Literary Devices & Terms (with Examples)

Both compare unlike things. A simile uses “like” or “as” (“brave as a lion”); a metaphor says one thing is another (“time is a thief”).

Personification

Hyperbole

Understatement

Alliteration: repeated beginning consonant sounds (“Peter Piper picked”). Assonance: repeated vowel sounds (“the rain in Spain”). Consonance: repeated consonant sounds anywhere, often at the end (“pitter-patter”).

Onomatopoeia

Oxymoron

A statement that seems contradictory but reveals a truth, such as “Less is more.”

Verbal: saying the opposite of what you mean (“Lovely weather,” in a storm) Situational: the opposite of what's expected happens Dramatic: the audience knows something a character doesn't

Foreshadowing

Flashback

In medias res

A brief reference to a well-known person, place, event or work, such as calling someone “a Romeo.”

Imagery

A symbol is an object that stands for an idea (the green light in The Great Gatsby). A motif is a recurring image or idea. A theme is the central message about life the work explores.

Juxtaposition

Synecdoche uses a part for the whole (“all hands on deck”). Metonymy uses something closely associated (“the Crown” for the monarchy, “the White House” for the president).

Anaphora

Chiasmus

Directly addressing someone absent or dead, or something nonhuman: “O Death, where is thy sting?”

Euphemism

Enjambment: a sentence runs over the end of a line of poetry without a pause. Caesura: a pause in the middle of a line, often marked by punctuation.

A line of five iambs (unstressed-stressed pairs), ten syllables: “Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?”

Foil

A narrator whose account can't be fully trusted because of bias, ignorance or deception, such as Holden Caulfield or the narrator of “The Tell-Tale Heart.”

First person: “I” tells the story. Third limited: an outside narrator follows one character's thoughts. Third omniscient: an outside narrator knows everyone's thoughts.

Exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution (denouement)

Tone is the author's attitude toward the subject; mood is the feeling the text creates in the reader.