Sat Literature Subject Test Vocab

Front 1

Allegory

Back 1

A story with underlying symbols that really represent something else

Hint 1

The nursey rhyme "Humpty Dumpty" was really a political allegory, representing people in government who were falling from power.

Front 2

Alliteration

Back 2

The use of a repeated consonant sound, usually at the beginning of a series of words

Hint 2

Silently stalking her sister on the stairs

Front 3

Allusion

Back 3

A reference to something or someone, usually literary

Hint 3

Mr. Jones got the neighborhood kids to do his yard work- just as Tom Sawyer got the kids to paint the fence

Front 4

Anachronism

Back 4

Placing a person or object in an inappropriate historical situation. It can be deliberate or unintentional

Hint 4

George Washington rode his imousine downtown for the inauguration

Front 5

Analogy

Back 5

Comparing something to something else

Hint 5

Starting a new job is like starting a new school year

Front 6

Anecdote

Back 6

A short narrative, story, or tale

Front 7

Antagonist

Back 7

The major character opposing the protagonist. Usually the villian

Hint 7

Boris Badanov, Bullwinkle's enemy, is my favorite antagonist

Front 8

Anthropomorphism

Back 8

Assigning human attributes such as emotions or physical characteristics to non human things. Used almost exclusively for attributing human characteristics to animals

Hint 8

My cat, Fluffy, is always happy to see me.

The mother rhinoceros was depresssed for weeks over the loss of her offspring to the cruel hunter.

Front 9

Diction

Back 9

Word choice

Front 10

Fable

Back 10

A story that has a moral, susually involving animals as the main character

Hint 10

Aesop's fable about the grasshopper and the ant is a great illustrstion of why you should work hard and prepare for bad times.

Front 11

Figurative language

Back 11

Language characterized by figures of speech such as metaphors and similies as well as elaborate expression through imagery

Front 12

Hyperbole

Back 12

A deliberate exaggeration

Hint 12

Taking the test was the easiest thing I've ever done.

There were a billion people at the concert

Front 13

Irony

Back 13

An expression of meaning that is the opposite of the literal meaning

Hint 13

Stories can be ironic as well when they end in a way that is the opposite of what you would have expected. A story about an obsessively clean man who is kiled by a garbage truck is ironic.

Front 14

Metaphor

Back 14

A metaphor is a comparison like a simile, but it doesnt use the words like or as.

Hint 14

She was a breath of fresh air in the classroom.

The new principle was more strict than a prison warden.

Front 15

Meter

Back 15

The rhythm of a poem.

Front 16

Narrative

Back 16

A literary representation of an event or a story-the text itself

Front 17

Onomatopoeia

Back 17

A word intended to simulate the actual sound of the thing or action it describes.

Hint 17

A buzzing bee.

Bam!

Front 18

Oxymoron

Back 18

A phrase in which words are contradictory

Hint 18

They were intelligently ignorant

Front 19

Parable

Back 19

A story that has a moral. The story of the good Samaritan is a famous parable from the Bible.

Front 20

Paradox

Back 20

This is a phrase that appears to be contradictory, but which actually contains some basic truth that resolves the apparent contradiction.

Hint 20

Although he was sentenced to ten years of hard labor, the guilt-ridden criminal looked as though a weight had been lifted from his soldiers

Front 21

The repetition of sounds, meanings, or structures to create a certain style

Back 21

I don't want your pity. I don't want your money. I don't want your car. I want only your love.

Front 22

Parody

Back 22

A literary work in which the style of an author is imitated for comic effect or ridicule

Front 23

Pastoral

Back 23

A work that deals with the lives of people, especislly shepards, in the country or in nature (as opposed to people in the city)

Front 24

Pathos

Back 24

Something that evokes a feeling of pity or sympathy. Think of the word pathetic.

Hint 24

And so, the little orphan girl curled up on the cold steps of the chuch and triee to sleep.

Front 25

Personification

Back 25

Assigning human attributes to something nonhuman

Hint 25

I hope that fortune will smile on me when I take my exam.

My car always seems so miserable when I let someone else drive.

Front 26

Perspective

Back 26

The place from which the narrator or character sees things

Hint 26

From my perspective, what you did was horrible, although others might not think so.

Front 27

Point of View

Back 27

The perspective from which a story is presented to the reader. The most common points of view are first person and third person.

Front 28

Protagonist

Back 28

The main character, usually the hero

Front 29

Satire

Back 29

Ridicule of a subject.

Hint 29

Saturday Night Live often makes use of satire. When the cast pokes fun at the president, they are satirizing the politics of the country. Satire is humorous and often intended to point out something about a series subject.

Front 30

Simile

Back 30

A simile is a comparison of two things using the words like or as.

Hint 30

I'm as quick as a cricket

He's as sly as a fox.

Front 31

Style

Back 31

The author's unique manner of expression; the author's voice

Hint 31

I'm not a fan of that author; his style is too long-winded and flowery

Front 32

Stanza

Back 32

The divisions in a poem, like a paragraph in prose.

Front 33

Theme

Back 33

The main idea of a piece of literature

Front 34

Tone

Back 34

Syle or manner of expression

Hint 34

Funeral eulogies have a somber tone