ELA Bootcamp: Literary Terms & Examples

A brief and indirect reference to a person, place, thing or idea of historical, cultural, literary or political significance is an ...

• allusion
• analogy
• cliche
• idiom

An extended metaphor is ...

• a magician trick in which they make you believe you're seeing something you're really not
• a figure of speech in which two opposite ideas are joined to create an effect
• a comparison between two unlike things that continues throughout a series of sentences in a paragraph, or lines in a poem
• technique in which two or more ideas, places, characters, and their actions are placed side by side in a narrative or a poem

A comparison in which an idea or a thing is compared to another thing that is quite different from it so for the purpose to explain that idea or thing by comparing it to something that is familiar to the reader...

• parody
• doppleganger
• assonance
• analogy

Foreshadowing is ...

• a sound device accenting the consonant sounds in words
• a literary device in which a writer gives an advance hint of what is to come later in the story
• a figure of speech in which words are used in such a way that their intended meaning is different from the actual meaning of the words
• a number, a word, a sentence, a symbol, or even signs that can be read forward as well as backward, or in reverse order with the same effects and meanings

A short and interesting story, or an amusing event, often proposed to support or demonstrate some point, and to make the audience laugh

• diction
• analogy
• anecdote
• paradox

An idiom is ...

• a set expression or a phrase comprised of two or more words that is not interpreted literally and is understood to mean something quite different from what individual words of the phrase would imply
• a figure of speech in which words are used in such a way that their intended meaning is different from the actual meaning of the words or a situation that ends up in quite a different way than what is generally anticipated 
• a figure of speech in which two opposite ideas are joined to create an effect
• a situation in which there is a mixture of harsh and inharmonious sounds

"The Rain in Spain falls mainly on the plains" is an example of ...

• parody
• irony
• assonance
• diction

A figure of speech in which words are used in such a way that their intended meaning is different from the actual meaning of the words or a situation that ends up in quite a different way than what is generally anticipated is called ...

• allusion
• paradox
• irony
• idiom

Consonance is ... 

• a literary technique in which two or more ideas, places, characters, and their actions are placed side by side in a narrative or a poem
• two or more words, close to one another repeat the same vowel sound, but start with different consonant sounds
• a situation in which there is a mixture of harsh and inharmonious sounds
• repetitive sounds produced by consonants within a sentence or phrase

A literary technique in which two or more ideas, places, characters, and their actions are placed side by side in a narrative or a poem, for the purpose of developing comparisons and contrasts

• anecdote
• juxtaposition
• parody
• palindrome