This page contains a list of literary devices and their meanings. It is very important to understand that students are not expected in any to know these terms - nor should students be expected to come up with the proper teminology if concept attainment lessons are the basis for examining the elements of a particular literary device.

Our "Instructional Strategies Online" site contains more information on Concept Attainment.

* Figurative Language Resource Page * - This student reproducible, from a ReadWriteThink lesson, offers examples of and definitions for several types of figurative language.

• Allegory - a symbolic representation
  i.e. The blindfolded figure with scales is an allegory of justice.
• Alliteration - the repetition of the initial consonant. There should be at least two repetitions in a row.
  i.e. Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.
  • Alliteration Lesson Plans and Resources
• Allusion – A reference to a famous person or event in life or literature.
  i.e. She is as pretty as the Mona Lisa.
  • Allusion in Prose and Poetry
• Analogy - the comparison of two pairs which have the same relationship.
  i.e. shoe is to foot as tire is to wheel
  • What's an Analogy?
• Assonance - the repetition of similar vowel sounds in a sentence.
• Climax - the turning point of the action in the plot of a play or story. The climax represents the point of greatest tension in the work.
• Foreshadowing - hints of what is to come in the action of a play or a story
• Hyperbole - a figure of speech involving exaggeration.
• Metaphor - A comparison in which one thing is said to be another.
  i.e. The cat's eyes were jewels, gleaming in the darkness.
  • Using Metaphors in Creative Writing
  • Metaphor Activity
  • Metaphor Writing Assignment
  • Metaphor Writing Rubric
  • Writing Your Own Metaphor Activity Sheet
  • Color Poems—Using the Five Senses to Guide Prewriting
  • As Slippery as an Eel: An Ocean Unit Exploring Simile and Metaphor
  • Similes and Metaphors Lesson
• Onomatopoeia - the use of words to imitate the sounds they describe.
  i.e. The burning wood crackled and hissed.
  • Onomatopoeia Help
  • Writing: Onomatopoeia
• Oxymoron - putting two contradictory words together.
  i.e. bittersweet, jumbo shrimp, and act naturally
• Personification - is giving human qualities to animals or objects.
  i.e. The daffodils nodded their yellow heads.
  • Writing: Personification
  • Personification Lesson Plans and Resources
  • Scholastic: A lesson plan on personification
• Pun - A word is used which has two meanings at the same time, which results in humor.
• Simile - figure of speech involving a comparison between unlike things using like, as, or as though.
  i.e. She floated in like a cloud.
  • As Slippery as an Eel: An Ocean Unit Exploring Simile and Metaphor
  • Lonely as a Cloud: Using Poetry to Understand Similes
  • Simile Activity
  • Similes and Metaphors Lesson
  • Simile Matching Game
  • Practice Similes
  • Similes
    • Similes Quiz

For more information on literary devices, go to Spelling Police.com