Literary Terms and Definitions

What is the term for the repetition of sounds in nearby words or stressed syllables?

• Alliteration

• Metaphor

• Hyperbole

• Onomatopoeia

Tags

CCSS.L.4.5

CCSS.L.5.5

CCSS.L.6.5

CCSS.RL.2.4

CCSS.RL.7.4

What do you call a group of lines in a poem that share a common pattern of meter, line length, and rhyme?

• Stanza

• Verse

• Couplet

• Prose

Tags

CCSS.RL.7.4

What is a long narrative poem on a serious and exalted subject called?

• Epic Poem

• Limerick

• Haiku

• Sonnet

Tags

CCSS.L.11-12.6

CCSS.L.9-10.6

CCSS.W.11-12.2D

CCSS.W.8.2D

CCSS.W.9-10.2D

What is a word, phrase, line, or group of lines repeated at intervals in a poem called?

• Refrain

• Stanza

• Metaphor

• Couplet

Tags

CCSS.RL.2.4

CCSS.RL.7.4

What is an address to a dead or absent person or to an inanimate object or abstract concept called?

• Apostrophe

• Metaphor

• Alliteration

• Euphemism

Tags

CCSS.L.4.5

CCSS.L.5.5

CCSS.L.6.5

CCSS.RL.2.4

CCSS.RL.7.4

What is the recurring pattern of sounds that gives poems written in verse their distinctive rhythms called?

• Meter

• Stanza

• Theme

• Alliteration

Tags

CCSS.RI.11-12.4

CCSS.RI.7.4

CCSS.RI.8.4

CCSS.RI.9-10.4

CCSS.RI.9-10.4

What is an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable called?

• Iambic

• Trochaic

• Spondaic

• Dactylic

Tags

CCSS.RL.7.4

What is a word or phrase that in literal use designates one kind of thing is applied to a conspicuously different object, concept, or experience, without asserting an explicit comparison?

• Metaphor

• Simile

• Hyperbole

• Personification

Tags

CCSS.L.3.5A

CCSS.RL.3.4

What is the figure of thought (or trope) in which an abstract concept, animal, or inanimate object is treated as though it were alive or had human attributes?

• Personification

• Metaphor

• Hyperbole

• Irony

Tags

CCSS.L.11-12.6

CCSS.L.8.6

CCSS.L.9-10.6

CCSS.W.11-12.2D

CCSS.W.9-10.2D

What is the figure of thought in which the term for part of something is used to represent the whole?

• Synecdoche

• Metaphor

• Metonymy

• Irony

Tags

CCSS.RL.11-12.4