Literary Terms practice games — free for Vocabulary.
This unit covers figurative language, narrative terms and poetic terms — essential concepts for Vocabulary. Use our interactive study games to test your understanding, or review questions in traditional format below.
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This unit covers figurative language, narrative terms and poetic terms — essential concepts for Vocabulary. Use our interactive study games to test your understanding, or review questions in traditional format below.
Key Concepts Breakdown
1 Figurative Language
Figurative language uses words beyond their literal meaning to create images, comparisons, or effects. Students must be able to identify the type of figurative language used in a passage and explain its effect on meaning or tone. Common types tested include simile, metaphor, personification, hyperbole, and alliteration.
Key Points
- Simile compares two things using 'like' or 'as' (e.g., 'brave as a lion'); metaphor makes the comparison directly without 'like' or 'as'
- Personification gives human qualities to non-human things or ideas
- Hyperbole is extreme exaggeration used for emphasis or humor, not meant to be taken literally
- Alliteration is the repetition of the same consonant sound at the beginning of nearby words
Read the line: 'The wind whispered secrets through the trees.' Identify the figurative language and explain its effect.
This line uses personification by giving the wind a human ability — whispering. It also uses alliteration with the repeated 'w' sound in 'wind' and 'whispered.' Together, these devices create a mysterious, gentle mood and make the natural setting feel alive and communicative.
2 Narrative Terms
Narrative terms describe the elements and techniques authors use to tell a story. Students must know point of view, conflict, plot structure (exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution), and narrative devices like foreshadowing and flashback. Exam questions often ask how a specific narrative choice affects the reader's understanding.
Key Points
- First-person POV uses 'I' and limits the reader to one character's thoughts; third-person omniscient knows all characters' thoughts
- Internal conflict is a character vs. themselves (emotions, decisions); external conflict is character vs. another person, nature, or society
- Foreshadowing hints at future events to build suspense; flashback interrupts the present story to show a past event
- The climax is the turning point of highest tension, not necessarily the most exciting scene
A story opens with a girl nervously eyeing a dark staircase, then cuts to her childhood fear of the basement. Which narrative devices are used?
The girl eyeing the dark staircase is foreshadowing — it hints that something significant will happen involving that location. The shift to her childhood memory is a flashback, providing background context for her fear. Together they build suspense and help the reader understand the character's motivation before the conflict unfolds.
3 Poetic Terms
Poetic terms describe the structural and sound devices poets use to create meaning and rhythm. Students must be able to identify and analyze rhyme scheme, meter, imagery, and tone. Exam questions frequently ask students to explain how a poetic device contributes to the poem's overall meaning or emotional effect.
Key Points
- Rhyme scheme is labeled with letters (ABAB, AABB, etc.) based on which end words rhyme with each other
- Imagery appeals to the five senses to create a vivid mental picture for the reader
- Tone is the author's attitude toward the subject (e.g., melancholy, sarcastic, hopeful); mood is how the reader feels
- A stanza is a grouped set of lines in a poem, similar to a paragraph in prose
Label the rhyme scheme of this stanza: 'Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? / Thou art more lovely and more temperate. / Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, / And summer's lease hath all too short a date.'
Line 1 ends with 'day' (A), line 2 ends with 'temperate' (B), line 3 ends with 'May' (A), and line 4 ends with 'date' (B). Since lines 1 and 3 rhyme and lines 2 and 4 rhyme, the rhyme scheme is ABAB. This alternating pattern is characteristic of a Shakespearean sonnet's quatrain.
Questions, answered.
What is Literary Terms?
Literary Terms is Unit 7 of Vocabulary, covering figurative language, narrative terms and poetic terms.
How to study for Vocabulary Unit 7?
Start with the Quick Summary above, review the Key Concepts, then test yourself with our interactive study games. Aim for 80%+ accuracy before moving on.
How many questions are in this unit?
This unit has 27+ review questions across 5 different game modes.