A's

Front 1

abstract

Back 1

not attached to anything specific or concrete; for this reason, abstract terms or ideas are sometimes difficult to understand

Front 2

abstract language

Back 2

diction that describes tintangible things like ideas or emotions or denotes general qualities of persons or things.

Front 3

drama of the absurd

Back 3

a type of drama, allied to comedy, radically nonrealistic in both content and presentation, that emphasizes the absurdity, emptiness, or meaninglessness of life

Front 4

accent

Back 4

the same as stress. a syllable given more prominence in pronunciation

Front 5

active voice

Back 5

in this verb form, the subject of the sentence performs the action denoted by the verb

Front 6

aesthetic

Back 6

relating to beauty; also a branch of philosophy concerned with art, beauty, and taste

Front 7

allegory

Back 7

a narrative in which literal meaning directly corresponds with symbolic meaning

Front 8

alliteration

Back 8

the repetition of similar sounds, usually consonants, at the beginning of words

Front 9

allusion

Back 9

a brief reference to a commonly known historical or literary figure, even, or object.

Front 10

ambiguity

Back 10

the existence of a word or idea that can be understood in multiple ways; frequently refers to the condition of being obscure or difficult to understand

Front 11

anachronism

Back 11

the misplacement of a person, occurrence, custom, or idea in time; also sometimes refers to an individual or thing that is incorrectly placed in time.

Front 12

anacrusis

Back 12

in metrical verse, the omission of an unaccented syllable at the beginning of a line.

Front 13

anagorisis

Back 13

a moment of recognition or discovery; primarily used in reference to Greek tragedy

Front 14

analogy

Back 14

a device explaining or describing something unfamiliar through a comparison with something more familiar.

Front 15

analysis

Back 15

the methodical examination of the parts in order to determine the nature of the whole

Front 16

anapest

Back 16

a metrical foot consisting of two unaccented syllables followed by one accented syllable.

Front 17

anapestic meter

Back 17

a meter in which a majority of the feet are anapests

Front 18

anaphora

Back 18

a rhetorical device of repeating the same word or words at the start of two or more lines of poetry

Front 19

anecdote

Back 19

the brief narration of a single even or incident

Front 20

antagonist

Back 20

the character in conflict with the protagonist: rival, opponent, or enemy.

Front 21

antecedent

Back 21

in grammar, a substantive word, phrase, or clause whose denotation is referred to by a pronoun, in logic, the conditional element in a proposition.

Front 22

antecedent action

Back 22

events that preceded the starting point of the piece of literature

Front 23

anticlimax

Back 23

a rhetorical device in which details of lesser importance are placed where something greater is expected, or in which the importance of items in a series is decreased rather than increased.

Front 24

antihero/heroine

Back 24

a protagonist who is not admirable or who challenges notions of what should be considered admirable

Front 25

antitheses

Back 25

a rhetorical device contrasting words, clauses, sentences, or ideas, balancing one against the other in strong opposition. the contrast is reinforced by similar grammatical structure.

Front 26

aphorism

Back 26

a concise expression of insight or wisdom

Front 27

apology

Back 27

a formal attempt to justify or defend one's actions while implying regret for them addressed as if it were alive and present and could reply

Front 28

apostrophe

Back 28

a figure of speech in which someone absent or dead or something nonhuman is addressed as if it were alive and present and could reply.

Front 29

approximate rime

Back 29

a term used for words in a riming pattern that have some kind of sound correspondence but are not perfect rimes.

Front 30

archetype

Back 30

a recurrent pattern in bodies of literature, such as the loss of paradise.

Front 31

literary argument

Back 31

the thesis of a poem

Front 32

artistic unity

Back 32

that condition of a successful literary work whereby all its elements work together for the achievement of its central purpose.

Front 33

aside

Back 33

a convention in drama by which an a tor directly addresses the audience, revealing his or her observations or emotions.

Front 34

assonance

Back 34

repetition of vowel sounds. when it occurs at the end of lines, assonance rhyme does not have the same consonant sounds, so it is not full rhyme

Front 35

atmosphere

Back 35

the prevailing mood of a literary word, often established by setting or landscape, lending an emotional aura and influencing the reader's expectations and attitudes.

Front 36

aubade

Back 36

a poem about dawn; a morning love song; or a poem about the parting of lovers at dawn.

Front 37

audience

Back 37

in the context of writing and literature, this term refers to the reading public or to a specific group of intended readers.

Front 38

authorial voice

Back 38

a discernible authorial presence, distinct from that of the narrator or speaker, revealing a particular perspective.

Front 39

autobiography

Back 39

the narrative of a person's life, written by that person.