Lit Terms

A figure of speech involving a comparison between unlike things using like, as, or as though.

• simile

• metaphor

• imagery

• personification

A figure of speech involving a comparison between unlike things using “to be.”

• simile

• metaphor

• imagery

• personification

Figurative language that evokes one or more of the five senses. It includes the “mental pictures” that readers experience with a piece of literature. Uses the 5 senses (touch, taste, smell, sight, and sound)

• simile

• metaphor

• imagery

• personification

A form of figurative language in which lifelike or human qualities are given to inanimate or nonhuman objects.

• simile

• metaphor

• imagery

• personification

Hints of what is to come in the action of a play or a story.

• simile

• imagery

• personification

• foreshadowing

The lake was like a mirror

• simile

• metaphor

• imagery

• personification

It's raining cats and dogs

• simile

• metaphor

• imagery

• personification

The tree danced in the distance

• simile

• imagery

• personification

• foreshadowing

A reference in a literary work to a person, place, or thing in history or another work of literature. Many refer to:

1. The Bible 2. Shakespeare 3. Greek Myths

• allusion

• symbol

• theme

• personification

People, places, or events that have meaning in themselves but that also stand for something beyond themselves.

• allusion

• symbol

• theme

• simile