What This Glossary Offers
Complete Guide
A plain-English guide to the words readers, students, teachers, editors, and writers use to describe literature. Spans classical rhetoric, poetic craft, narrative technique, genre, critical theory, and book culture.
Why It Helps
Knowing the right term sharpens interpretation, improves analysis, and equips you to talk about how texts achieve their effects with precision and confidence.
How Entries Work
Each term includes a concise definition and, where helpful, a quick illustrative example in parentheses for immediate understanding.
How to Use
Browse A–Z, scan by domain, read actively comparing related terms, and remember that definitions favor clarity over strict technical nuance.
Categories at a Glance
Explore literary terms organized by their primary domains and applications.
Literary Domains
Narrative Craft
Point of view, structure, plot devices, characterization, style, and storytelling techniques that shape how narratives unfold.
Poetic Language
Sound patterns, meter, stanzas, fixed forms, and the musical elements that make poetry distinctive from prose.
Rhetorical Figures
Schemes and tropes from classical rhetoric that add power, beauty, and persuasion to language.
Genres & Movements
Periods, styles, national traditions, and literary movements that define different approaches to writing.
Theory & Criticism
Interpretive frameworks, schools of thought, and analytical approaches used to understand literature.
Book Culture
Forms, publication terms, textual studies, and the material aspects of how literature reaches readers.
Global Terms
Loanwords and traditions beyond English literature, embracing world literary cultures and forms.
A–Z Glossary
Comprehensive definitions of literary terms from allegory to zeugma.
A
Allegory
A story in which characters and events consistently symbolize deeper moral or political meanings (e.g., a farm standing for a revolution).
Alliteration
Repetition of initial consonant sounds (wild and whirling words).
Allusion
A brief, indirect reference to a person, place, text, or event (a "He met his Waterloo" moment).
Ambiguity
Intentional or meaningful openness to multiple interpretations (an ending that suggests two fates).
Anachronism
Something placed outside its historical time (a wristwatch in ancient Rome).
Anaphora
Repetition of a word or phrase at the start of successive clauses (I came, I saw, I conquered).
Antagonist
The character or force opposing the protagonist (the regime that the hero resists).
Anthropomorphism
Giving human traits to nonhuman entities in a literal way (a talking tree with feelings).
Antihero
A central figure lacking conventional heroic virtues (a selfish, flawed protagonist).
Aphorism
A concise statement of general truth (Actions speak louder than words).
Archetype
A recurring symbol, character type, or pattern across texts and cultures (the mentor, the journey).
Assonance
Repetition of vowel sounds (the mellow wedding bells).
Asyndeton
Omission of conjunctions for speed or emphasis (I came, I saw, I conquered).
B
Ballad
A narrative poem, often musical, with repetition and simple language (folk storytelling in verse).
Bard
A poet, traditionally one who recites epic or heroic verse (the national bard).
Bathos
Unintended or comic descent from the sublime to the trivial (from tragedy to trinkets).
Beat Poetry
Mid-20th-century American movement favoring spontaneity, jazz rhythms, and counterculture themes.
Bildungsroman
A coming-of-age novel tracing psychological and moral growth (youth to adulthood).
Blank Verse
Unrhymed iambic pentameter; the staple of much English dramatic and narrative poetry.
Burlesque
Comic imitation that exaggerates style or subject for ridicule (serious topic treated absurdly).
Byronic Hero
A brooding, rebellious, charismatic antihero marked by isolation and remorse.
C
Caesura
A pause within a poetic line (To err is human // to forgive, divine).
Canon
Works widely accepted as exemplary or foundational in a culture or period.
Canto
A major division in a long poem (epic chapters).
Catharsis
Emotional release or purification experienced through art (pity and fear in tragedy).
Chiasmus
A crisscross inversion of syntax or ideas (Ask not what your country can do for you…).
Climax
The peak of tension or turning point in a narrative.
Closed Form
Poetry that follows fixed patterns of meter and rhyme (sonnet, villanelle).
Conceit
An extended, striking metaphor linking disparate things (love compared to a compass).
Conflict
The struggle driving a narrative (character vs. character, self, society, nature, fate).
Connotation
The emotional or cultural association of a word beyond its dictionary meaning.
Consonance
Repetition of consonant sounds within or at the end of words (blank and think).
Couplet
Two successive lines of poetry that rhyme and form a unit.
Creative Nonfiction
Factual writing that uses literary techniques (memoir, literary journalism).
D
Dactyl
A metrical foot: stressed syllable followed by two unstressed (MERR-i-ly).
Denotation
The dictionary definition of a word.
Dénouement
The resolution or untying of complications after a narrative climax.
Deus ex Machina
An improbable, external solution to a plot problem (a sudden inheritance).
Dialogue
Spoken interaction between characters; reveals voice, conflict, and subtext.
