STAAR English II: Literary Devices and Figures of Speech

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. alliteration
    use of the same consonant at the beginning of each word
  2. allusion
    passing reference or indirect mention
  3. ambiguity
    unclearness by virtue of having more than one meaning
  4. assonance
    the repetition of similar vowels in successive words
  5. consonance
    the repetition of sounds especially at the ends of words
  6. dramatic irony
    when the audience understands something the characters don't
  7. figurative
    not literal
  8. hyperbole
    extravagant exaggeration
  9. imagery
    the use of vivid sensory language in literature
  10. irony
    incongruity between what might be expected and what occurs
  11. metaphor
    a figure of speech that suggests a non-literal similarity
  12. motif
    a recurrent element in a literary or artistic work
  13. overstatement
    exaggeration of the importance or extent of something
  14. oxymoron
    conjoined contradictory terms
  15. paradox
    a statement that contradicts itself
  16. personification
    attributing human characteristics to abstract ideas
  17. repetition
    the continued use of the same word or word pattern
  18. rhetorical question
    an inquiry that is not supposed to be answered
  19. sarcasm
    witty language used to convey insults or scorn
  20. satire
    a literary genre that uses humor to ridicule human failings and vices
  21. simile
    a figure of speech expressing a resemblance between things
  22. situational irony
    incongruity between what happens and what was expected
  23. symbolism
    the practice of investing things with arbitrary meaning
  24. understatement
    something said in a restrained way for ironic contrast
  25. verbal irony
    a contrast between the intended and literal meanings
Created on Tue May 25 15:58:53 EDT 2021 (updated Tue May 25 15:59:37 EDT 2021)

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