Vocabulary for Literature and Language Studies

1.  Abstract – those things we can conceive mentally but cannot see, touch, or hear (an idea, justice, equality, etc)

2.  Abstract noun – names an idea, a feeling, a quality, or a characteristic (liberty, hope, equality, etc)

3.  Acronym – a word formed by combining the initial letters or syllables of a series of words to form a name, such as “radar” from “radio detecting and ranging”

4.  Action verb – a verb that expresses a physical or mental action (runs, thinks, hopes, etc)

5.  Active voice – the subject of the sentence performs the action denoted by the verb (The janitor swept the floor.)

6.  Adage – an old, familiar saying (Look before you leap.)

7.  Adjective – a word that modifies a noun or pronoun; answers what kind, which one, how many, how much (round, three, many, etc)

8.  Adjective clause – a subordinate clause that modifies a noun or pronoun; usually begins with a relative pronoun (Arctic winters, which are long and cold, are severe.)

9.  Adjective Phrase – a prepositional phrase that modifies a noun or pronoun and tells what kind or which one; usually follows the word it modifies, which may be the object of another preposition; more than one adjective phrase may modify the same noun or pronoun (He bought a house with blue shutters.)

10.  Adverb – a word that modifies a verb, adjective, or another adverb; answers where, when, in what way, or to what extent (yesterday, very, up, etc)

11.  Adverb clause – a subordinate clause that modifies a verb, an adverb, or an adjective; begins with a subordinating conjunction (Today’s test lasted longer than the one yesterday.)

12.  Adverb Phrase – a prepositional phrase that modifies a verb, an adjective, or an adverb and tells when, where, how, why or to what extent; may come before or after the word or word group it modifies; more than one adverb phrase may modify the same word or group of words (He bought a house by the lake.)

13.  Advertisement – planned communication meant to be seen, heard, or read in an attempt to persuade an audience to buy a product or service

14.  Aesthetic – relating to beauty

15.  Allegory – a prose or poetic narrative in which there is both a literal and a symbolic meaning, generally personifies abstract ideas such as death, pride, or joy

16.  Alliteration – repetition of initial consonant sounds (Big brown bears batted bees.)

17.  Allusion – a reference to a literary or historical person, place, or event

18.  Ambiguity – writing that is unclear, obscure, or difficult to understand, primarily because words or ideas may be understood in multiple ways

19.  Anachronism – the misplacement of a person, occurrence, custom, or idea in time; an individual or thing incorrectly placed in time (a character in King Arthur who wears a wristwatch)

20.  Analogy – comparison between things based on specific features (A:B::1:2)

21.  Anapestic – a line made up primarily of anapests [two unstressed syllables followed by a stressed syllable]

22.  Anaphora – regular repetition of the same word or phrase at the beginning of successive phrases or clauses (something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue)

23.  Anecdote – a short narrative usually consisting of one episode or incident, may be real or fictional

24.  Annals – narratives of historical events recorded year by year

25.  Annotated bibliography – provides a list of materials about a specific topic, including source information and a summary and evaluation of each entry

26.  Annotation – explanatory notes added to a text to explain, translate, cite sources, give biographical data, or express personal comments

27.  Antagonist – the most significant character or force that opposes the protagonist in a narrative or drama (Voldemort, the Volturi, Captain Beatty)

28.  Antecedent – the noun to which the pronoun refers (Jack bought a car after he won the lottery. “Jack” is the antecedent of “he”.)

29.  Antihero – a protagonist who is lacking in one or more of the conventional qualities, such as dignity, bravery, or honor, that are typically attributed to a hero

30.  Aphorism – a concise expression of insight or wisdom (The early bird gets the worm.)

31.  Apostrophe – a direct address to something or someone; particularly an address to an inanimate object, a dead or absent person, something abstract, or a spirit (O Death, where is thy sting?)

32.  Appositive Phrase – consists of an appositive [a noun or pronoun placed beside another noun or pronoun to identify or explain it] and its modifiers (George Washington, the first President of the United States, was a general in the army.)

33.  Archetype – a recurring symbol, character, landscape, or event found in myth and literature across different cultures and eras (the devil, the damsel in distress, the quest)

34.  Archive – the repository for historical documents or public records

35.  Argumentation – form of persuasion that uses reasoning to try to lead a reader or listener to think or act in a certain way

36.  Articles – a, an, the; adjectives; “a” and “an” are indefinite articles because they refer to someone or something in general; “the” is a definite article because it refers to someone or something in particular

37.  Aside – a few words or a short passage spoken in an undertone or to the audience; other characters onstage are deaf to the aside

38.  Assonance – the repetition of two or more vowel sounds in successive words, which creates a kind of rhyme (white lilacs, all the awful arts)

39.  Assumption – something taken for granted and presumed to be true without need for further explanation or proof

40.  Asyndeton – elimination of conjunctions (I came, I saw, I conquered.)

41.  Audience – to/for whom you are writing

42.  Autobiography – tells a true story about something important in the author’s life

43.  Ballad – a song that tells a story

44.  Bathos – a sudden and unexpected drop from the lofty to the trivial or excessively sentimental

45.  Biography – a factual account of a person’s life, examining all available information or texts relevant to the subject

46.  Blank verse – contains five iambic feet per line and is never rhymed

47.  Blues – a type of folk music originally developed by African-Americans in the South, often about some pain or loss; typically contain three-line stanzas in which the first two identical lines are followed by a third, concluding, rhyming line

