Literary Terms Review

Match the correct literary term with its meaning.

• anecdote

• a character who goes against the main character causing a conflict

• allusion

• repetition of the beginning consonant sounds close together

• alliteration

• a brief story about a personally known event told to entertain or make a point

• antagonist

• reference to a well-known person, place, object, or work

• author's craft

• the "tools" or literary devices the author uses in order to develop the text in an interesting, thoughtful way

Match the following

• author's purpose

• the reason the author wrote a text

• climax

• the turning point; turns the conflict to a resolution

• conflict

• how the author reveals the characters' personalities and motivations either directly or indirectly

• connection

• match something in a story with something you know from outside the story

• characterization

• the problem that must be overcome

Match the following

• idiom

• using descriptive words and the five senses to give details about how something looks, sounds, tastes, smells, or feels

• imagery

• an expression whose meaning is different than the actual meaning of words

• hyperbole

• categories used to group different types of literary texts

• inference

• exaggeration; saying more than is actually true

• genre

• using evidence to come to a conclusion within a text

Match the following

• metaphor

• a comparison between two unlike things where one thing is another

• line

• when what is stated and what is meant goes against each other

• onomatopoeia

• rhyming that occurs within a line of poetry

• irony

• words that imitate an actual sound

• internal rhyme

• a single line of text in a poem

Match the following

• tone

• the feeling the reader gets from reading a text

• simile

• when and where the story takes place; can contribute to the mood of the story

• metaphor

• a comparison between two unlike things

• mood

• the attitude of the author in the text

• setting

• a comparison between two unlike things where one thing is another

Match the following

• theme

• when a person, place, thing, or event stands for or represents something else

• symbol

• the author's style in getting the message across

• stanza

• conflict begins to affect the characters especially the protagonist

• voice

• the central message, lesson, or overall meaning that the reader can learn from the text

• plot

• a group of lines in a poem

Match the following

• resolution

• a pattern of words with similar sounds at the end of a line of poetry

• point of view

• a word or phrase is repeated in a text for emphasis

• rhythm

• a specific pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry

• rhyme

• the loose ends of the story are tied up, so the story can end

• repetition

• the perspective from which the text is written

Match the following

• flashback

• the use of clues to hint at events that will occur later in the plot

• personification

• a past incident recurring vividly in the mind

• oxymoron

• something that is not a person given person-like qualities

• foreshadowing

• the central character of the text

• protagonist

• using words that seem to be opposite from one another

Match the following

• diction

• spoken words between two or more characters

• exposition

• the author chooses the words that convey the message off the text in a way that is clearly understood

• dialogue

• spelling, punctuation, capitalization as well as grammar and mechanics are used to convey a message

• falling action

• results of the climax are shown and the story slows down and approaches the end

• conventions

• background plot information that introduces the characters, setting, and mood

Match the following

• organization

• how the ideas, events, information, and details are arranged in a text

• mood

• the attitude of the text set by the author

• tone

• the perspective from which the text is written

• point of view

• poetry that has no specific rhyme or consistent pattern

• free verse

• the feeling a reader gets from reading a text created by the author's word choice