The Top 127 Literary Devices You Need to Know to Save Your Exams
Whether you are analysing Shakespeare or poetry, or any literary texts as part of your English Literature course, or need to revise literary techniques for your English Language exams, this guide provides student-friendly definitions to all of the essential literary terms you will ever need.
This glossary covers all of the literary devices students need when studying and revising for GCSE, IGCSE, A Level or IB exams.
Written by: Nick Redgrove
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What are literary devices?
The term literary devices refers to any techniques that a writer uses to create a particular effect in their writing. They can be used to convey certain messages, influence the mood or atmosphere of a text, or elicit a specific emotional response from an audience.
Literary devices are collectively also known by lots of other terms — literary terms, language devices or language techniques — but really they all mean more or less the same thing: as the exam board AQA puts it, they are the methods a writer uses to create meaning.
Literary devices glossary
Literary device | Definition |
|---|---|
a literary work in which the characters and events represent particular qualities or ideas relating to morals, politics or religion | |
words that begin with the same sound (often the repetition of letters) placed closely together | |
an unexplained or implicit reference to someone or something outside of the text | |
where two unrelated objects are compared for their shared qualities | |
the repetition of the same phrase at the beginning of a sentence or clause | |
a short and interesting story, or an amusing event, often proposed to support or demonstrate a point | |
a character who opposes the main character | |
where an animal or non-human object is given human form, behaviour or personality | |
a person or thing that is the direct opposite of someone or something else | |
a short statement that is intended to express a general truth | |
apostrophe | addressing a person who is not present, or a thing that is personified |
a typical example of something, or the original model of something from which others are copied | |
the repetition of the same or similar vowel sounds close together | |
where conjunctions are left out between words or parts of a sentence, often creating a list-like style | |
ballad | a type of poem that tells a narrative which was traditionally set to music and usually written in quatrains |
a narrative or novel about events and experiences in the life of the main character as they mature and become an adult | |
a type of poetry that does not rhyme, usually with ten syllables in each line | |
a pause within a line of poetry | |
a highly exaggerated representation of a character in a text, often for comic effect | |
the release of strong or repressed emotions, usually by an audience | |
the act of creating and describing characters in literature, including their traits and psychological make-up | |
when words, grammatical constructions or concepts are repeated in reverse order | |
something or someone that is not at all original, surprising or interesting because it has very often been seen before | |
the highest point of tension or drama in a piece of writing | |
the use of informal words or phrases in writing or speech | |
a feeling or idea that is implied by a word that is separate from its dictionary meaning | |
the same consonant sound repeated within a group of words | |
a pair of consecutive lines of poetry that create a complete thought or idea | |
the literal meaning or dictionary definition of a word | |
the resolution of conflict in a narrative plot structure | |
an unnatural or very unlikely end to a story or event, that solves or removes any problems easily | |
the exchange of spoken words between characters in a piece of writing | |
direct characterisation | when an author explicitly tells a reader directly what a character is like |
when the audience or reader knows something the characters in the story do not | |
a poem written as if someone is speaking to an unseen listener about important thoughts | |
an cruel or unfair society, especially an imaginary society in the future, in which there is a lot of hardship or suffering | |
a serious, melancholic poem, often written to mourn the loss of someone who has died | |
end rhyme | when the last syllables or words in two or more lines rhyme with each other |
end-stopped line | a line of poetry ending in a grammatical break, for example with a full stop |
the continuing of a sentence from one line of a poem into the next line | |
epigraph | a poem, quotation, or sentence, usually placed at the beginning of a piece of writing |
ethos | an argument that appeals to an audience’s morality by highlighting the speaker’s credibility or trustworthiness |
euphemism | a word or phrase used to avoid saying an unpleasant or offensive word |
exposition | the description or explanation of background information within a work of literature |
extended metaphor | a metaphor that is further developed throughout all or part of a piece of writing |
falling action | the part of the plot that occurs after the climax has been reached and the major conflict has happened |
fiction | literature in the form of prose that describes imaginary events and people |
figurative language | the use of non-literal phrases or words to elicit an emotional response from a reader or audience |
first person | when a story is narrated by one character from their own perspective, usually using the pronouns “I”, “me” and “my” |
flashback | a device that moves the reader from the present moment in a chronological piece of writing to a scene in the past |
a device used by a writer to provide hints or clues to the reader or audience about what will happen later on in the text | |
form | the type or genre of a text that a writer has chosen to use |
formal verse | a poem which uses a strict metre, rhyme and form, especially in fixed forms such as sonnets, villanelles, etc. |
free verse | a poem that does not use a strict metre or rhyme scheme |
genre | a specific literary style that involves a particular set of characteristics |
haiku | a specific type of Japanese poem which has 17 syllables divided into three lines of five, seven, and five syllables |
hamartia | the flaw in character which leads to the downfall of the protagonist in a tragedy |
heroic couplet | a verse form found in epic poetry, where the lines are in rhyming pairs |
hubris | excessive pride or self-confidence |
deliberate exaggeration used for effect | |
a verse line consisting of ten syllables, organised into five pairs of alternating unstressed and stressed syllables | |
