Literary Terms

Front

The environment or surrounding in which an event or story takes place.

Back

setting

Tags

CCSS.RL.11-12.3

CCSS.RL.6.3

CCSS.RL.7.3

CCSS.RL.8.3

CCSS.RL.9-10.3

Front

Actions, dialogue, and narrative description that reveal a sense of a character's personality to the reader.

Back

Characterization

Tags

CCSS.RL.11-12.3

CCSS.RL.7.3

CCSS.RL.8.3

CCSS.RL.9-10.3

Front

Where a writer/narrator gives an advance hint of what is going to happen later on in the story. Any event, action, dialogue or thought that gives a clue to what is going to happen.

Back

foreshadowing

Tags

CCSS.RL.9-10.5

Front

When an author interrupts the chronological sequence of a story by inserting past events. 

Back

flashback

Tags

CCSS.RL.9-10.5

Front

writing that uses like or as to compare two unlike things

Back

simile

Tags

CCSS.L.4.5A

CCSS.L.5.5A

CCSS.RL.5.4

CCSS.W.11-12.2D

Front

The moment in the story when the action reaches its greatest conflict.

Back

climax

Tags

CCSS.L.11-12.4C

CCSS.L.6.4C

CCSS.L.7.4C

CCSS.L.8.4C

CCSS.L.9-10.4C

Front

The perspective from which the story is told. Could be 1st, 2nd, or 3rd person.

Back

point of view

Tags

CCSS.L.11-12.4C

CCSS.L.6.4C

CCSS.L.7.4C

CCSS.L.8.4C

CCSS.L.9-10.4C

Front

The arrangements of events in a story

Back

plot

Tags

CCSS.RL.11-12.5

CCSS.RL.7.3

CCSS.RL.8.3

CCSS.RL.9-10.3

CCSS.RL.9-10.5

Front

writing that compares to unlike things but does not use like or as

Back

metaphor

Tags

CCSS.L.4.5A

CCSS.L.5.5A

CCSS.RL.5.4

CCSS.W.11-12.2D

Front

writing in which an inanimate object or an abstract idea is given human characteristics

Back

personification

Tags

CCSS.L.6.5A