WordVale

Literary English

100 words and expressions, each with a learner-friendly meaning. Tap any term for its page.

• allegorya story whose characters and events symbolize deeper meanings
• alliterationrepetition of the same initial sound in nearby words
• antagonistthe character who opposes the hero
• protagonistthe main character of a story
• allusionan indirect reference to another work, person, or event
• anachronismsomething placed in the wrong historical period
• archetypea universal, recurring character type or symbol
• bildungsromana novel about a character's growth from youth to maturity
• catharsisemotional release felt by the audience of a tragedy
• denouementthe final resolution of a story's plot
• dystopiaan imagined society of great suffering or injustice
• elegya poem of mourning for the dead
• epiphanya character's sudden moment of profound insight
• epistolarywritten in the form of letters
• foreshadowinghints of what will happen later in a story
• hyperboledeliberate exaggeration for effect
• ironymeaning the opposite of what is said, or events defying expectation
• juxtapositionplacing contrasting things side by side for effect
• metaphordescribing one thing as another to suggest likeness
• motifa recurring image or idea that develops a theme
• novellaa work of fiction shorter than a novel
• odea lyric poem addressing and praising its subject
• onomatopoeiawords that imitate the sound they describe
• parablea short story teaching a moral or spiritual lesson
• parodyan imitation that exaggerates for comic effect
• pastichea work imitating the style of another artist or period
• pathosa quality that evokes pity or sadness
• proseordinary written language, not verse
• romanticisma movement prizing emotion, nature, and the individual
• satireusing humor and ridicule to criticize folly or vice
• soliloquya speech revealing a character's thoughts, spoken alone
• sonneta fourteen-line poem with a fixed rhyme scheme
• stream of consciousnessnarration mimicking the continuous flow of thought
• symbolismusing objects or images to represent deeper ideas
• tropea commonly recurring literary device or convention
• verisimilitudethe appearance of being true or real in fiction
• vernacularthe everyday language of ordinary people
• magical realismrealistic narrative woven with matter-of-fact fantastical elements
• modernisman early-20th-century movement breaking with traditional forms
• unreliable narratora storyteller whose account cannot be fully trusted
• anthologya published collection of works by various authors
• aphorisma short, memorable statement of a truth
• ballada narrative poem or song telling a story
• blank verseunrhymed poetry in regular meter
• canonthe body of works considered essential in a tradition
• characterizationhow a writer builds and reveals characters
• clichéan expression made stale by overuse
• climaxthe point of highest tension in a story
• colloquialcharacteristic of informal, everyday speech
• connotationthe associations a word carries beyond its literal meaning
• couplettwo consecutive rhyming lines of verse
• dictiona writer's choice of words and style of expression
• didacticintended to teach, often too obviously
• epica long poem narrating heroic deeds
• epiloguea concluding section after the main story ends
• euphemisma mild expression substituted for a harsh one
• expositionbackground information establishing the story's setting
• fablea short tale with animals teaching a moral
• flashbacka scene set earlier than the main story
• foila character whose contrast highlights another
• genrea category of artistic composition with shared conventions
• haikua Japanese three-line poem of seventeen syllables
• imagerylanguage appealing to the senses
• in medias resbeginning a story in the middle of the action
• limericka humorous five-line poem with a bouncing rhythm
• lyricpoetry expressing personal emotion, songlike in form
• memoira book about the author's own remembered experiences
• metonymynaming something by an associated thing, as 'the crown'
• monologuea long speech by one character
• oxymorontwo contradictory words joined, like 'deafening silence'
• pen namea fictitious name an author publishes under
• personificationgiving human qualities to things or ideas
• plot twistan unexpected turn in the story
• point of viewthe perspective from which a story is told
• prologuean introductory section before the main story
• puna joke exploiting a word's multiple meanings
• rhetoricthe art of persuasive speaking and writing
• similea comparison using 'like' or 'as'
• subplota secondary storyline within a work
• understatementdeliberately presenting something as less than it is
• anagnorisisa moment of critical recognition or discovery by a character
• antiheroa central character lacking traditional heroic qualities
• apostropheaddressing an absent person or abstract idea directly
• assonancethe repetition of vowel sounds in nearby words
• caesuraa pause or break within a line of poetry
• chiasmusa phrase repeated in reverse grammatical order
• conceitan elaborate, extended metaphor
• enjambmentrunning a sentence past the end of a line of verse
• epigrapha short quotation at the start of a book or chapter
• epitheta descriptive phrase attached to a name
• frame narrativea story that contains another story within it
• hubrisexcessive pride that leads to a character's downfall
• interior monologuethe written expression of a character's inner thoughts
• leitmotifa recurring theme associated with a person or idea
• malapropismthe comic misuse of a word for a similar-sounding one
• meterthe rhythmic structure of a line of verse
• polemica strong verbal or written attack on an opinion
• sibilancethe repetition of soft consonant sounds like s and sh
• synecdocheusing a part to represent the whole, or vice versa
• zeugmaone word applied to two others in different senses