1. Terms for Exam 1
1. Anadiplosis
Words at the end of one line are picked up at the beginning of the next.
2. Bombast
Speech too pompous for an occasion; pretentious words.
3. Blank verse
Unrhymed iambic pentameter. This means it consists of lines of five feet, each foot being
iambic, meaning two syllables long, one unstressed followed by a stressed syllable.
4. Farce
A form of low comedy, whose intention is to provoke simple mirth in the form of roars of
laughter (and not smiles); it uses exaggerated physical action, character and absurd
situation, with improbable events, a complex plot, with events rapidly succeeding one
another, pushing character and dialogue into the background.
5. Hyperbole
Exaggeration used for effect, not meant to be taken literally
6. Internal rhyme
Rhyme that occurs within a single line of verse, or between internal phrases across
multiple lines.
7. Irony
With irony, a word or words are taken in the opposite way
from their literal meaning.
8. Litotes
This trope understates to emphasize a point and is opposite to
a hyperbole.
9. Malapropism
an act or habit of misusing words ridiculously,
especially by the confusion of words that are similar in sound "contagious countries" for
"contiguous countries")
10. Metaphor
The metaphor compares two things that have very little in
common but do share a trait or characteristic
11. Parody
A humorous or satirical imitation of a serious piece of literature or writing
12. Personification
Metaphor that gives human qualities to a nonhuman entity
2. 13. Pun
A play on the multiple meanings of a word, or a play on two
words that sound alike but have different meanings
14. Rhyme
A pattern of similar sounds
15. Rhyming couplet
A pair of lines that rhyme and have the same meter
16. Simile
This trope compares two things that have some things in
common, often using like or as.
17. Slant rhyme
Sounds of the final of words of the line are similar but not
identical
18. Slapstick
Broad comedy characterized by boisterous action,
as the throwing of pies in actors' faces, mugging,
and obvious farcical situations and jokes.
19. Wit
The keen perception and cleverly apt expression of those connections between ideas that
awaken amusement and pleasure.