Diction
Word choice; indicates tone, register, and style.
Didactic
Intended to teach, often with an explicit moral or lesson.
Dissonance
Harsh, discordant sounds or ideas for effect.
Doppelgänger
A double or mirror-self that reflects or haunts a character.
Dramatic Irony
Audience knows more than characters, producing tension or humor.
E
Elegy
A poem of mourning or meditation on loss (often lamenting a person or era).
Enjambment
The continuation of a sentence beyond a line break without a pause.
Epic
A long narrative poem of heroic deeds and national significance.
Epigraph
A brief quotation placed at a book's or chapter's beginning to suggest themes.
Epiphany
A sudden insight or illuminating realization.
Epistolary
A work composed of letters, diary entries, or emails.
Epithet
A descriptive tag attached to a name (swift-footed Achilles).
Eponym
A name that gives rise to a word (From Machiavelli → Machiavellian).
Euphemism
A mild expression for something harsh (passed away for died).
Euphony
Pleasantly harmonious sounds.
Exposition
Background information that establishes context, stakes, and setting.
F
Fabula and Sjuzhet
Story (chronological events) vs. plot (the order and manner of presentation).
Flashback
A scene set in an earlier time than the main narrative.
Foil
A character who highlights another's traits by contrast.
Foreshadowing
Hints that signal future events (ominous weather before disaster).
Frame Narrative
A story that encloses another story (a tale within a tale).
Free Indirect Discourse
Third-person narration that blends with a character's inner voice.
Free Verse
Poetry without fixed meter or rhyme, guided by natural rhythms.
Freytag's Pyramid
Dramatic structure: exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, dénouement.
G
Genre
A category defined by style, form, or subject (tragedy, romance, sci-fi).
Georgic
A poem about rural labor and agriculture (didactic pastoral).
Gothic Fiction
Literature of mystery, terror, and the supernatural in brooding settings.
Graphic Novel
A long-form narrative in comics medium.
Grotesque
The strange or distorted that provokes both empathy and revulsion.
H
Hamartia
A tragic flaw or error leading to a hero's downfall.
Hero's Journey
Archetypal pattern of departure, initiation, return (the monomyth).
Hubris
Overweening pride that invites downfall.
Hyperbaton
Unusual word order for emphasis or effect.
Hyperbole
Deliberate exaggeration (I've told you a million times).
Hypotaxis
Subordination that shows logical relationships (because, although, when).
Heteroglossia
Multiple social voices and registers coexisting within a text.
Homage
Respectful imitation or tribute to an earlier work.
I
Iamb
A metrical foot: unstressed followed by stressed (to DAY).
Idiolect
A person's unique language use (distinctive vocabulary and rhythms).
Imagery
Language that evokes sensory experience (the tang of salt air).
Imagism
Early 20th-century poetry emphasizing clarity, precision, and economy.
In Medias Res
Beginning a narrative in the middle of the action.
Intertextuality
The shaping of a text's meaning by other texts (allusion, parody, echo).
Interior Monologue
Direct presentation of a character's thoughts.
Irony
A contrast between expectation and reality (verbal, situational, dramatic).
Invocation
A poet's address to a muse or guiding spirit.
J
Jeremiad
A long, mournful lament or denunciation, often warning of moral decline.
Jargon
Specialized vocabulary of a trade or group; can exclude or clarify.
Juvenalian Satire
Bitter, scathing satire that condemns corruption or vice.
K
Kenning
A compact metaphorical compound (whale-road for sea).
Künstlerroman
A novel about an artist's development.
Kigo
The seasonal word anchoring a haiku in time.
Kireji
The "cutting word" in haiku that creates a pause or turn.
L
Lampoon
A sharp, often public satire of a person or institution.
Leitmotif
A recurring element associated with a theme or character (a signature image).
Liminality
A threshold state of transition, ambiguity, or in-betweenness.
Litotes
Affirmation by negation of the opposite (not bad for good).
Local Color
Vivid regional detail in setting, dialect, and customs.
Lyric
Short, musical poetry expressing personal feeling or thought.
M
Malapropism
Humorous misuse of words that sound similar (a nice derangement of epitaphs).
Metafiction
Fiction that draws attention to its own fictionality (a narrator who knows you're reading).
Metaphor
An implicit comparison that asserts identity (time is a thief).
Meter
The pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in verse.
Metonymy
Substitution by something closely associated (the crown for monarchy).
Mimesis
Representation or imitation of reality in art.
Minimalism
Spare style emphasizing surface detail and implication.
Mise en Abyme
A work within a work reflecting on its own structure.
Mood
The atmosphere or emotional coloring of a text.
Motif
A recurring element that supports themes (repeated images of flight).
N
Narrator
The voice that tells the story (first person, third person, omniscient, etc.).
