NORTHEASTERN COLLEGE

Santiago City, Isabela

College of Education

DICTIORARY
Contemporary, Popular
& Emergent List

Presented by:
Bondoc, Cyra Mae
Bartolome, Rochelle
Bartolome, Karyl Neshel A.
Baristol, Kristine N.
Castillo, Arjay
Capendian, Shechinah A.
Mendoza, Nickson D.
Tablang, Erlyn Mhae A.

ENG24 – D072
Aa
Auditory Imagery
 Form of mental imagery that is used to
organize and analyze sounds when there is
no external auditory stimulus present.
Abbreviation / əˌbrēvēˈāSH(ə)n / noun
Author / ˈôTHər/ noun
 A shortened form of a written word or
phrase used in place of the whole word or  The creator or originator of any written
phrase work such as a book or play, and is also
considered a writer or poet.
Allegory /ˈaləˌɡôrē/ noun
 A story, poem, or picture that can be
interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning,
typically a moral or political one.
Alliteration / əˌlidəˈrāSH(ə)n/ noun
Bb
 The repetition of usually initial consonant Back Story /ˈbakˌstôrē/ noun
sounds in two or more neighboring words  A set of events invented for a plot,
or syllables (such as wild and woolly, presented as preceding and leading up to
threatening throngs). that plot.
Anaphora / ə-ˈna-f(ə-)rə / noun
Ballad Stanza / noun
 The repetition of words or phrases in a  The four-line stanza, known as a quatrain,
group of sentences, clauses, or poetic most often found in the folk ballad. This
lines. form consists of alternating four- and
three-stress lines. Usually only the second-
Antimetabole
and fourth-lines rhyme.
 Figure of emphasis in which the words in
Baroque /bəˈrōk/ adjective
one phrase or clause are replicated, exactly
or closely, in reverse grammatical order in  a style of writing that is extravagant,
the next phrase or clause; an inverted order heavily ornamented, and/or bizarre. A term
of repeated words in adjacent phrases or more commonly used to characterize the
clauses (A-B, B-A). visual arts and music, baroque (sometimes
capitalized) can also refer to a highly
Antithesis /anˈtiTHəsəs/ noun
ornate style of prose or poetry.
 Used in writing or speech either as a Bathos
proposition that contrasts with or reverses
 A sudden change in speech or writing from
some previously mentioned proposition, or
a serious or important subject to a
when two opposites are introduced
ridiculous or very ordinary one.
together for contrasting effect. This is
based on the logical phrase or term.
Beast Fable
Apostrophe /əˈpästrəfē/ noun  A prose or verse fable or short story that
usually has a moral.
 A punctuation mark, and sometimes a
diacritical mark, in languages that use the
Binary Opposition
Latin alphabet and some other alphabets.
 A system that authors use to explore
Assonance /ˈasənəns/ noun differences between groups of individuals,
such as cultural, class or gender
 In poetry, the repetition of the sound of a differences.
vowel or diphthong in nonrhyming
stressed syllables near enough to each Biography /bīˈäɡrəfē/ noun
other for the echo to be discernible (e.g.,
penitence, reticence).
  A written account of one person's life Climax Literary
authored by another person.
 The moment in a play, novel, short story,
or narrative poem at which the crisis
Bildungsroman/ bildo͝oNGzrōˌmän/ noun
reaches its point of greatest intensity and is
 A literary genre that focuses on the
thereafter resolved. It is also the peak of
psychological and moral growth of the
emotional response from a reader or
protagonist from childhood to adulthood,
spectator and usually the turning point in
in which character change is important.
the action
Blank Verse /ˈˌblaNGk ˈvərs/ noun Comic Opera /ˈˌkämik ˈäp(ə)rə/ noun
 Literary term that refers to poetry written
 An outgrowth of the eighteenth-century
in unrhymed but metered lines, almost
ballad operas, in which new or original
always iambic pentameter.
music is composed specially for the lyrics.
Burlesque /ˌbərˈlesk/ noun Conflict /ˈkänˌflikt/ noun
 An absurd or comically exaggerated
 The opposition between two characters
imitation of something, especially in a
(such as a protagonist and an antagonist),
literary or dramatic work; a parody.
between two large groups of people, or
between the protagonist and a larger

Cc
problem such as forces of nature, ideas,
public mores, and so on.
Consonance /ˈkänsənəns/ noun
 A special type of alliteration in which the
Catastrophe /kəˈtastrəfē/ noun repeated pattern of consonants is marked
 The "turning downward" of the plot in a by changes in the intervening vowels--i.e.,
classical tragedy. By tradition, the the final consonants of the stressed
catastrophe occurs in the fourth act of the syllables match each other but the vowels
play after the climax differ.

Character /ˈkerəktər/ noun Creative Non-Fiction

 Any representation of an individual being  It is focused on story, meaning it has a

presented in a dramatic or narrative work narrative plot with an inciting moment,
through extended dramatic or verbal rising action, climax and denoument, just
representation. The reader can interpret like fiction.
characters as endowed with moral and
dispositional qualities expressed in what
they say (dialogue) and what they do
(action).
Chiasmus /kīˈazməs/ noun
Dd
 A literary scheme in which the author Dactyl /ˈdaktl/ noun
introduces words or concepts in a
 A three-syllable foot consisting of a heavy
particular order, then later repeats those
stress and two light stresses. Verses
terms or similar ones in reversed or
written in feet that follow this pattern are
backwards order.
said to be in dactylic meter.
Classical /ˈklasək(ə)l/ adjective
Death poem
 The term in Western culture is usually
 A poem written near the time of one's own
used in reference to the art, architecture,
death. It is a tradition for literate people to
drama, philosophy, literature, and history
surrounding the Greeks and Romans.
 write one in a number of different cultures, monologues and soliloquies both reveal
especially in Korea. the speaker's innermost thoughts and
feelings.

