English 4 Honors Literary Terms

The essential background information at the beginning of a literary work

• Antonym

• Conflict

• Exposition

• Inferred

The development of conflict and complications in a literary work

• Rising Action

• Falling Action

• Motif

• Assonance

The turning point in a literary work

• Diction

• Conflict

• Allusion

• Climax

Results or effects of the climax of a literary work

• Falling Action

• Allegory

• Aside

• Characterization

End of a literary work when loose ends are tied up and questions are answered

• Denotation

• Genre

• Resolution/Denouement

• Connotation

An extended metaphor, where the entire story or poem has a secondary symbolic meaning

• Mood

• Allusion

• Motif

• Allegory

Repetition of the initial consonant sounds of words: “Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers”

• Oxymoron

• Alliteration

• Stereotype

• Onomatopoeia

A reference to something well-known that exists outside the literary work

• Allusion

• Satire

• Inferred

• Suspense

Character that is the source of conflict in a literary work

• Plot

• Antagonist

• Objective Summary

• Rhyme

A word opposite in meaning to another

• Figurative Language

• Metaphor

• Imagery

• Antonym