idiom | a short expression or phrase that means something more than just its literal meaning |
the use of words to describe ideas or situations | |
indirect characterisation | revealing details about a character without explicitly or directly stating what they are like |
in medias res | a story which begins in the middle of events, without any introduction |
internal rhyme | rhyme that occurs between words within a verse line |
intertextuality | the relationship a text may have with other texts |
when there is a noticeable, often humorous, difference between what is written and its intended or expected meaning | |
the placement of two or more things side by side, often in order to bring out their differences | |
language | the words, phrases and literary devices a writer uses for effect |
litotes | understatement used for rhetorical effect |
logos | an argument that appeals to someone's sense of reason |
malapropism | the unintentional misuse of a word by confusion with one of similar sound, often with humorous results |
a figure of speech that makes a direct comparison by relating one thing to another unrelated thing | |
metonymy | a figure of speech that refers to something by using a word that describes its qualities or is closely associated with it |
metre | the regular and rhythmic arrangement of stressed and unstressed syllables according to a particular pattern |
monologue | an extended speech uttered by one character, either to others or as if alone |
motif | a recurring image or idea in a piece of writing |
narrative | the description of a series of events, usually in a novel |
ode | a poem, especially one that is written in praise of a particular person, thing, or event |
omniscient narrator | a narrator who is all-knowing about plot, characters as well as characters’ motivations and emotions |
words whose pronunciations imitate the sounds they describe | |
a figure of speech that puts together opposite elements | |
a statement that contradicts itself, or that must be both true and untrue at the same time | |
parallelism | where similar ideas are arranged in phrases, sentences, and paragraphs that balance one element with another of equal importance and similar wording |
parody | a humorous piece of writing, drama, or music which imitates the style of a well-known person or represents a familiar situation in an exaggerated way |
pathetic fallacy | the use of inanimate objects, most commonly the weather, to reflect human feelings and tone |
pathos | an appeal to an audience’s emotion, often evoking pity, sadness, or tenderness |
persona | the narrative voice that a writer adopts for a specific piece of writing |
giving human characteristics to an inanimate object, abstract thing or an animal | |
perspective | the narrator’s point of view in a story |
plot | the sequence of events that make up a narrative |
polysyndeton | the overuse of the same connective (for example, using “and” in between every item in a long list) |
prolepsis | where the order of events in a narrative is disrupted so that a future plot point is told earlier in the narrative than it actually occurs |
prose | written language in its ordinary form (structured in sentences and paragraphs) rather than set out as poetry |
protagonist | the chief character in a literary work |
pun | the humorous use of a word or phrase that has several meanings or that sounds like another word |
quatrain | a stanza of four lines |
refrain | a word, line, or phrase repeated in a poem |
repetition | the intentional repeating of certain words, phrases or other literary devices in a text |
rhetoric | speech or writing intended to influence or persuade people |
a question that is used for dramatic effect that does not expect an answer | |
rhyme | a word that has the same last sound as another word |
rhyme scheme | a poet's chosen pattern of lines whose last syllables rhyme with other lines in a poem (for example ABAB, or CDCD) |
rhyming couplet | a pair of rhyming lines of poetry, typically of the same length, next to each other |
rhythm | a strong pattern of sounds or words in verse or prose, determined by the relation of long and short or stressed and unstressed syllables |
rising action | the section of the narrative that leads towards its climax |
satire | the use of humour, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticise people’s stupidity or vices |
second person | using the pronouns “you”, “your” and “yours” to refer to someone |
sibilance | words which make a “s”, “z” or “sh” sound |
a description that uses “like” or “as” to compare two things that are not obviously similar, but share a common quality | |
soliloquy | a dramatic speech uttered by one character speaking aloud while alone on the stage (or while under the impression of being alone) |
sonnet | a fourteen-line poem written in iambic pentameter with a strict rhyme scheme |
stanza | one of the parts into which a poem is divided |
stream of consciousness | a type of narration where a character’s every thought and feeling is expressed directly to the reader |
structure | the deliberate organisation of a text by an author |
symbol | any image or thing that stands for something else |
a literary device in which a writer uses one thing to represent something more abstract | |
synecdoche | a figure of speech in which a part is made to represent the whole or vice versa |
tautology | the use of different words to say the same thing twice in the same statement |
tercet | a set or group of three lines of verse rhyming together or connected by rhyme with an adjacent triplet |
theme | a central idea or topic in a literary or non-fiction text |
third person | when the narrator of a story stands outside of the world of the story and relates the events using the pronouns “he”, “she”, “it” and “they” |
tone | the attitude that a character, narrator or writer takes towards a given subject |
trope | an idea, phrase or image that is recurrent in a writer's work |
villanelle | a 19-line poetic form consisting of five tercets (made up of three lines) followed by a quatrain (consisting four lines) |
volta | a change in mood or focus in a poem |
Using the glossary in your exams
For study guides on how to use these literary devices in your own textual analysis, literature essays or in your own creative writing, check out our comprehensive revision notes below. All our notes are course specific, so everything you’ll need to ace your exams is in one neat place!
GCSE English Literature revision notes
GCSE English Language revision notes
IGCSE English Literature revision notes
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