Ee
Decorum /dəˈkôrəm/ noun
 The requirement that individual characters,
the characters' actions, and the style of
speech should be matched to each other
and to the genre in which they appear. Ekphrasis /ˈek-frə-səs/ noun

Detective novel / noun  A vivid, graphic, or dramatic written

commentary or description of another
 A mystery novel focusing on a brilliant visual form of art.
investigator--often a detective--solving a
crime. Enjambment /en-jam-muh nt, -jumb-/ noun

Dialogue /ˈdīəˌläɡ,ˈdīəˌlôɡ/ noun  The continuing of a syntactic unit over the

end of a line. Enjambment occurs when
 The lines spoken by a character or the sense of the line overflows the meter
characters in a play, essay, story, or novel, and line break.
especially a conversation between two
characters, or a literary work that takes the Enthymeme /ˈenTHəˌmēm/ noun
form of such a discussion.  An enthymeme is a kind of syllogism, or
Diction /ˈdikSH(ə)n/ noun logical deduction, in which one of the
premises is unstated.
 The choice of a particular word as opposed
to others. The word choice a writer makes Epigram /ˈepəˌɡram/ noun
determines the reader's reaction to the  An epigram is a short but insightful
object of description, and contributes to statement, often in verse form, which
the author's style and tone. communicates a thought in a witty,
Diphthong /ˈdifˌTHäNG,ˈdipˌTHäNG/ noun paradoxical, or funny way.

 A complex speech sound in which a Episode /ˈepəˌsōd/ noun

speaker begins to articulate one vowel and  A scene involving the actors' dialogue and
moves to another vowel or semi-vowel action rather than the chorus's singing, or
sound by switching the position of tongue sections of such scenes in a Classical
and lips. Greek tragedy. Divisions separating the
Doublet /ˈdəblət/ noun episodes were called stasima. During the
stasima, the chorus sang. Note that Greek
 In linguistics, a pair of words that derive tragedies were performed without any
from the same etymon, but since they were breaks or intermissions.
adapted at different times or by different
routes, take on two different meanings. Epistrophe /əˈpistrəfē/ noun

Drama /ˈdrämə/ noun  Epistrophe is when a certain phrase or

word is repeated at the end of sentences or
 A composition in prose or verse clauses that follow each other. This
presenting, in pantomime and dialogue, a repetition creates a rhythm while
narrative involving conflict between a emphasizing the repeated phrase.
character or characters and some external Epistrophe is also known as epiphora and
or internal force (conflict). antistrophe.
Dramatic monologue Ernesto Degumbis Lariosa (1944-2019)
 A poem where the poet addresses the  Ernesto also known as Nyor Erning, was a
reader or an internal listener. Dramatic Filipino Visayan writer, poet, and
 columnist from Cebu, Philippines and a chronological narrative to a scene in the
three-time Palanca awardee in Cebuano past.
short story.
 In 2003, he was recognized by the Cebu
City government as the "Vanguard of
Cebuano Literature".
Foil /ˈfȯi(-ə)l/ noun
Etymology /ˌedəˈmäləjē/ noun
 A character that serves by contrast to
 Etymology is the investigation of word highlight or emphasize opposing traits in
histories. Every word in every language another character. For instance, in the film
has a unique origin and history; words can Chasing Amy, the character Silent Bob is a
be born in many ways, and often their foil for his partner, Jay, who is loquacious
histories are quite adventurous and and foul-mouthed.
informative.
 In Shakespeare's Hamlet, Laertes the
Existentialism /ˌeɡzəˈsten(t)SHəˌlizəm/ noun
unthinking man of action is a foil to the
 Writing from an existentialist viewpoint, intelligent but reluctant Hamlet. The angry
often pointing out the absurdity and hothead Hotspur in Henry IV, Part I, is the
meaninglessness of existence foil to the cool and calculating Prince Hal.
Exposition /ˌekspəˈziSH(ə)n/ noun Folktale /ˈfōk ˌtāl/ noun

 A narrative device, often used at the  Folktales are stories passed along from one
beginning of a work that provides generation to the next by word-of-mouth
necessary background information about rather than by a written text. See further
the characters and their circumstances. discussion under folklore.
Foreshadowing /fôrˈSHadō/ verb

Ff
 Foreshadowing gives the audience hints or
signs about the future. It suggests what is
to come through imagery, language, and/or
symbolism.
Feminine rhyme /ˈfe-mə-nən / ˈrīm/noun Francisco Balagtas y de la Cruz (1788-1862)
 A rhyme with two syllables. One is  He’s commonly known as Francisco
stressed, one is unstressed. Examples: Balagtas and also as Francisco Baltasar,
“Merry”, “Coffee”. was a Filipino Tagalog litterateur and poet
Fragment /ˈfraɡmənt/ noun during the Spanish colonial period of the
Philippines. He is widely considered one
 an incomplete idea punctuated as a of the greatest Filipino literary laureates
complete sentence. for his impact on Filipino literature.
Free writing /ˈfrē-ˈrī-tiŋ/ noun Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky (1821-1881)
 a pre-writing technique in which a writer  Dostoyevsky was a Russian novelist,
quickly jots down as many ideas on a topic journalist, short story writer, philosopher
as possible. and essayist. His literary works explore
psychology in the political, social, and
Free verse /ˈfrē / ˈvərs/ noun
spiritual turmoil of 19th-century Russia.
 A poem written without rhythm and His writings reveal a wide range of
rhyme. philosophical and religious themes.
Flashback /ˈflaSHˌbak/ noun
 Flashback is a device that moves an
audience from the present moment in a
 characterized by gloom, mystery, and
grotesque.

