Literary Terms

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Allegory

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a form of extended metaphor, in which objects, persons, and actions in a narrative, are equated with the meanings that lie outside the narrative itself. The underlying meaning has moral, social, religious, or political significance, and characters are often personifications of abstract ideas as charity, greed, or envy.

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Alliteration

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the repetition of initial sounds in neighboring words

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Allusion

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a brief reference to a person, event, or place, real or ficticious, or to a work of art. Casual reference to a famous historical or literary figure or event. An allusion may be drawn from history, geography, literature, or religion.

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Amplification

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use of bare expressions, likely to be ignored or misunderstood by a hearer or reader because of bluntness. Emphasis through restatement with additional details.

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Anagram

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a word or phrase made by transposing the letters

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Analogy

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the comparison of two pairs which have the same relationship. The key is to ascertain the relationship between the first so you can choose the correct second pair. Part to whole, opposites, results of are types of relationships you should find.

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Anaphora

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The deliberate repetition of a words or phrase at the beginning of several successive verses, clauses, or paragraphs. One of the devices of repetition, in which the same phrase is repeated at the beginning of two or more lines.

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Anastrophe

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inversion of normal syntactic order of words

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Anthropomorphism

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is used with God, or gods. The act of attributing human forms or qualities to an entities which are not human. Specifically, anthropomorphism is the describing of gods or goddesses in human form and possessing human characteristics such as jealousy, hatred, or love.

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Antithesis

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opposition, or contrast of ideas or words in a balanced or parallel construction