48.  Blurb – a term applied in the book trade to the hyperbolically encomiastic matter printed on the jackets of books or elsewhere

49.  Body – the part of the writing that develops, explains, and supports the key idea expressed in the thesis statement

50.  Bombast – use of ornamental but unnecessary language in writing; often ranting, insincere, or extravagant

51.  Business letter – formally addresses and communicates issues of concern to both writers and readers

52.  Cacophony – a harsh, unpleasant sounds of words

53.  Caesura – a pause within a line of verse; traditionally appears near the middle of a line; usually occurs at a mark of punctuation, but can occur without punctuation

54.  Caricature – an author’s exaggeration or distortion of certain characteristics or traits of a particular group or individual

55.  Carpe diem – seize the day

56.  Catalog – a list of people, things, or attributes

57.  Catharsis – the feeling of emotional release or calm the spectator feels at the end of a tragedy

58.  Cause-effect writing – examines the relationship between events, explaining how one event or situation caused another (the effects of segregation)

59.  Character – an imagined figure inhabiting a narrative or drama

60.  Chiasmus – the order of terms in the first phrase or clause is reversed in the second phrase or clause (from life to death, and death to life)

61.  Circular Reasoning – supporting facts for an argument are weak or nonexistent resulting in the original idea being restated as if it were evidence

62.  Classification-division writing – writing that separates something into sections and places examples into categories or classes (kinds of fish)

63.  Clerihew – a comic verse form that begins with the name of a person and consists of two metrically awkward, rhymed couplets; humorous and often insulting; serves as ridiculous biographies, usually of famous people

64.  Cliché – an overused idea or phrase, thus it no longer retains its original impact (The grass is greener on the other side.)

65.  Climax – the moment of greatest intensity in a story, which almost inevitably occurs toward the end of the work; often takes the form of a decisive confrontation between the protagonist and the antagonist (Romeo kills Tybalt)

66.  Coherence – logical organization with a clear presentation of ideas allowing the writing to make sense and be understood

67.  Collective noun – names a group of people or things (class, team, senators)

68.  Colloquial English – casual and informal but correct language of ordinary native speakers; may include contractions, slang, and shifts in grammar, vocabulary, and diction

69.  Comma splice – a run-on sentence separated by a comma instead of by a comma and a conjunction or a period (I baked the cake this morning, I have not frosted it yet.)

70.  Common noun – names any one of a group of persons, places, or things; it is not capitalized (senator, school, teacher)

71.  Comparison-contrast writing – short piece of expository writing that describes the similarities and differences between two or more subjects (football vs. basketball)

72.  Complement – a word or group of words that completes the meaning of a verb

73.  Complex sentence – one independent clause and at least one subordinate clause (Because there is a projector in the classroom, the teacher uses it every day.)

74.  Composition – a group of related paragraphs that develop a main idea

75.  Compound sentence – two or more independent clauses but no subordinate clause (There is a projector in the classroom, and the teacher uses it every day.)

76.  Compound-complex sentence – two or more independent clauses and at least one subordinate clause (Because there is a projector in the classroom, the teacher uses it every day, and the students are more engaged in learning.)

77.  Conceit – poetic device that uses elaborate comparisons, such as equating a loved one with the beauties of the world

78.  Conclusion – the final paragraph of a piece of writing; it should restate the thesis and sum up the support while leaving the readers with a memorable statement, a call to action, or a thought

79.  Concrete – something specific and tangible that can be perceived by the senses (scent, grit, table, landscape, etc)

80.  Concrete noun – names a person, place, or thing that can be perceived by one or more of the senses (table, hat, room, etc)

81.  Concrete poetry – a visual poetry composed exclusively for creating a picture or image with the printed letters and words

82.  Confessional poetry – autobiographical poetry that exposes the poet’s personal life

83.  Conflict – the central struggle between two or more forces in a story

84.  Connotation – emotional meanings attached to words (calling someone a “thug”)

85.  Consonance – a kind of rhyme in which the linked words share similar consonant sounds but different vowel sounds (reason and raisin, mink and monk)

86.  Conundrum – a difficult riddle

87.  Conventions – in writing, practices or principles, such as the rules of grammar, usage, and spelling, that are accepted as true and correct.

88.  Couplet – a two line stanza

89.  Dactylic – a line made up primarily of dactyls [one stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables]

90.  Dangling modifier – seems to modify the wrong word or no word at all because the word it is supposed to modify has been omitted from the sentence (Incorrect – While touring the White House, shoes must be worn. / Correct – While touring the White House, visitors must wear shoes.)

91.  Declarative sentence – makes a statement

92.  Decorum – propriety or appropriateness

93.  Deductive reasoning – reasoning that moves from general statement that is assumed to be true to a specific statement that requires verification

94.  Definition writing – a type of essay that identifies and gives the qualities of a person, object, institution, pattern of behavior, or political theory in a way that highlights its special characteristics (cancer)

95.  Demonstrative adjectives – the words “that”, “these”, “this”, “those” when they modify a noun (that book, those shoes, these chairs, this hat, etc)

96.  Demonstrative pronouns – points out a person, a place, a thing, or an idea (this, that, these, those)

97.  Denotation – dictionary, literal definition of a word

98.  Denouement – the resolution or conclusion of a literary work (The families bury their children and end their feud.)

99.  Descriptive writing (description) – writing that evokes the senses to create a picture

100. Dialect – a particular variety of language spoken by an identifiable regional group or social class of persons