High School English: Literary Devices Vocabulary

 


Greetings! I hope this blog is helpful as you navigate your high school English courses. This lesson offers a vocabulary list highlighting the tools used by authors to convey their messages to readers and the tools that can help you deepen your writing. 

Literary devices strengthen any written work. These tools help engage readers by evoking emotions or providing insight into a character, setting, or situation. Literary devices keep books from being predictable and dry. For example, look at these sentences that basically give the readers the same information: 

  • The tan dog ran outside. 
  • The quick canine leapt through the grass like a gazelle. 
  • The tumbling tan mutt trotted freely in the fresh air. 
  • The perky puppy pounced out the door and joyfully paraded through the yard as excitedly as a trombonist in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade.  
  • The hound hopped hungrily through the grass after a cricket, becoming a lion cub learning to track its first prey. 
  • "Look at him running in the yard," the boy called to his mother as he pointed to their new tan puppy. 
Each sentence uses different literary devices to engage the readers. 

Define each of these vocabulary words. You can write a sentence for each one, but I want to challenge you to find an example of each literary device over the next couple of weeks. Look at poems or books you are reading and see how many examples of each you can find. 

Alliteration

Allusion

Analogy

Antithesis

Consonance

Diction

Ellipsis

Ethos

Hyperbole

Imagery

Irony

Oxymoron

Pathos

Personification

Symbol/Symbolism

Tone

Syntax

Characterization

Direct/explicit characterization

Indirect/Implicit characterization

Conflict 

Figurative language

Simile

Metaphor

Personification

Hyperbole

Idiom

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