Found 27 literary terms starting with S:

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Satire A literary approach that ridicules or examines human vice or weakness.
Sentence Structure The grammatical arrangement of words in sentences. A complete sentence must contain a subject and a predicate and express a complete thought. The structure of a sentence may be simple, complex, compound, or compound‐complex.
Sentence Types A simple sentence consists of one independent clause and no subordinate clauses. e.g., Kathy likes to dance. A compound sentence consists of two or more independent clauses and no subordinate clauses. e.g., Kathy likes to dance, and Brian likes to sing. A complex sentence consists of one or more independent clauses and one or more subordinate clauses. e.g., Although Kathy likes to dance and Brian likes to sing, neither has tried out for the school play. A compound‐complex sentence consists of at least two independent clauses and at least one subordinate clause. e.g., Kathy and Brian, who enjoy dancing and singing, have not tried out for the school play; we should encourage them to audition.
Sentence Variety Various sentence structures, styles, and lengths that can enhance the rhythm of or add emphasis to a piece of text. The presence of multiple sentence structures in a text (simple, complex, compound, compound-complex) and/or various sentence beginnings (e.g., dependent and independent clauses, phrases, single words).
Sequence of Steps A literary organizational form that presents the order in which tasks are to be performed.
Setting The time and place in which a story unfolds.
Simile A comparison of two different things that utilizes “like” or “as”.
Soliloquy A dramatic speech, revealing inner thoughts and feelings, spoken aloud by one character while alone on the stage.
Sonnet A 14 line poem written in iambic pentameter. There are two types of sonnets: Shakespearean and Italian. The Shakespearean sonnet is written with 3 quatrain and a couplet in abab, cdcd, efef, gg rhythmic pattern. An Italian sonnet is written in 2 stanzas with an octave followed by a septet in abba, abba, cdecde or cdcdcd rhythmic pattern.
Sound Devices Elements of literature that emphasize sound (e.g., assonance, consonance, alliteration, rhyme, onomatopoeia).
Speaker The voice used by an author to tell/narrate a story or poem. The speaker is often a created identity, and should not automatically be equated with the author. See also narrator and point of view.
Spondee A foot consisting of two syllables of approximately equal stress.
Stage Direction A playwright’s written instructions provided in the text of a play about the setting or how the actors are to move and behave in a play.
Stanza Group of lines offset by a space and then continuing with the next group of lines with a set pattern or number of lines.
Stichic Adjective describing poetry with lines of the same meter and length throughout, but not organized into regular stanzas. Example: Form of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's "Frost at Midnight"
Structure of Poem The rhyming pattern, meter, grammar, and imagery used by a poet to convey meaning.
Style The author’s choices regarding language, sentence structure, voice, and tone in order to communicate with the reader.
Stylistic Techniques The ways in which the writer may employ multiple elements of writing to distinguish and strengthen a piece of writing. These include variations in sentence structure, word choice, tone, usage, and point of view.
Subject‐Verb Agreement A grammatical rule in which the subject of a sentence must agree with its verb in both number and tense. e.g., The women at the ticket booth buy their tickets. The woman at the ticket booth buys her ticket.
Subjunctive Subjunctive forms of verbs are typically used to express various states of unreality such as wish, emotion, possibility, judgment, opinion, necessity, or action that has not yet occurred. Subjunctive verbs are often found in "that" clauses. The verb requires "that" to follow it e.g. 'He insisted that was the wrong way'.
Sublime Adjective meaning an immeasurable experience, unable to be rationalized.
Suffix Groups of letters placed after a word to alter its meaning or change it into a different kind of word, from an adjective to an adverb, etc.
Summarize To capture all of the most important parts of the original text (paragraph, story, poem), but express them in a much shorter space, and as much as possible in the reader’s own words.
Symbolism A device in literature where an object represents an idea.
Synecdoche A term where an entire idea is expressed by something smaller, such as a phrase or a single word; one part of the idea expresses the whole. This concept can also be reversed.
Synonym A word that is similar in meaning to another word (e.g., sorrow, grief, sadness).
Syntax The study of how words are arranged in a sentence. Ex.- Line 68 of Coleridge’s “Dejection: An Ode,” is difficult to determine its syntax because of the way the words are arranged: “Which wedding Nature to us gives in dower.” The word “wedding” could be seen as a verb or a noun.

Satire

A literary approach that ridicules or examines human vice or weakness.

Sentence Structure

The grammatical arrangement of words in sentences. A complete sentence must contain a subject and a predicate and express a complete thought. The structure of a sentence may be simple, complex, compound, or compound‐complex.