Gg Grammar /ˈgra-mər/ noun

Genre /ˈZHänrə/ noun  The system of rules that provides

definition and structure to a given
 A genre is a category of literature language.
identified by form, content, and style.
Genres allow literary critics and students Grammatical Function
to classify compositions within the larger  A category for words in inflected
canon of literature. languages--typical examples include
Geoffrey Chaucer (1343-1400) aspect, mood, and tense for verbs; person
and case for pronouns; case and
 Geoffrey Chaucer stands as the great giant definiteness for articles, and number, case,
of English poetry. His verse is still read and gender for nouns.
and enjoyed today and often adapted for
theatre performances. It is full of Gloss /ˈglȯs/ noun
characters, still recognisable as types we  A gloss (from Latin: glossa, from Greek:
encounter in daily life in spite of having γλῶσσα glóssa "tongue") is a brief
been inspired by people. notation of the meaning of a word or
Gemination /ˈje-mə-nət/ adjective wording in a text. It may be in the
language of the text, or in the reader's
 In linguistics, the doubling of a consonant language if that is different.
sound under certain conditions, a trait
common in Germanic languages including Gustave Flaubert (1821-1880)
English. An example of gemination in  Flaubert was a French novelist, most
English is the way the /t/ doubles in the notable for being the leading exponent of
word hot when we add the -er suffix for literary realism in French literature. He is
the comparative form of hotter known particularly for Madam Bovary
Gerund /ˈjerənd/ noun (1857). Flaubert’s influence on subsequent
novels is vast.
 a noun form from the present participle of
a verb (ending in -ing).
Genetic Fallacy
 The literary term genetic fallacy is a fault
caused due to irrelevance. Genetic fallacy
Hh
is when the conclusion of any literature
Haibun
seems irrelevant with reference to the
expected flow. The premise of the  Haibun is a poetry form that combines a
conclusion is based on the origin and not haiku with a prose poem. Haibun prose is
the present scenario. usually descriptive. It uses sparse, poetic
imagery to evoke a sensory impression in
Gothic Novel
the reader.
 Gothic novels are novels having stories
Hagiography /ˌhaɡēˈäɡrəfē,ˌhāɡēˈäɡrəfē/ noun
that belong to the Gothic fiction or horror
genre. Gothic, as a genre, is defined as  Hagiography is the study of saints. It refers
belonging to the Middle Ages, old- literally to writings on the subject of such
fashioned, unenlightened, and holy people, and specifically the
biographies of ecclesiastical and secular
 Ii
leaders. Hagiography and the use of it in
modern literature, is fairly uncommon.
Haiku /ˈhī-(ˌ)kü/ noun
 A haiku is a specific type of Japanese
poem which has 17 syllables divided into Ideograph /ˈidēəˌɡraf,ˈīdēəˌɡraf/ noun
three lines of 5, 7, and 5 syllables.  A logograph or ideogram is a written sign
Hamartia /ˌhämärˈtēə/ noun system in which a single mark or set of
marks conveys a whole word or concept.
 Hamartia is the tragic flaw or error that
reverses a protagonist’s fortune from good Ideology / ˌīdēˈäləjē,ˌidēˈäləjē/ noun
to bad.  An ideology is a set of ideas that
Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875) constitutes one's goals, expectations, and
actions. The main purpose behind an
 Hans Christian Andersen was a Danish ideology is to offer either change in
playwright, travel writer, poet, novelist society, or adherence to a set of ideals
and story writer. His fairy tales place him where conformity already exists, through a
as one of the world’s greatest writers ever. normative thought process.
Written basically for children they
transcend age barriers because of their Idiolect /ˈidēəˌlekt/ noun
universal nature.  The language or speech pattern unique to
Herman Melville (1819-1891) one individual at a particular period of his
or her life.
 Melville was an American writer of
novels, short stories and poems. He is best Idiom /ˈidēəm/ noun
known for the novel Moby-Dick and a  The word idiom is often used as a
romantic account of his experiences in synonym for dialect or idiolect. In its more
Polynesian life, Typee. scholarly and narrow sense, an idiom or
Homer (850 BCE) idiomatic expression refers to a
construction or expression in one language
 Homer is the legendary author to whom that cannot be matched or directly
the authorship of the Iliad and the Odyssey translated word-for-word in another
is attributed. He is regarded as one of the language.
greatest and most influential authors of all
time. Imagery /ˈimij(ə)rē/ noun

