Pre-AP Literary Terms

giving human traits to non-living things

• personification
• metaphor
• simile
• anaphora

extreme exaggeration

• litotes
• metonymy
• hyperbole
• understatement

the attitude of the speaker toward the subjects of the poem

• symbol
• tone
• anachronism
• euphony

compare 2 unlike objects using "like" or "as"

• metaphor
• simile
• hyperbole
• contrast

the fact of two things being seen or placed close together with contrasting effect

• litotes
• juxtaposition
• hyperbole
• alliteration

a reference to something else (another literary work, historical event, famous person, the Bible, Greek myths, etc).

• allusion

• hyperbole

• illusion

• hyperbola

use of words to mean something different from what a person actually says

• situational irony
• static irony
• verbal irony
• dramatic irony

a discrepancy between what is expected to happen and what actually happens

• situational irony
• static irony
• verbal irony
• dramatic irony

a "paragraph" in poetry

• verse
• stanza
• chorus
• prose

a mild or indirect word or expression substituted for one considered to be too harsh or blunt when referring to something unpleasant or embarrassing

• caesura
• hyperbole
• euphemism
• contrast