Glossary
Glossary
A glossary of literary terms — from metaphor to free verse.
Literature01Versification
Rhythm, metre, rhyme and the stanza.
44 termsOpen
Literature02Tropes & Figures
Metaphor, metonymy and rhetorical figures.
43 termsOpen
Literature03Stylistics
Language, register and stylistic devices.
52 termsOpen
Literature04Genres & Forms
Novel, novella, sonnet — genres and folk forms.
91 termsOpen
Literature05Movements
Baroque, romanticism, modernism, avant-garde.
38 termsOpen
Literature06Composition
Plot, fabula, conflict and structure.
50 termsOpen
Literature07Character & Image
Hero, character, lyric subject, archetype.
30 termsOpen
Literature08Theory & Criticism
Literary theory, criticism and book culture.
68 termsOpen
Stylistics
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Aesopian language
Aesopian language is a special system of indirect expression developed for concealing the true content from censorship, when the direct utt…
Alliteration
Alliteration is a stylistic device of sound-writing consisting in the repetition of identical or similar consonant sounds in adjacent words…
Anagram
An anagram is a word or phrase formed by rearranging the letters of another word: a new meaning is composed from the same letters.
Antonyms
Antonyms are words of opposite meaning belonging to the same part of speech and designating contrasting concepts: "day — night," "good — ev…
Aphorism
An aphorism is a short, complete and profound statement that expresses in a terse, polished form a generalised thought, life wisdom or orig…
Archaism
An archaism is an obsolete word, form or turn of phrase that has fallen out of active use and been replaced by modern synonyms, but which d…
Assonance
Assonance is a stylistic device of sound-writing consisting in the repetition of identical or similar vowel sounds in adjacent words or lin…
Barbarism
A barbarism is a foreign word or turn of phrase not fully assimilated by the language and retaining an alien sound, and sometimes a foreign…
Burlesque
Burlesque is a kind of comic literature based on a sharp incongruity between a subject and the style of its presentation: either a dignifie…
Cacophony
Cacophony is an unpleasant, ear-jarring sound of speech, caused by a heavy cluster of consonants, an unfortunate coincidence of sounds, mon…
Church Slavonicism
A Church Slavonicism is a word, form or word-formative element inherited by the Ukrainian language from the Old Church Slavonic linguistic…
Dialectism
A dialectism is a word, form, expression or pronunciation peculiar to a certain territorial dialect and not belonging to the literary norm:…
Euphony
Euphony is the pleasant-to-the-ear sound of speech, achieved by the harmonious selection and combination of sounds and the avoidance of cac…
Exoticism
An exoticism is a foreign word that designates a reality characteristic of the life, everyday practice or culture of a particular people or…
Historicism
A historicism is an obsolete word that has fallen out of active use together with the disappearance of the reality it denoted — an object,…
Homonyms
Homonyms are words identical in sound and/or spelling but entirely different in meaning, between which there is no semantic link (e.g.
Idiom
An idiom is a variety of phraseological unit with the highest degree of semantic fusion, whose meaning is not derived at all from the meani…
Idiostyle
Idiostyle (individual style) is the unique aggregate of linguistic and artistic means, devices and principles that distinguishes the oeuvre…
Jargon
Jargon is a word or expression from the speech of a certain social, professional or age group, used instead of the common name and having a…
Language play
Language play is the deliberate, creative violation or playing-upon of linguistic norms, meanings and forms for the sake of a comic, aesthe…
Leitmotif
A leitmotif is an image, motif, detail, phrase or theme that recurs throughout a work, acquiring the significance of a leading idea and uni…
Linguistic colouring
Linguistic colouring is the aggregate of linguistic means that lend a work a specific tinge — national, historical, local, social or profes…
Macaronic language
Macaronic language is the comic mixing of words and forms of different languages within a single text, in which the native language is satu…
Maxim
A maxim is a variety of aphorism, a terse formulation of a moral principle, a rule of conduct or an ethical norm that has the character of…
Neologism
A neologism is a new word, expression or meaning that has recently arisen in a language to designate new concepts, objects or phenomena and…
Nonce word
A nonce word (individual-authorial neologism) is a word created by a writer for a single use in a concrete context, outside of which it usu…
Officialese
Officialese is a word, phrase or grammatical construction characteristic of the official-business style that finds its way into an environm…
Onomatopoeia
Onomatopoeia is the formation of words by imitating the sounds of the surrounding reality, or the selection of such words and sound-combina…
Palindrome
A palindrome is a word, phrase, line or whole text that reads the same from left to right and from right to left: "eye," "level," "Madam, I…
Paradox
A paradox is a judgement that at first glance contradicts common sense or established opinion, but on deeper consideration reveals an unexp…
Parody
Parody is the comic or satirical imitation of the style, subject matter or manner of a certain work, author or genre, in which the recognis…
Paronyms
Paronyms are words close in sound and morphemic structure but different (wholly or partly) in meaning ("imagination — notion," "public — ci…
Pastiche
Pastiche is a work or device built on the imitation, combination or compilation of the styles, motifs and images of other authors or ages,…
Phraseological unit
A phraseological unit is a stable, reproducible word-combination with an integral, figurative meaning that is not derived directly from the…
Poeticism
A poeticism is a word or expression with a distinct elevated, solemn colouring, traditionally fixed to the language of poetry and unusual f…
Professionalism
A professionalism is a word or phrase characteristic of the speech of people of a certain profession or trade, designating special concepts…
Purism
Purism is the striving to preserve the purity of a language, to protect it from foreign borrowings, dialectisms, jargon and other elements…
Sententia
A sententia is a short utterance of a didactic, moral-philosophical content that expresses in a generalised form a rule of life, an ethical…
Slang
Slang is the aggregate of expressive, emotionally coloured words and phrases of colloquial speech that do not belong to the literary norm a…
Solecism
A solecism is a syntactic error, an incorrect grammatical construction of a phrase or sentence that violates the norms of agreement, govern…
Sound-writing
Sound-writing (instrumentation) is the deliberate sound organisation of artistic speech, the selection and repetition of sounds subordinate…
Style
Style is the system of characteristic linguistic and figurative means that determines the distinctiveness of a literary work, of a writer's…
Stylisation
Stylisation is a writer's deliberate imitation of the characteristic features of another's style: the manner of a certain author, a literar…
Stylistic register
A stylistic register is a level of speech determined by the degree of its officiality, solemnity or informality and selected in accordance…
Subtext
Subtext is the hidden, inner meaning of an utterance or a whole work that is not expressed directly but only implied and guessed by the rea…
Surzhyk
Surzhyk is a mixed, impure speech that arises from the spontaneous, unsystematic combination of elements of the Ukrainian and imperial lang…
Synonyms
Synonyms are words different in sound and spelling but identical or close in meaning, designating the same concept with different semantic…
Term
A term is a word or word-combination that precisely and unambiguously designates a scientific, technical or professional concept within a c…
Travesty
Travesty is a comic device and generic variety in which a high, dignified content is retold in a deliberately lowered, everyday, plain styl…
Vernacular
Vernacular comprises words, forms and phrases of lowered, everyday speech that lie on the border of the literary norm or beyond it and are…
Vulgarism
A vulgarism is a coarse, crude or abusive word or expression that lies beyond the literary norm and violates established notions of the pro…
Winged word
A winged word is an apt, figurative phrase that has entered general use from a concrete literary, historical, mythological or folk source a…