Homophones /ˈhäməˌfōn,ˈhōməˌfōn/ noun  Imagery is used in literature to refer to

descriptive language that evokes sensory
 Pairs of words that sound the same as each experience. Visual imagery is perhaps the
other yet have different meanings and most frequently used form.
different spellings, such as hear/here
Impressionism \ im-ˈpre-shə-ˌni-zəm \ noun
Hyperbaton /hīˈpərbəˌtän/ noun
 Impressionism was a 19th-century art
 Hyperbaton is a figure of speech in which movement that began as a loose
the typical, natural order of words is association of Paris-based artists whose
changed as certain words are moved out of independent exhibitions brought them to
order. prominence in the 1870s and 1880s. The
Hypotactic / ˌhī-pə-ˈtak-tik/ adjective name of the movement is derived from the
title of a Claude Monet work, Impression,
 A term where different subordinate clauses Sunrise (Impression, soleil levant), which
are used in a sentence to qualify a single provoked the critic Louis Leroy to coin the
verb, or modify it. term in a satiric review published in Le
Charivari.
Inference /ˈinf(ə)rəns/ noun Jane Austen
 Inference is the act of drawing a  Was an English author best known for her
conclusion by deductive reasoning from six major novels, which interpret the
given facts. The conclusion drawn is also British landed gentry at the end of the 18th
called an inference. The laws of valid century. Born into a large and close-knit
inference are studied in the field of logic. family that belonged to the lower fringes
of the English gentry, she wrote what she
Innuendo /ˌinyəˈwendō/ noun
had seen and experienced.
 Innuendo is unfounded speculation.
Jargon
Allusion can also be a derogatory
statement or inquiry (called innuendo).  Potentially confusing words and phrases
used in an occupation, trade, or field of
Intertextuality
study. We might speak of medical jargon,
 Intertextuality is the shaping of texts' sports jargon, pedagogic jargon, police
meanings by other texts. It can include an jargon, or military jargon, for instance.
author's borrowing and transformation of a
John Green
prior text or to a reader's referencing of
one text in reading another.  An American author, vlogger, producer,
and editor. He is the New York Times’
Intonation /ˌin(t)əˈnāSH(ə)n/ noun
bestselling author of the novels ‘Looking
 Patterns of pitch in sentences or term used for Alaska,’ ‘An Abundance of
to describe words that illustrate or reveal Katherines,’ ‘Paper Towns,’ and ‘The
cultural ideology, collective thought, and a Fault in Our Stars.’ His books have been
system of ideals and ideas. translated and published in more than 55
languages, and over 24 million copies have
been printed.

Jj
John Locke
 Was a 17th century English philosopher
and physician known as the "Father of
Classical Liberalism". Counted amongst
J. K. Rowling the most influential of Enlightenment
thinkers, he was the first to define the self
 A British author and philanthropist. She
through a continuity of consciousness.
wrote a seven-volume children's fantasy
series, Harry Potter, published from 1997 Joyce Meyer
to 2007.
 Her books have helped millions of people
J.R.R. Tolkien find hope and restoration in Jesus Christ
and her programmed commits at
 English writer, philologist, and academic.
redeeming the words of Jesus Christ by
What started as a bedtime story, which he
helping people inculcate them in their life
narrated to his children, ‘The Hobbit’
became an award-winning novel, with Juvenile
hundreds of millions of fans from across
 Publishers use the term juvenile or
the world.
children's literature to designate books
Jack Kirby suitable for children, though Joseph
Shipley reminds us these are "not
 An American comic-book artist who
necessarily childish books". Typically, the
created innumerable original characters,
main character is either a child or a
such as ‘The Incredible Hulk,’ ‘Captain
character with which a child can identify,
America,’ and ‘The Fantastic Four.’ Born
the themes are aimed at children (and often
and raised in the US, he was a self-taught
didactic in nature), and the vocabulary or
artist.
 sentence structure is simple enough for particular genre, he diversified his work
young readers to grasp readily. blending unthinkable categories such as
science fiction with humor, social
commentary with absurdity and so on.
Kuznitsa
 The "Smithy Poets" of Russia.

Kk Ll
Kaidan
Lai (plural lais, also spelled lay)
 Traditional Japanese ghost stories,
especially folktales from the Edo period.  A short narrative or lyrical poem, usually
in octosyllabic couplets, intended to be
Katherine Schwarzenegger
sung.
 An American author. She is also
Legend /ˈlejənd/ noun
recognized as the elder daughter of author
and journalist Maria Shriver and actor  Is a narrative of human actions that
Arnold Schwarzenegger. She is also a perceived both by teller and listener to take
member of the famed Kennedy family; she places within human history
is the great-niece of the 35th US President
John F. Kennedy. Leo Tokstoy

Khalil Gibran  An author of a literary piece entitled Anna

Karening.
 Was a Lebanese painter, poet, essayist and
philosopher. Born in an isolated village in Limerick /ˈlim(ə)rik/ noun
Mount Lebanon Mutasarrifate, he was  Is a five lines poem with strict rhyme
destined to spend most of his life away scheme.
from his beloved motherland. As he turned
twelve, his mother took them to the USA, Lingo /ˈliNGɡō/ noun
where he started his formal education.  Is language or vocabulary that is specific
Kigo to a certain subject

 Japanese haiku "season-word" The kigo Linguistic /liNGˈɡwistik/ adjective

must be in the haiku's words or picture.  Addresses the ways in which language is
These phrases set the haiku in a certain differently organized in verbal art.
month or season while keeping brevity.
Literary Device
 Japanese poetry books are split by season,
with Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter, and  Technique used to help author achieve his
New Year's added to Europe's four. or her purpose.

