2012-13 English 10: Literary Terms

Word Bank 1: allegory

foil
stereotype

allusion
genre
soliloquy

archetype
irony
symbol

aside
local color
theme

atmosphere
motivation

dialect
narrator

fable
satire

1. Speaker or character who tells a story:______________________________________________________________________

2. Reference to a well-known person, place, event, literary work or work of art:_______________________________________
Three works most commonly alluded to in literature:_____________________________________________________________
3. Fictitious story meant to teach a moral lesson; characters are usually animals:______________________________________
Ex:____________________________________________________________________________________________________
4. The use of ridicule or sarcasm to mock, expose, or attack individuals, groups, institutions or society in general is
called a(n) _______________________________.
Ex:__________________________________
5. An object that stands for or represents something else:_________________________________
Ex:__________________________________________________________________________________________
6. Variety of language spoken by people in a particular region or of a particular group:_________________________
Ex:____________________________________________________________________________________________
7. Literary technique that portrays differences between appearance and reality, expectation and result, or meaning and
expectation:_____________________________
8. A character who represents the opposite of another character:___________________________________________
Example:_______________________________________________________________________________________
9. Exhibits the characteristics of a particular region or country:_____________________________________
Ex:____________________________________________________________________________________________
10. When a character in a play speaks to the audience or another character and the remaining characters are not supposed to hear
it:________________
11. The central message, insight, or generalization about life in a piece of literature:___________________________
Ex:____________________________________________________________________________________________
12. If the character in a story is ordinary, unoriginal, or representative of a larger group of people, he or she would be
an example of a(n)_______________________________.
Ex:________________________________________
13. Reoccurring characters, themes, images, and symbolic situations in literature:_______________________
Ex:____________________________________________________________________________________________
14. Story in which people, things and events have a symbolic meaning behind the literal one that is used to teach or
explain things usually of moral, social, religious, or political importance:________________________________
Ex:___________________________________________________________________________________________
15. One character in a play gives a long speech alone on stage that expresses his or her inner thoughts and
feelings:________________________________
Ex:____________________________________
16. The reason that explains or partially explains why a character thinks, feels, acts or behaves a certain
way:_____________________________________
Ex:________________________________________
17. The mood or feeling created in a reader by a literary work or passage:___________________________________
18. A category or type of literature, poetry, prose or drama:____________________________
Ex:____________________________________________________________________________________________

Word Bank 2:

antagonist
falling action
plot
protagonist
subplot

climax
denouement(resolution)
dues ex machina
flashback
foreshadowing
inciting incident
omniscient first person
limited third person
setting(exposition)
short story
suspense
rising action (complication)

19. A brief work of fiction with a simple plot and setting:_______________________________

20. Interruptions in the continuity of a story by narration or portrayal of some earlier episode:___________________
21. Opposes the main character; often viewed as the villain:____________________________________
Ex:____________________________________________________________________________________________
22. All events that lead up to the climax in a story (conflict often builds during this time):______________________
23. High point of interest in a storys plot; often the turning point when the protagonist changes:_________________
24. Clues that suggest events that have yet to occur:____________________________________
25. Introduces the central conflict in the story:____________________________________
26. Sequence of events in a literary work. In most novels, dramas, short stories, narratives or poems, it involves both
characters and a central conflict:________________________________________
27. Events happen suddenly in the plot to bring about the resolution:___________________________________
Literally means:________________________________________________________________________________
28. The point in the plot where the conflict begins to subside and lead to a resolution:__________________________
29. An all-knowing narrator that knows the thoughts and feelings of more than one character would demonstrate
a(n) ______________________________ point of view.
30. A narrator that tells only the actions of characters or only the thoughts and feelings of one character would
demonstrate ______________________________ point of view.
31. The feeling of curiosity or uncertainty about the outcome of events:_____________________________
32. Secondary plot in a play or novel:___________________________________
33. A narrator that tells the story and is also part of the action demonstrates ________________________ point of
view.
34. The main character in a work of fiction that the readers like to see succeed. Often goes through some type of
change throughout the piece:________________________________________
Ex:____________________________________________________________________________________________
35. The final outcome of the complication in a literary work:_______________________________________
36. The time and place of the action in the story:____________________________________

