15 Literary Terms
Acronym: An abbreviation for a word such as U.S.A. which stands for the United States of America. It simplifies a word into an abbreviation making it easier to understand.
Allegory: A narrator or description that the describes the meaning, events or actions that occur in a story.
Aside: A lecture, from a character, that is said to the audience or to the reader without having other characters hear what the main character is saying. An example would be Hamlet where there are many asides from him to the audience.
Dialogue: Talking to characters in an appealing way where the reader can understand characters’ thoughts or feelings.
Foil: Is the two opposites of characters in a story. Characters who play the “good guy” and people who are the opposite the “bad guy”.
Foreshadowing: Reflecting on a past article that can be used to describe a situation. It usually takes place in the beginning of a story.
Hyperbole: An expanded statement that describes how a character feels. An example would be, “I was scared to go outside.” “I was terrified of the outdoors.”
Irony: A contradictory from of literature. An example would be a car crashing into a safe driver sign on the edge of the road. Safe driver sign, and a bad driver who takes out the sign.
Narrator: A person who reads parts of the story out loud while describing what each characters thoughts, feelings, and situations are.
Onomatopoeia: A sound that is written down inside of the text such as boom or bang.
Paradox: A statement that contradicts a line in the text. Says something positive followed by something negative. An example would be not dogs allowed. And then says only Labradors allowed.
Parallelism: A writer or author that writes specific types of writing over and over throughout a story.
Prologue: An entrance to a speech or a dialogue in a story.
Protagonist: The main character who is usually the “good guy” in the story. Most of the story has to be told about him or her, or from his or her point of view.
Satire: The literary from of using attitudes of characters or the comedy of characters in a story. It can explain how characters react to a situation.