Kinesics Litotes

 In linguistics, the analysis of how body  Is an understatement in which positive

movements can communicate meaning. statement expressed by negative its
opposite.
Kurt Vonnegut
Lullaby /ˈlələˌbī/ noun
 Was one of the most influential American
novelists of the 20th century who brought  A song written for children, especially a
about a phenomenal distinction in calming one designed to help an infant go
literature. Instead of sticking to a to sleep. The genre is often marked by
trimeter or duple meter in its metrical line,
 repetition, soothing euphony, and simple  Any elegy or dirge represented as the
diction. utterance of a single speaker. Compare
with dramatic monologue.
Lyric poetry
Monologue /ˈmänəlˌôɡ,ˈmänəlˌäɡ/ noun
 Presents the deep feelings and emotions of
the poet as opposed to poetry that tells a  An interior monologue does not
story or presents a witty observation. necessarily represent spoken words, but
rather the internal or emotional thoughts or
feelings of an individual.

Mm Monostich
 A single verse also: a poem of one verse.
Motif /mōˈtēf/ noun
Malapropism /ˈmaləˌpräp/ noun
 A conspicuous recurring element, such as
 Are incorrected words used in place of a type of incident, a device, a reference, or
correct words these can be unintentional or verbal formula, which appears frequently
intentional but, both cases have a comedic in works of literature.
effect.
Maxim /ˈmaksəm/ noun
 Is a brief statement that contains a little
piece of wisdom. A proverb, a short, pithy
statement or aphorism believed to contain
Nn
wisdom or insight into human nature.
Narrative /ˈnerədiv/ noun
Memoir /ˈmemˌwär/ noun
 Narration is the act of telling a sequence of
 An autobiographical sketch--especially events, often in chronological order.
one that focuses less on the author's Alternatively, the term refers to any story,
personal life or psychological development whether in prose or verse, involving
and more on the notable people and events events, characters, and what the characters
the author has encountered or witnessed. say and do.
 The memoir contrasts with a diary or
Narrator /ˈnerādər/ noun
journal, i.e., the memoir is not an informal
daily record of events in a person's life, it  The "voice" that speaks or tells a story.
is not necessarily written for personal Some stories are written in a first-person
pleasure, and the author of such memoir point of view, in which the narrator's voice
has in mind the ultimate goal of is that of the point-of-view character.
publication.
Nemesis /ˈneməsəs/ noun
Myth /miTH/ noun
 is an enemy, often a villain
 A myth is a traditional tale of deep cultural
significance to a people in terms of Neologism /nēˈäləˌjizəm/ noun
etiology, eschatology, ritual practice, or  New word or phrase that is not used
models of appropriate and inappropriate regularly by most speakers and writers.
behavior.
Nine Worthies
Monodrama /ˈmäːnədräːmə/ noun
 Mythological, legendary, biblical or
 Is a theatrical or operatic piece played by a historical personages alluded to in
single actor or singer, usually portraying literature because of their heroic qualities.
one character.
Noble Savage /ˈnōbəl ˈsavij/ noun
Monody /ˈmänədē/ noun
  An idealized concept of uncivilized man,  The Athenian comedies dating to 400-499
who symbolizes the innate goodness of BCE, featuring invective, satire, ribald
one not exposed to the corrupting humor, and song and dance.
influences of civilization.
Olfactory Imagery
Non-Fiction /ˌnänˈfikSH(ə)n/ noun
 Since taste and smell are so closely linked,
 Broad genre of writing that encompasses you'll sometimes find the same words
all books that aren't rooted in a fictional (such as “sweet”) used to describe both.
narrative.
Onomatopoeia
 The use of sounds that are similar to the
Novelette /ˌnävəˈlet/ noun noise they represent for a rhetorical or
artistic effect.
 Prose work shorter than a novel but longer
than a short story.  For instance, buzz, click, rattle, and grunt
make sounds akin to the noise they
Novella /nəˈvelə/ noun
represent. A higher level of onomatopoeia
 Short prose tale that often has satire and a is the use of imitative sounds throughout a
moral sentence to create an auditory effect.
Novels /ˈnävəl/ noun Open Poetic Form
 In its broadest sense, a novel is any  A poem of variable length, one which can
extended fictional prose narrative focusing consist of as many lines as the poet wishes
on a few primary characters but often to write.
involving scores of secondary characters.
Open Syllable
The fact that it is in prose helps distinguish
it from other lengthy works like epics.  Any syllable ending in a vowel, like the
word tree.
Orthography /ôrˈTHäɡrəfē/ noun

Oo  The linguistic term for a writing system

that represents the sounds or words of a
particular languages by making visible
marks on some surface. A systematic
Occasional Poem method of spelling.
 A poem written or recited to Oxymoron /ˌäksəˈmôrˌän/ noun
commemorate a specific event such as a
wedding, an anniversary, a military victory  Using contradiction in a manner that oddly
or failure, a funeral, a holiday, or other makes sense on a deeper level. Simple or
notable date. joking examples include such oxymora as
jumbo shrimp, sophisticated rednecks, and
Ode /ōd/ noun military intelligence.
 A long, often elaborate stanzaic poem of
varying line lengths and sometimes

