Allegory: a story in which characters, events, Aside: a character in a play makes a short
and places stand for ideas, qualities, or other speech, which is heard by the audience but not
events. The overall purpose is to teach a moral by other characters. The speaker does this by
lesson. turning to one side, away from the action in the
play.
Alliteration: the repetition of the same
consonant sound at the beginning of a word. Assonance: the repetition of vowel sounds,
Example: the repetition of b sounds in Keats's please-niece-ski-tree.
"beaded bubbles winking at the brim" ("Ode to a
Nightingale") or Coleridge's "five miles Audience: person reading or viewing the story
meandering in a mazy motion ("Kubla Khan"). or writing.
Anecdote: a short written or oral story of an Characterization: the way an author presents
event from a persons life. Often used to support characters. 1. Direct or Explicit: a character is
opinions, clarify ideas, grab readers attention, or described by the author or the narrator
entertain. 2. Indirect or Implicit, a character's traits are
revealed by thoughts, actions, dialogue, or
Antagonist: a character or force that goes appearance.
against the main character (proaganist) and tries
to stop him/her from achieving their goal. Chronological Order: time order.
Comedy: a type of drama that is humorous and Dramatic Monologue: a long speech given by a
typically has a happy ending. character in a play who is having a conversation
with other characters
Compare: to determine similarities between two
elements. Drama: a play or story that is written to be acted
out in front of an audience.
Consonance: the repetition of consonant
sounds, typically within or at the end of words Dramatic Irony: the audience or reader knows
that do not rhyme or have similar vowel sounds. information that other characters do not know
Example: horror-hearer.
Dynamic Character: a character that changes
Conflict: conflict occurs when some person or throughout the story
force in the play opposes the protagonist.
External Conflict: a character struggles Essay: writing that attempts to explain
against an outside force. something from a personal point of view.
Man vs. Man
Man vs. Nature Euphemism: the substitution of a mild word of
Man vs. Society phrase for a word that would be considered
undesirable because it is too direct, unpleasant,
Internal Conflict: a character struggles or offensive.
against himself
Man vs. Himself Evaluate: forming a personal judgment about an
ideas or a literary works value
Connotation: the emotional response
suggested by a word. Exposition: an authors introduction of the
characters, setting, and situation at the
Contrast: two determine differences between beginning of a story, novel, or play.
two elements
Fable: a brief tale designed to illustrate a moral
Couplet: a stanza of two lines, usually rhyming. lesson. Often the characters are animals as in
the fables of Aesop.
Denotation: the dictionary definition of a word.
Falling Action: the falling action is the series of
Descriptive Paragraph: writing that shows what Events that take place after the climax showing
a thing looks like, sounds like, smells like, and the results of the conflict.
feels like, with many details.
Fiction: prose narrative based on imagination,
Dialect: a variation of language by one group in usually the novel or the short story.
one place.
Figurative Language: words that mean more
Denouement: the unraveling and resolution of a than their individual meanings and express truth
problem in a story. beyond the literal level
Foreboding: hint that something bad will Metaphor: a figure of speech wherein a
happen comparison is made between two unlike
quantities without the use of the words "like" or
Foot: the basic unit in the measurement of "as."
rhythm in poetry
Mood: the emotions that a reader feels while
Foreshadowing: an authors use of clues to reading or viewing a literary work
prepare readers for events that will happen later
in the story Motif: a significant word, phrase, image,
description, idea, or other element that is
Free Verse: unrhymed poetry with lines of repeated throughout a literary work and is
varying lengths, and containing no specific related to the theme
metrical pattern
Narrative Poem: a poem, which tells a story.
Genre: a category or type of literature.
Example: tragedy, epic, comedy, novel, essay, Narrative: writing or speech that tells a story
biography, lyric poem
Nonfiction: literature about real people, places,
Haiku: Japanese poem, which consists of three and events
lines: five syllables in the first and third lines,
and seven syllables in the second line. Novel: a book-length fictional prose narrative
Hyperbole: a figure of speech that uses Ode: a poem in praise of something divine or
overstatement or exaggeration expressing some noble idea.
Iamb: an iamb is a foot of meter. A foot has Onomatopoeia: a literary device wherein the
two syllablesone unstressed syllable followed sound of a word echoes the sound it represents.
by one stressed syllable.
Oxymoron: a combination of contradictory
Imagery: a word or group of words in a literary terms. Example: jumbo shrimp
work, which appeal to one or more of the
senses: sight, taste, touch, hearing, and smell Paradox: a situation or a statement that seems
Inference: a judgment based on reasoning to contradict itself, but on closer inspection, does
rather than on direct or explicit statement not.
(reading between the lines).
Parallel Structure/Parallelism: the repetition of
Irony: a contrast or discrepancy between what a series of words, phrases, or sentences that
is expected and what actually happens have similar grammatical structure
9th Grade Literary Terms
**Highlighted terms are of particular importance on the Midterm Exam.
**All terms will be discussed throughout the year and students are responsible for knowing every term listed in this packet for the
Final Exam.
Resolution: the part of a story or drama which Static Character: a character who remains the
occurs after the climax and which establishes a same throughout the narrative
new norm, a new state of affairs-the way things
are going to be from then on. Stereotype: a generalization about a group of
people that is made without regard for individual
Rhyme: in poetry, a pattern of repeated sounds. differences (usually a flat character)
Rhyme Scheme: the pattern of rhymed words in Style: the expressive qualities that distinguish
a stanza or generalized throughout a poem, an authors work, including word choice,
expressed in alphabetic terms. sentence structure, and figures of speech
9th Grade Literary Terms
**Highlighted terms are of particular importance on the Midterm Exam.
**All terms will be discussed throughout the year and students are responsible for knowing every term listed in this packet for the
Final Exam.
Exposition Resolution