Academic Vocabulary

to examine a text carefully and attempt to understand the author's purpose

• irony

• analyze

• conflict

• metaphor

when a character says the opposite of what they mean

• point of view

• dramatic irony

• verbal irony

• conflict

the two opposing forces in a story such as man vs. man or man vs. nature or man vs. self

• irony

• hyperbole

• onomatopoeia

• conflict

when the audience or reader knows something the characters do not

• dramatic irony

• verbal irony

• conflict

• oxymoron

a comparison using "like" or "as"

• metaphor

• simile

• hyperbole

• irony

a paragraph or group of lines in a poem

• oxymoron

• metaphor

• irony

• stanza

a 4-line stanza in a poem

• hyperbole

• octave

• simile

• quatrain

a ten-syllable line of poetry where an unstressed syllable is followed by a stressed syllable

• sestet

• verbal irony

• onomatopoeia

• iambic pentameter

a poetic structure where certain lines rhyme with certain other lines in the poem

• rhyme scheme

• meter

• iambic pentameter

• octave

when the opposite of what you expect to happen happens

• historical context

• verbal irony

• situational irony

• metaphor