Pp
intricate rhyme schemes dealing with a
serious subject matter and treating it
reverently.
Off Rhyme
Palinode /ˈpaləˌnōd/ noun
 In poetry, another term for inexact rhyme.
 A poem, song, or section of a poem or
Old Comedy
song in which the poet renounces or
retracts his words in an earlier work.
 Usually this is meant to apologize or Phonology /fəˈnäləjē/ noun
counterbalance earlier material.
 The units of sound (phonemes) of a
Pantheon /ˈpanTHēˌän,ˈpanTHēən/ noun language with their possible arrangements
and varieties of vocal expression". More
 A pantheon is a collective term for all the
generally, the study of sounds and sound-
gods believed to exist in a particular
systems in a language.
religious belief or mythos.
Pidgin /ˈpijən/ noun
Parable /ˈperəb(ə)l/ noun
 A simplified, limited language combining
 A story or short narrative designed to
features from many languages and used
reveal allegorically some religious
among persons who share no common
principle, moral lesson, psychological
language amongst themselves.
reality, or general truth.
Paradigmatic Change
Poetry /ˈpōətrē/ noun
 In linguistics, these are language changes
brought about because a sound or a word  A variable literary genre characterized by
was associated with a different sound or rhythmical patterns of language. These
word. patterns typically consist of patterns of
meter (regular patterns of high and low
Paradox /ˈperəˌdäks/ noun
stress), syllabification (the number of
 Using contradiction in a manner that oddly syllables in each line of text), rhyme,
makes sense on a deeper level. Common alliteration, or combinations of these
paradoxes seem to reveal a deeper truth elements.
through their contradictions, such as
Prose /prōz/ noun
noting that "without laws, we can have no
freedom."  Any material that is not written in a
regular meter like poetry. Many modern
Paralanguage /ˈparəˌlaNGɡwij/ noun
genres such as short stories, novels, letters,
 The non-verbal features that accompany essays, and treatises are typically written
speech and help convey meaning. For in prose.
example, facial expression, gesticulation,
body stance, and tone can help convey

Qq
additional meaning to the spoken word;
these are all examples of communication
through paralanguage.
Parody /ˈperədē/ noun
 A parody imitates the serious manner and Quadrivium /kwäˈdrivēəm/ noun
characteristic features of a particular  The study of arithmetic, astronomy,
literary work in order to make fun of those geometry, and music, which formed the
same features. basis of a master's degree in medieval
Phonetic Transcription education, as opposed to the trivium, the
study of grammar, logic, and rhetoric,
 Written symbols that linguists use to which in medieval education formed the
represent speech sounds. One common basis of a bachelor's degree.
transcription system is the IPA
(International Phonetic Alphabet). Qualitative Change

Phonetics /fəˈnediks/ noun  In linguistics, an alteration in the

perceived quality of a sound or the basic
 The study of phonemes, or units of sound nature of a sound.
in spoken language.
Qualitative Meter:
  Meter that relies on patterns of heavily mark reconstructions by placing an
stress syllables and lightly stressed meters. asterisk in front of them.
In English, most poems are qualitative in
 This marks them as a hypothetical word.
nature.
For instance, the Indo-European word
Quantitative Change: *ekwos--which developed into equus in
Latin, ech in Old Irish, and eoh in Old
 In linguistics, an alteration in the length of
English, is a reconstruction.
a sound--particularly vowel sounds.
Repertory / ˈrepərtɔːrɪ / noun
 A number of plays an acting company had
prepared for performance at any given
time.
Rhetoric /ˈredərik/ noun
 The art of persuasive argument through
writing or speech--the art of eloquence and
Quatrain /ˈkwäˌtrān/ noun
charismatic language. A lengthier
 Also sometimes used interchangeably with discussion can be found under the rhetoric
"stave," a quatrain is a stanza of four lines, link.
often rhyming in an ABAB pattern. Three
Rhyme Scheme / raɪm skiːm / noun
quatrains form the main body of a
Shakespearean or English sonnet along  The pattern of rhyme. The traditional way
with a final couplet. to mark these patterns of rhyme is to
assign a letter of the alphabet to each
Quest Motif
rhyming sound at the end of each line.
 A motif in which the hero must undergo an
Rhythm / ˈrɪðəm / noun
arduous or dangerous journey to fulfill a
mission in order to save his or her people  The varying speed, loudness, pitch,
from disaster, and the narrative of that elevation, intensity, and expressiveness of
journey frequently becomes the primary speech, especially poetry. In verse the
plot for the work. rhythm is normally regular; in prose it may
or may not be regular. See sprung rhythm
Quire /kwī(ə)r/ noun
for an exception to this general rule.
 A collection of individual leaves sewn
Riddle / ˈrɪdl / noun
together, usually containing between four
and twelve leaves per quire. This  A universal form of literature in which a
"gathering" or "booklet" of individual puzzling question or a conundrum is
pages would then be sewn into the larger presented to the reader. The reader is often
collection of pages to make the entire challenged to solve this enigma, which
book. requires ingenuity in discovering the
hidden meaning.
 A riddle may involve puns, symbolism,

Rr
synecdoche, personification (especially
prosopopoeia), or unusual imagery.
Role / rəʊl / noun

Reconstruction / ˌriːkənˈstrʌkʃn / noun  Another term for an actor's part in a play.