Naturalism
Extreme realism emphasizing determinism by environment, heredity, and chance.
Non Sequitur
A statement that does not logically follow; can be comic or disorienting.
Nonfiction
Prose based on facts (history, essay, biography).
Novel of Manners
A work focused on social codes and class behavior.
Novella
A prose narrative longer than a short story, shorter than a novel.
O
Objective Correlative
Concrete set of objects/situations that evoke an emotion.
Ode
A formal, often ceremonious lyric poem addressing a person or idea.
Omniscient Narration
A narrator who knows and can reveal all characters' thoughts.
Onomatopoeia
A word that imitates a sound (buzz, hiss).
Oral Tradition
Literature preserved and transmitted by speech and memory.
Oulipo
A group exploring literature under formal constraints (lipograms, palindromes).
Oxymoron
Juxtaposed opposites that reveal paradox (deafening silence).
P
Palimpsest
A manuscript written over earlier text; metaphor for layered history.
Parable
A brief story illustrating a moral or spiritual lesson.
Paradox
An apparent contradiction that reveals a deeper truth (less is more).
Paralipsis
Calling attention to something by pretending to pass over it.
Parallelism
Repetition of syntactic structure for rhythm and emphasis.
Parataxis
Clauses placed side by side without explicit connection (I came. I saw. I left.)
Parody
Humorous imitation that critiques style, subject, or form.
Pastoral
Idealized representation of rural life and nature.
Pathetic Fallacy
Attributing human feelings to nature (angry skies).
Persona
The mask or voice adopted by a writer; distinct from the author.
Picaresque
Episodic tale of a roguish hero surviving by wit.
Plot
The causal sequence and structuring of events.
Poetic License
Intentional deviation from rules for effect.
Polysyndeton
Excessive use of conjunctions for weight and rhythm (and this and that).
Prolepsis
A flashforward; anticipating a later event.
Prose Poem
A block of prose that employs poetic language and effects.
Protagonist
The central character whose desires drive the story.
Q
Quatrain
A stanza of four lines, often with a rhyme scheme.
Quixotic
Idealistic to a fault; impractical pursuit of chivalric or impossible goals.
Quotation
Reuse of another's exact words; in literature, can be epigraphic, intertextual, or dialogic.
R
Realism
Faithful representation of everyday life without idealization.
Red Herring
A misleading clue that distracts from the truth.
Refrain
A repeated line or group of lines in a poem or song.
Rhyme
Echo of sounds, especially at line ends (exact, slant, internal).
Rhythm
The pattern of beats and pauses; the musicality of language.
Roman à Clef
A novel with real people thinly disguised as fictional characters.
Romanticism
A movement valuing emotion, imagination, and nature over rationalism.
Round Character
Complex, developed character capable of surprise.
Run-on Line
See enjambment; a line that flows past its end without pause.
S
Satire
Literature that ridicules folly or vice to provoke reform or reflection.
Scansion
Marking a poem's meter and stresses to analyze its rhythm.
Scene vs. Summary
Scene dramatizes moment-to-moment action; summary condenses time.
Sensibility
Capacity for refined feeling; an 18th-century ideal of sympathy and taste.
Sensory Detail
Concrete description appealing to sight, sound, smell, taste, touch.
Setting
Time, place, and social environment of a narrative.
Short Story
A brief, focused work of prose fiction.
Simile
A comparison using like or as (like a bridge over trouble).
Slant Rhyme
Imperfect rhyme with similar but not identical sounds.
Soliloquy
A character speaking thoughts aloud, typically alone on stage.
Sonnet
A 14-line poem in a set meter and rhyme (Petrarchan, Shakespearean, etc.).
Spondee
A metrical foot of two stressed syllables (HEARTBREAK).
Stream of Consciousness
Narrative that attempts to mimic thought's flow.
Structuralism
A theory that analyzes cultural phenomena via underlying systems and relations.
Suspense
Tension about what will happen next.
Symbol
A concrete object or element that stands for an abstract idea.
Synecdoche
A part stands for the whole or vice versa (hands for workers).
Syntax
The arrangement of words into phrases and sentences.
T
Tautology
Needless repetition of meaning (free gift).
Theme
The central, recurring idea or insight a work explores.
Thesis
A claim or argument a text advances or a critic defends.
Thriller
A genre built on high stakes, tension, and pace.
Tone
The writer's attitude toward subject or audience (wry, earnest, sardonic).
Topos
A traditional motif or common rhetorical place (carpe diem).
Tragedy
A serious drama of human suffering leading to catharsis.
Transcendentalism
19th-century American movement stressing intuition and nature.
Trochee
A metrical foot: stressed followed by unstressed (GAR-den).
Trope
A figure of speech; more broadly, a recurring narrative device.
Turning Point
Reversal of fortune or decisive shift in action (peripeteia).
