Literary Terms Quiz

What is the term for a direct and specific meaning, often referred to as the dictionary definition of a word?

• Metaphor

• Connotation

• Denotation

• Allusion

Which term describes a poem that celebrates the achievements of mighty heroes and heroines?

• Ode

• Elegy

• Epic

• Sonnet

What is the term for a play or scene characterized by broad humor and wild antics?

• Drama

• Satire

• Tragedy

• Farce

Which term refers to the continuation of a sentence from one line of a poem to the next?

• Enjambment

• Alliteration

• Assonance

• Consonance

What is the term for a recurrent device or situation that signals the appearance of a character or event?

• Irony

• Theme

• Motif

• Symbolism

Which term describes a figure of speech that combines two apparently contradictory elements?

• Paradox

• Oxymoron

• Metaphor

• Simile

What is the term for the repetition of the same or similar sounds, most often at the ends of lines?

• Cadence

• Meter

• Rhythm

• Rhyme

Which term refers to a short fiction that illustrates an explicit moral lesson through analogy?

• Myth

• Allegory

• Fable

• Parable

What is the term for the use of similar forms in writing for nouns, verbs, phrases, or thoughts?

• Narrative Structure

• Diction

• Syntax

• Parallel Structure

Which term describes the practice in literature of attempting to describe nature and life without idealization?

• Modernism

• Surrealism

• Realism

• Romanticism