorical pause at the end of each line
  53. enjambment
    continuation from one line of verse into the next line
  54. epic
    a long narrative poem telling of a hero's deeds
  55. epigram
    a witty saying
  56. epigraph
    a quotation at the beginning of some piece of writing
  57. epiphany
    a usually sudden insight, perception, or understanding of something
  58. epistle
    a specially long, formal letter
  59. epitaph
    an inscription in memory of a buried person
  60. epithet
    descriptive word or phrase
  61. essay
    an analytic or interpretive literary composition
  62. ethos
    the distinctive spirit of a culture or an era
  63. eulogy
    a formal expression of praise for someone who has died
  64. euphony
    any pleasing and harmonious sounds
  65. exemplar
    a person or thing to be imitated; ideal model
  66. exposition
    a collection of things for public display
  67. expository
    serving to expound or set forth
  68. fable
    a short moral story
  69. fairy tale
    a children's story involving fantastical beings or elements
  70. foil
    hinder or prevent, as an effort, plan, or desire
  71. folk tale
    a tale circulated by word of mouth among the common folk
  72. folklore
    the unwritten stories and proverbs and songs of a culture
  73. foot
    the pedal extremity of vertebrates other than human beings
  74. foreshadowing
    the act of providing vague advance indications
  75. form
    a perceptual structure
  76. free verse
    poetry that does not rhyme or have a regular meter
  77. genre
    a kind of literary or artistic work
  78. grammar
    the branch of linguistics that deals with sentence structure
  79. haiku
    an epigrammatic Japanese verse form of three short lines
  80. hero
    someone who fights for a cause
  81. heroic couplet
    a couplet consisting of two rhymed lines of iambic pentameter and written in an elevated style
  82. homonym
    a word pronounced or spelled the same with another meaning
  83. hubris
    overbearing pride or presumption
  84. humor
    a message that has the power to evoke laughter
  85. hyperbole
    extravagant exaggeration
  86. iambic
    of metrical units having an unstressed/stressed pattern
  87. idiom
    expression whose meaning cannot be inferred from its words
  88. idyll
    a short poem descriptive of rural or pastoral life
  89. imagery
    the ability to form mental pictures of things or events
  90. imaginary
    not based on fact; unreal
  91. interior monologue
    a literary genre that presents a fictional character's sequence of thoughts in the form of a monologue
  92. internal rhyme
    a rhyme between words in the same line
  93. introduction
    the act of beginning something new
  94. inversion
    the act of turning inside out
  95. irony
    incongruity between what might be expected and what occurs
  96. jargon
    technical terminology characteristic of a particular subject
  97. logic
    the branch of philosophy that analyzes inference
  98. logical fallacy
    an error in reasoning that undermines an argument
  99. lyric
    of or relating to poetry that expresses emotion
  100. maxim
    a saying that is widely accepted on its own merits
  101. mechanics
    the branch of physics concerned with the motion of bodies
  102. memoir
    an account of the author's personal experiences
  103. metaphor
    a figure of speech that suggests a non-literal similarity
  104. metaphysical
    pertaining to the philosophical study of being and knowing
  105. meter
    a basic unit of length (approximately 1.094 yards)
  106. metonymy
    substituting the name of a feature for the name of the thing
  107. mode
    how something is done or how it happens
  108. mood
    a characteristic state of feeling
  109. motif
    a recurrent element in a literary or artistic work
  110. myth
    a traditional story serving to explain a world view
  111. narration
    giving an account describing a course of events
  112. narrator
    someone who tells a story
  113. naturalism
    an artistic movement emphasizing realistic description
  114. neologism
    a newly invented word or phrase
  115. novella
    a short novel
  116. objective
    the goal intended to be attained
  117. objectivity
    judgment based on observable phenomena
  118. omniscient
    knowing, seeing, or understanding everything
  119. onomatopoeia
    using words that imitate the sound they denote
  120. oxymoron
    conjoined contradictory terms
  121. parable
    a short moral story
  122. paradox
    a statement that contradicts itself
  123. parallelism
    similarity by virtue of corresponding
  124. parody
    a composition that imitates or misrepresents a style
  125. pastoral
    devoted to raising sheep or cattle
  126. pathos
    a quality that arouses emotions, especially pity or sorrow
  127. pentameter
    a verse line having five metrical feet
  128. peripeteia
    a sudden and unexpected reversal of fortune
  129. persona
    an image of oneself that one presents to the world
  130. personification
    attributing human characteristics to abstract ideas
  131. persuasion
    communication intended to induce belief or action
  132. phrase
    an expression consisting of one or more words
  133. poetry
    literature in metrical form
  134. point of view
    a mental position from which things are perceived
  135. progression
    the act of moving forward, as toward a goal
  136. propaganda
    information that is spread to promote some cause
  137. prose
    ordinary writing as distinguished from verse
  138. protagonist
    the principal character in a work of fiction
  139. pseudonym
    a fake name used to engage in some activity
  140. pun
    a humorous play on words
  141. quest
    the act of searching for something
  142. realism
    the attribute of accepting the facts of life
  143. recitation
    a public instance of repeating something prepared in advance
  144. refrain
    resist doing something
  145. regionalism
    political policy that focuses on particular geographic areas
  146. repetition
    the act of doing or performing again
  147. rhetoric
    study of the technique for using language effectively
  148. rhyme
    correspondence in the final sounds of two or more lines
  149. rhythm
    an interval during which a recurring sequence occurs
  150. sarcasm
    witty language used to convey insults or scorn
  151. satire
    witty language used to convey insults or scorn
  152. scansion
    analysis of verse into metrical patterns
  153. sign
    a visible clue that something has happened or is present
  154. simile
    a figure of speech expressing a resemblance between things
  155. soliloquy
    speech you make to yourself
  156. sonnet
    a verse form of 14 lines with a fixed rhyme scheme
  157. speaker
    someone who expresses in language
  158. stanza
    a fixed number of lines of verse forming a unit of a poem
  159. stereotype
    a conventional or formulaic conception or image
  160. stream of consciousness
    the continuous flow of ideas and feelings in one's mind
  161. style
    how something is done or how it happens
  162. subject
    some situation or event that is thought about
  163. subjectivity
    judgment based on individual impressions and feelings
  164. surrealism
    an artistic movement using fantastic and incongruous images
  165. symbolism
    the practice of investing things with arbitrary meaning
  166. sympathize
    feel or express compassion
  167. synecdoche
    using part of something to refer to the whole thing
  168. synesthesia
    a sensation that occurs when a different sense is stimulated
  169. syntax
    the study of the rules for forming admissible sentences
  170. theme
    the subject matter of a conversation or discussion
  171. thesis
    an unproved statement advanced as a premise in an argument
  172. tone
    the distinctive property of a complex sound
  173. topic sentence
    a statement that provides the main idea of a paragraph
  174. tragedy
    an event resulting in great loss and misfortune
  175. tragic flaw
    the error of a hero in a drama that leads to his downfall
  176. transition
    the act of passing from one state or place to the next
  177. trochaic
    of or consisting of trochees
  178. understatement
    something said in a restrained way for ironic contrast
  179. unity
    an undivided or unbroken completeness with nothing wanting
  180. usage
    the act of employing
  181. vernacular
    the everyday speech of the people
  182. verse
    literature in metrical form
  183. voice
    the sound made when a person speaks
Created on 六月 13, 2013 (updated 九月 13, 2014)

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