 A hypothetical earlier form of a word that Rondeau / ranˈdəʊ / noun

probably existed, but for which no direct  A short poem consisting of ten, thirteen, or
evidence is available. Linguists normally fifteen lines using only two rhymes which
 concludes each section with an abbreviated single church splits into two or more
line that serves as a refrain. separate denominations--often hostile to
each other.
Rondel / ˈrɒndəl / noun
Schwa /SHwä/ noun
 A short poem resembling the rondeau. It
usually totals fourteen lines containing  The mid-central vowel or the phonetic
only two rhyming sounds. symbol for it. This phonetic symbol is
typically an upside-down e.
Root Creation / Ruːt Krɪˈeɪʃn / noun
Science Fiction /ˈsīəns ˈˌfikSHən/ noun
 Creating a new word by inventing its form
from scratch--without reference to any pre-  Literature in which speculative
existing word or morpheme. technology, time travel, alien races,
intelligent robots, gene-engineering, space
Romantic Comedy
travel, experimental medicine, psionic
 Sympathetic comedy that presents the abilities, dimensional portals, or altered
adventures of young lovers trying to scientific principles contribute to the plot
overcome social, psychological, or or background.
interpersonal constraints to achieve a
Scribe /skrīb/ noun
successful union.
 A literate individual who reproduces the
works of other authors by copying them

Ss
from older texts or from a dictating author.
Secondary Source
 Literary scholars distinguish between
primary sources, secondary sources, and
Satyr Play educational resources.
 A burlesque play submitted by Athenian Semantics / sɪˈmæntɪks / noun
playwrights along with their tragic
trilogies. On each day of the Dionysia, one  The study of actual meaning in
tragedy was performed, followed by one languages--especially the meanings of
satyr play. The term should not be individual words and word combinations
confused with satire. in phrases and sentences--as opposed to
other linguistic aspects like grammar,
Scene / si:n / noun morphology, etymology, and syntax.
 A dramatic sequence taking place within a Short Story
single locale (or setting) on stage. Often
scenes serve as the subdivision of an act  This work of narrative fiction may contain
within a play. description, dialogue and commentary, but
usually plot functions as the engine driving
Scenery / ˈsiːnərɪ / noun the art.
 The visual environment created onstage Simile /ˈsiməlē/ noun
using a backdrop and props. The purpose
of scenery is either to suggest vaguely a  An analogy or comparison implied by
specific setting or produce the illusion of using an adverbial preposition such as like
actually watching events in that specific or as, in contrast with a metaphor, which
setting. figuratively makes the comparison by
stating outright that one thing is another
Schism / ˈskɪzəm / noun thing. This figure of speech is of great
antiquity, common in both prose and verse
 A schism is a split or division in the
works.
church concerning religious belief or
organizational structure--one in which a
Tt
opposed to paraphrasing, summarizing,
and transliteration.
Trilogy / ˈtrɪlədʒɪ / noun
 A group of three literary works that
Tactile Imagery / ˈtæktl ˈɪmɪdʒərɪ / noun together compose a larger narrative.
 Verbal description that evokes the sense of Examples include the Oresteia of
touch. See imagery. Aeschylus and Sophocles' trilogy of
Oedipus Rex, Antigonê, and Oedipus at
Tag / tæɡ / noun Colona.
 "Tags" are catch-phrases or character traits Triplet / ˈtrɪplət / noun
that a fiction writer uses repeatedly with a
character.  A tercet that forms a complete stanza by
itself.
Tautology / tɔːˈtɑːlədʒɪ / noun
 An unartful redundancy, unneeded
repetition, or or misused periphrasis in
writing or speech. Contrast with tautotes
(TBA).

Tempo / ˈtempəʊ / noun

 The pace or speed of speech and also the
degree to which individual sounds are
Uu
fully articulated or blurred together. The Unaccustomed Earth (2008)
faster the tempo, the more likely sounds
will blur or elide.  a collection of short stories from American
author Jhumpa Lahiri. It is her second
Temporal / tempərəl / noun
collection of stories, following Interpreter
 In grammatical and linguistic discussion, of Maladies.
something relating to the element of time.
 As with much of Lahiri's work,
See further discussion under clause.
Unaccustomed Earth considers the lives of
Tenor / ˈtenər / noun Indian American characters and how they
deal with their mixed cultural
 In common usage, tenor refers to the environment.
course of thought, meaning or emotion in
anything written or spoken. Unity /ˈyü-nə-tē/ plural

Tragedy /ˈtrajədē/ noun  The state of being complete or whole.

According to Aristotle, an object of
 A serious play in which the chief imitation must be whole or complete, and
character, by some peculiarity of when an action is imitated in a tragedy or
psychology, passes through a series of an event is imitated in epic poetry, the plot
misfortunes leading to a final, devastating that makes up that action or event must be
catastrophe. unified as well.
Translation / trænsˈleɪʃn / noun The Uncommon Reader (2007)
 The act of conveying the meaning of  A novella by Alan Bennett. After
words in one language by attempting to appearing first in the London Review of
say the same thing in another language, as Books, Vol. 29, No. 5, it was published
later the same year in book form by Faber
 & Faber and Profile Books. An audiobook  A noun that comes from a verb. For
version read by the author was released on instance, peregrination comes from the
CD in 2007. verb peregrinate, and the gerund running
comes from the present participle of the
Ugolino della Gherardesca (1843 - 1867)
verb run. Contrast this with the noun
 An Italian nobleman, politician and naval timber, which does not come from a verb.
commander. He was frequently accused of
Vernacular /vərˈnakyələr/ noun
treason and features prominently in
Dante's Divine Comedy.  The everyday or common language of a
geographic area or the native language of
Urbana at Feliza (1938)
commoners in a country as opposed to a
 A novel written by Modesto de Castro was prestigious dead language maintained
tremendously popular from the 19th- artificially in schools or in literary texts.
century to the first half of the 20th-
Verse Paragraph
century. The story relates the importance
of purity and ideal virtues that married  A division of poetry by each section's
people should practice and enrich. content in a rhetorical manner akin to
prose paragraphs. Often, a typesetter or
editor indicates verse paragraphs by
adding an extra line-space above and
below the pertinent section to set it off
from other parts of the poem.

