Terms Used In Multi-Choice Questions

Front 1

Allegory

Back 1

A story in which people, things and events have another meaning.

Front 2

Ambiguity

Back 2

Multiple meanings a literary work may communicate, especially two meanings that are incompatible.

Front 3

Apostrophe

Back 3

Direct address, usually to someone or something that is not present.

Front 4

Connotation

Back 4

The implications of a word or phrase, as opposed to its exact meaning (denotation).

Front 5

Convention

Back 5

A device of style or subject matter so often used that it becomes a recognized means of expression.

Front 6

Denotation

Back 6

The dictionary meaning of a word, as opposed to connotation.

Front 7

Didactic

Back 7

Explicitly instructive. A didactic poem or novel may be good or bad.

Front 8

Digression

Back 8

The use of material unrelated to the subject of a work.

Front 9

Epigram

Back 9

A pithy saying, often using contrast. The epigram is also a verse form, usually brief and pointed.

Front 10

Euphemism

Back 10

A figure of speech using indirection to avoid offensive bluntness, such as "deceased" for "Dead" or "remains" for "corpse"

Front 11

Grotesque

Back 11

Characterized by distortions or incongruities.

Front 12

Hyperbole

Back 12

Deliberate exaggeration, overstatement. As a rule, hyperbole is self-conscious, without the intention of being accept literally

Front 13

Jargon

Back 13

The special language of a profession or group. The term jargon usually has pejorative associations, with the implication that jargon is evasive, tedious and unintelligible to outsiders.

Front 14

Literal

Back 14

Not figurative; accurate to the letter; matter of fact or concrete

Front 15

Lyrical

Back 15

Songlike; characterized by emotion, subjectivity, and imagination

Front 16

Oxymoron

Back 16

A combination of opposites; the union of contradictory terms.

Front 17

Parable

Back 17

A story designed to suggest a principle, illustrate a moral, or answer a question. Parables are allegorical stories.

Front 18

Paradox

Back 18

A statement that seems to be self-contradicting but, in fact, is true.

Front 19

Parody

Back 19

A composition that imitates the style of another composition normally for comic effect.

Front 20

Personification

Back 20

A figurative use of language which endows the nonhuman (ideas, inanimate objects, animals, abstractions) with human characteristics.

Front 21

Reliability

Back 21

A quality of some fictional narrators whose word the reader can trust.

Front 22

Rhetorical Question

Back 22

A question asked for effect, not in expectation of a reply.

Front 23

Soliloquy

Back 23

A speech in which a character who is alone speaks his or her thoughts aloud.

Front 24

Stereotype

Back 24

A conventional pattern, expression, character, or idea.

Front 25

Syllogism

Back 25

A form of reasoning in which two statements are made and a conclusion is drawn from them

Front 26

Thesis

Back 26

The theme, meaning, or position that a writer undertakes to prove or support.

Front 27

Alliteration

Back 27

The repetition of identical or similar consonant sounds, normally at the beginning of words.

Front 28

Assonance

Back 28

The repetition of identical or similar vowel sounds.

Front 29

Blank Verse

Back 29

Unrhymed iambic pentameter

Front 30

End-Stopped

Back 30

A line with a pause at the end. Lines that end with a period, comma, colon, semicolon, exclamation point, or a question mark are end-stopped lines.

Front 31

Free Verse

Back 31

Poetry which is not written in a traditional meter but is still rhythmical.

Front 32

Heroic Couplet

Back 32

Two end-stopped iambic pentameter lines rhymed aa, bb, cc, with the thought usually completed in the two-line limit

Front 33

Iamb

Back 33

A two-syllable foot with an unaccented syllable followed by an accented syllable.

Front 34

Pentameter

Back 34

A line containing five feet.

Front 35

Sonnet

Back 35

Normally a fourteen-line iambic pentameter poem.

Front 36

Stanza

Back 36

Usually a repeated grouping of three or more lines with the same meter and rhyme scheme

Front 37

Tetrameter

Back 37

A line of four feet

Front 38

Antecedent

Back 38

That which goes before, especially the word, phrase, or clause to which a pronoun refers.

Front 39

Ellipsis

Back 39

The omission of a word or several words necessary for a complete construction that is still understandable.

Front 40

Imperative

Back 40

The mood of a verb that gives an order.

Front 41

Modify

Back 41

To restrict or limit in meaning.

Front 42

Parallel Structure

Back 42

A similar grammatical structure within a sentence or within a paragraph.

Front 43

Periodic Sentence

Back 43

A sentence grammatically complete only at the end.

Front 44

Syntax

Back 44

The structure of a sentence