Lit Terms: List 1 (DEFINITIONS)

ALLEGORY:

• a story in which people, things, and happenings have a hidden or symbolic meaning; allegories are used for teaching or explaining ideas, moral principles, etc ..
• the presenting of ideas by means of such stories; symbolical narration or description

ALLITERATION:

• repetition of an initial sound, usually of a consonant or cluster in two or more words of a phrase, line of poetry, etc ..

ALLUSION:

• an indirect reference; casual mention 

AMBIGUITY:

• state of being ambiguous - having two or more possible meanings; not clear; indefinite; uncertain; vague 

ANACHRONISM:

• the representation of something as existing or occurring at other than its proper time especially earlier; anything that is or seems to be out of its proper time in history

ANALOGY:

• similarity in some respects between things otherwise unlike; partial resemblance
• the process by which new or less familiar words, constructions, or pronunciations conform to the pattern of older or more familiar (and often unrelated) ones

ANALYSIS:

• a separating or breaking up of any whole into parts especially with an examination of these parts to find out their nature, proportion, function, interrelationship, etc ..
• the use of word order and uninflected function words rather than inflection to express syntactic relationships

ANAPHORA:

• the rhetorical device of repeating a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses or sentences

ANECDOTE:

• a short, entertaining account of some happening, usually personal or biographical

ANTAGONIST:

• a person who opposes or competes with another; adversary. opponent

ANTITHESIS:

• a contrast or opposition of thoughts, usually in two phrases, clauses, or sentences
• the exact opposite

 APHORISM:

• a short concise statement of a principle
• a short, pointed sentence expressing a wise or clever observation or a general truth; maxim; adage

APOLOGIA:

• an apology especially a formal defense of an idea, religion, etc ..

APOSTROPHE:

• words addressed to a person or thing, whether absent or, generally in an exclamatory  digression in a speech or literary writing
• to show the omission of a letter or letters from a word

ARGUMENT:

• a reason or reasons offered for or against something
• a short statement of subject matter, or a brief synopsis of a plot; summary

ASSUMPTION:

• the act of assuming, a taking upon oneself, taking over, or taking for granted
• supposition 

AUDIENCE:

• a group of persons assembled to hear or see a speaker, a play, a concert, etc ..

CHARACTERIZATION:

• the act of characterizing, description of characterics
• the delineation of character or creation of characters in a play, story, etc ..

CHIASMUS:

•  rhetoric inversion of the second of two parallel clauses, phrases, etc ..