Vv Vignette /vinˈyet/ noun

 A short passage that uses imagery to
Vacuum Flowers (1987) describe a subject in greater detail. Using
descriptive language, a vignette helps
 A science fiction novel by American readers visualize a character, a place, or a
writer Michael Swanwick. It is an early moment.
example of the cyberpunk genre and
features one of the earliest uses of the Virgil (42 BCE)
concept of wetware.  An ancient Roman poet of the Augustan
Valmiki (5th century BCE) period. He composed three of the most
famous poems in Latin literature: the
 The harbinger-poet in Sanskrit literature. Eclogues, the Georgics, and the epic
The epic Ramayana, dated variously from Aeneid.
the 5th century BCE to first century BCE,
is attributed to him, based on the Vocabulary /vōˈkabyəˌlerē/ noun
attribution in the text itself.  The stock of available words in a given
Verb /vərb/ noun language or for a given speaker of that
language.
 A word that "does" the subject's action in a
sentence or shows a state of being or Vogue Word
equation. Many languages use one form of  A word that appears in fashionable use or
a verb for singular subjects and a different in pop culture. Often these vogue words
form for plural subjects. and vogue expressions have a short shelf
Verbal Noun life and fall from English use within a few
years' time
Voltaire (1723 - 1756)  Novel by Emily Brontë, initially published
under her pen name Ellis Bell. It concerns
 A versatile and prolific writer, producing
two families of the landed gentry living on
works in almost every literary form,
the West Yorkshire moors, the Earnshaws
including plays, poems, novels, essays,
and the Lintons, and their turbulent
histories, and scientific expositions. He
relationships with Earnshaw's foster son,
wrote more than 20,000 letters and 2,000
Heathcliff.
books and pamphlets.

Ww Xx
Xanaduism
Warren Adler (1970 - 2018)
 Academic research that focuses on the
 An American author, playwright and poet.
sources behind imaginative works of
His novel The War of the Roses was
literature and fantasy. John Livingstone
turned into a dark comedy starring
Lowes, in his publication The Road to
Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner and
Xanadu (1927), inspired the name, which
Danny DeVito. Adler was an essayist,
in turn goes back to Coleridge's visionary
short-story writer, poet and playwright,
poem "Kubla Khan"
whose works have been translated into 25
languages. Xenophanic
 This adjective refers to itinerant poets who
make use of satire and witticism. The term
comes from the Greek name Xenophanes,
the wandering Ionian poet of classical
Greece circa 550 BCE.
William Blake (1783 - 1794)

Yy
 An English poet, painter, and printmaker.
Largely unrecognized during his life,
Blake is now considered a seminal figure
in the history of the poetry and visual art
of the Romance. Yarn
William Faulkner (1929 - 1962)
 An informal name for a long, rambling
 An American writer known for his novels story--especially one dealing with
and short stories set in the fictional adventure or tall-tales. The genre typically
Yoknapatawpha County, based on involves a strong narrative presence and
Lafayette County, Mississippi, where colloquial or idiomatic English.
Faulkner spent most of his life.
 The tone is realistic, but the content is
William Shakespeare (1592 - 1613) typically fantastic or hyperbolic. Cf. the
Chinese p'ing hua and the Russian skaz.
 An English playwright, poet and actor. He
is widely regarded as the greatest writer in Yearbook
the English language and the world's
 An annually published book or journal,
greatest dramatist. He is often called
especially one containing information or
England's national poet and the "Bard of
statistics about that year in particular.
Avon".
Yo-He-Ho Theory
Wuthering Heights (1847)
  In linguistics, the idea that language first Selva sui Amor and Calderon's Purpura de
began as a way to facilitate cooperative la Rosa as two examples.
labor. Contrast with the bow-wow theory
Zeno's Paradox
and the ding-dong theory.
 The term "Zeno's Paradox" is usually
Young Man Sonnets
applied to the paradox of the arrow or the
 The first seventeen sonnets in the paradox of Hercules and the tortoise, but
Shakespearean collection published in the other two paradoxes are often lumped
1609. These sonnets break the normal under the same designation.
sonnet conventions in that the implied
Zeugma
situation is not a poetic speaker wooing a
cold and distant female as the implied  Artfully using a single verb to refer to two
audience. different objects in an ungrammatical but
striking way, or artfully using an adjective
Young Vienn
to refer to two separate nouns, even though
 As Shipley notes, "Young Vienna" was a the adjective would logically only be
movement of Austrian artists popular appropriate for one of the two.
between 1890-1914 including Bahr,
Zohar
Schnitzler, Altenberg, Herzl, and Rainer
Maria Rilke.  A medieval commentary on the Pentateuch
appearing in several books written in
Yuëh-Fu
Aramaic and Hebrew, widely considered
 A form of Chinese poetry in mixed meter the most important work of Kabala
and short lines, with a five-word line being
Zoomorphic
most common. The number of stanzas was
likewise variable.  Another term for therianthropic or
theriomorphic. The noun form is
 The conventions of the genre include a
zoomorphism.
monologue or dialogue presented in
dramatic form revolving around some
misfortune.

Zz
Zani
 A stock character in the commedia
dell'arte, the zani was a buffoonish servant,
a jester, a butt of jokes, i.e., what
twentieth-century entertainment would call
a "stooge." The modern English word zany
comes from this Italian term.
Zarzuela
 A musical play performed before a full
opera in Spanish theater of the 17th and
18th centuries.
 The genre was popular at court and at
weddings for the upper class between 1630
and 1705. Shipley lists Lope de Vega's