Word Bank 3:

dynamic(round)
pathetic(pathos)
external
man vs. nature
verbal irony

static(flat)
comic(comedy)
man vs. man
man vs. society
dramatic irony

tragic(tragedy)
direct
indirect
man vs. self (internal)
connotation
denotation
situational irony
tone

37. A trait used to describe a funny character:________________________________

38. This type of conflict exists when a main character struggles with any outside force:_______________________
39. This type of conflict exists when one character struggles against another:________________________________
40. The set of ideas/feelings associated with a word in addition to its explicit meaning:_________________________
Ex:____________________________________________________________________________________________
41. This type of characterization occurs when the author directly states a characters traits:_____________________
42. This type of character shows many different traits and develops and grows throughout the story:______________
Ex:___________________________________________________________________________________________
43. The writers attitude toward his or her audience and the subject is called the _____________________________.
Ex:___________________________________________________________________________________________
44. Occurs when words are used to suggest the opposite of what is really meant; sarcasm:______________________
Ex:___________________________________________________________________________________________
45. When an event occurs that directly contradicts the expectations of the characters, readers, or audience:_________
Ex:____________________________________________________________________________________________
46. Describes the suffering of a character:___________________________
Ex:____________________________________________________________________________________________
47. A character that does not change throughout the story:_______________________________________________
48. This type of conflict exists when a character struggles against an aspect of the outdoors:____________________
49. This type of conflict exists when a character struggles against his or her own emotions:____________________
50. This type of conflict exists when a character struggles against society as a whole:__________________________
51. The dictionary definition of a word:________________________________________
52. A trait used to describe a character who has a moral weakness or disastrous ending:________________________
53. This type of characterization occurs when an author shows a characters personality through his/her actions and
thoughts, but it does not directly tell us about the character his/herself:______________________________________
54. Occurs when there is a contradiction between what a character thinks and what the reader or audience knows to
be true:_________________________________________
Ex:____________________________________________________________________________________________

Word Bank 4:

paradox
assonance
onomatopoeia

personification
simile
euphemism

metaphor
hyperbole
imagery

alliteration
consonance
oxymoron

idiom

55. Giving human qualities to inanimate or nonhuman things:______________________

Ex:____________________________________________________________________________________________________
56. Descriptive words or phrases (esp. applying to the five senses:__________________
Ex:____________________________________________________________________________________________________
57. Two seemingly contradictory/opposite words used together:_____________________
Ex:____________________________________________________________________________________________________
58. Two seemingly contradictory/opposite terms forming a statement:__________________
Ex:____________________________________________________________________________________________________
59. A direct comparison between two unlike things (not using like or as):________________________________________
Ex:____________________________________________________________________________________________________
60. Extreme exaggeration:_______________________________
Ex:____________________________________________________________________________________________________
61. A comparison between two unlike things using the words "like" or "as":_______________________
Ex:____________________________________________________________________________________________________
62. A word that imitates the sound it represents/describes:_________________________
Ex:____________________________________________________________________________________________________
63. Repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words:_____________________
Ex:___________________________________________________________________________________________________
64. Repetition of vowel sounds in two or more words:____________________________
Ex:___________________________________________________________________________________________________
65. Repetition of consonant sounds at the end of words following DIFFERENT vowel sounds:___________________________
Ex:____________________________________________________________________________________________________
66. The substitution of a mild or vague expression for one that is thought to be more offensive or harsh:___________________
Ex:____________________________________________________________________________________________________
67. An expression that cannot be understood by the literal meanings of its word:_____________________________
Ex:____________________________________________________________________________________________________