Tmesis
Insertion of a word into another (abso-bloody-lutely).
U
Ubi Sunt
Lament for vanished times or people (Where are they now?).
Understatement
Deliberate downplaying for irony or restraint (It's a bit chilly in a blizzard).
Unreliable Narrator
A narrator whose account is biased, limited, or deceptive.
Utopia/Dystopia
Imagined ideal society vs. its nightmare counterpart.
Uchronia
Alternate history that explores what-if timelines.
V
Vellum
Fine parchment used in manuscripts; by extension, luxury book materiality.
Verisimilitude
The appearance of truth or plausibility in a narrative world.
Versification
The craft and analysis of verse: meter, rhyme, stanza.
Victorian Literature
Literature of the British Victorian era; often social realism and moral debate.
Villanelle
A 19-line fixed form with refrains and strict rhyme.
Vignette
A brief, evocative scene emphasizing mood over plot.
Voice
The distinct textual presence: authorial, narrative, or character.
W
Weltanschauung
A worldview shaping a text's assumptions and values.
Willing Suspension of Disbelief
Reader's provisional acceptance of the implausible for sake of story.
Wit
Quick verbal ingenuity; can be biting or playful.
Wordplay
Puns, double meanings, and playful manipulation of language.
Workshop
A collaborative setting for drafting, critique, and revision.
X
Xenofiction
A story told from a nonhuman or alien perspective.
Xenia
The classical motif of hospitality and its rituals.
Y
Yarn
A long, rambling, entertaining tale.
Yellowback
A cheap 19th-century popular novel, often sensational.
Young Adult (YA) Fiction
Fiction aimed at teen readers, often exploring identity and agency.
Yonic
Symbolic of feminine generative power (contrast: phallic).
Z
Zeitgeist
The spirit or defining mood of a historical period.
Zero Focalization
Narration with no single character's limited perspective (akin to omniscience).
Zeugma
One word governs multiple parts of a sentence, often wittily (she broke his car and his heart).
Zuihitsu
A Japanese "following the brush" essay form of associative reflections.
Key Distinctions and Common Confusions
Metaphor vs. Simile
Metaphor asserts identity; simile signals likeness with like/as.
Metonymy vs. Synecdoche
Metonymy substitutes by association; synecdoche uses part/whole.
Mood vs. Tone
Mood is the reader's felt atmosphere; tone is the author's attitude.
Story vs. Plot (Fabula vs. Sjuzhet)
Events in time vs. their artful arrangement.
Irony Types
Verbal (says opposite), situational (outcome vs. expectation), dramatic (audience knows more).
Mini-Guides by Domain
Quick reference guides organized by literary categories and techniques.
Essential Reference Guides
Narrative Technique
- Point of view: first person (I), second person (you), third person (he/she/they), limited vs. omniscient
- Time management: in medias res, flashback, flashforward (prolepsis), summary vs. scene
- Structure: frame narrative, episodic/picaresque, Freytag's pyramid, nonlinear montage
- Characterization: direct (told) vs. indirect (shown), round vs. flat, foil, arc, backstory
- Style: diction, syntax, imagery, figurative language, free indirect discourse
Poetry and Prosody
- Meter: iamb, trochee, spondee, anapest, dactyl; scansion to analyze patterns
- Sound: rhyme (exact, slant), alliteration, assonance, consonance, euphony/dissonance
- Lineation: enjambment, caesura, end-stopped lines
- Forms: sonnet, villanelle, ode, elegy, ballad, blank verse, free verse, prose poem
Rhetoric and Figures
- Tropes: metaphor, simile, metonymy, synecdoche, irony, hyperbole, litotes, paradox, oxymoron
- Schemes: anaphora, chiasmus, parallelism, asyndeton, polysyndeton, hyperbaton, tmesis
- Syntax patterns: parataxis/hypotaxis for different rhetorical effects
Genres and Movements
- Historical periods: realism, naturalism, romanticism, gothic, Victorian literature
- Forms: pastoral, georgic, satire, thriller, bildungsroman, picaresque, epistolary
- Modern movements: transcendentalism, beat poetry, imagism, Oulipo
Critical Theory and Interpretation
- Key concepts: structuralism, intertextuality, objective correlative, heteroglossia
- Patterns: archetype, mimesis, Weltanschauung, zeitgeist
- Approach tip: Use terms to name patterns you can support with textual evidence
Frequently Asked Questions
Is this glossary exhaustive?
No. It focuses on essential and widely taught terms with select global additions for comprehensive understanding.
Can I quote the examples?
Yes—these are illustrative snippets created for this glossary to demonstrate usage.
How should I cite terms in essays?
Define briefly in your own words, apply to specific passages, and explain the effect on the reader.
What if a term has competing definitions?
Note the definition you're using and, if relevant, the school of thought or context.