Sentence Types

A simple sentence consists of one independent clause and no subordinate clauses. e.g., Kathy likes to dance.
A compound sentence consists of two or more independent clauses and no subordinate clauses. e.g., Kathy likes to dance, and Brian likes to sing.
A complex sentence consists of one or more independent clauses and one or more subordinate clauses. e.g., Although Kathy likes to dance and Brian likes to sing, neither has tried out for the school play.
A compound‐complex sentence consists of at least two independent clauses and at least one subordinate clause. e.g., Kathy and Brian, who enjoy dancing and singing, have not tried out for the school play; we should encourage them to audition.

Sentence Variety

Various sentence structures, styles, and lengths that can enhance the rhythm of or add emphasis to a piece of text. The presence of multiple sentence structures in a text (simple, complex, compound, compound-complex) and/or various sentence beginnings (e.g., dependent and independent clauses, phrases, single words).

Sequence of Steps

A literary organizational form that presents the order in which tasks are to be performed.

Setting

The time and place in which a story unfolds.

Simile

A comparison of two different things that utilizes “like” or “as”.

Soliloquy

A dramatic speech, revealing inner thoughts and feelings, spoken aloud by one character while alone on the stage.

Sonnet

A 14 line poem written in iambic pentameter. There are two types of sonnets: Shakespearean and Italian. The Shakespearean sonnet is written with 3 quatrain and a couplet in abab, cdcd, efef, gg rhythmic pattern. An Italian sonnet is written in 2 stanzas with an octave followed by a septet in abba, abba, cdecde or cdcdcd rhythmic pattern.

Sound Devices

Elements of literature that emphasize sound (e.g., assonance, consonance, alliteration, rhyme, onomatopoeia).

Speaker

The voice used by an author to tell/narrate a story or poem. The speaker is often a created identity, and should not automatically be equated with the author. See also narrator and point of view.

Spondee

A foot consisting of two syllables of approximately equal stress.

Stage Direction

A playwright’s written instructions provided in the text of a play about the setting or how the actors are to move and behave in a play.

Stanza

Group of lines offset by a space and then continuing with the next group of lines with a set pattern or number of lines.

Stichic

Adjective describing poetry with lines of the same meter and length throughout, but not organized into regular stanzas. Example: Form of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's "Frost at Midnight"

Structure of Poem

The rhyming pattern, meter, grammar, and imagery used by a poet to convey meaning.

Style

The author’s choices regarding language, sentence structure, voice, and tone in order to communicate with the reader.

Stylistic Techniques

The ways in which the writer may employ multiple elements of writing to distinguish and strengthen a piece of writing.
These include variations in sentence structure, word choice, tone, usage, and point of view.

Subject‐Verb Agreement

A grammatical rule in which the subject of a sentence must agree with its verb in both number and tense. e.g., The women at the ticket booth buy their tickets.
The woman at the ticket booth buys her ticket.

Subjunctive

Subjunctive forms of verbs are typically used to express various states of unreality such as wish, emotion, possibility, judgment, opinion, necessity, or action that has not yet occurred. Subjunctive verbs are often found in "that" clauses. The verb requires "that" to follow it e.g. 'He insisted that was the wrong way'.

Sublime

Adjective meaning an immeasurable experience, unable to be rationalized.

Suffix

Groups of letters placed after a word to alter its meaning or change it into a different kind of word, from an adjective to an adverb, etc.

Summarize

To capture all of the most important parts of the original text (paragraph, story, poem), but express them in a much shorter space, and as much as possible in the reader’s own words.

Symbolism

A device in literature where an object represents an idea.

Synecdoche

A term where an entire idea is expressed by something smaller, such as a phrase or a single word; one part of the idea expresses the whole. This concept can also be reversed.

Synonym

A word that is similar in meaning to another word (e.g., sorrow, grief, sadness).

Syntax

The study of how words are arranged in a sentence. Ex.- Line 68 of Coleridge’s “Dejection: An Ode,” is difficult to determine its syntax because of the way the words are arranged: “Which wedding Nature to us gives in dower.” The word “wedding” could be seen as a verb or a noun.

Satire A literary approach that ridicules or examines human vice or weakness.
Sentence Structure The grammatical arrangement of words in sentences. A complete sentence must contain a subject and a predicate and express a complete thought. The structure of a sentence may be simple, complex, compound, or compound‐complex.
Sentence Types A simple sentence consists of one independent clause and no subordinate clauses. e.g., Kathy likes to dance. A compound sentence consists of two or more independent clauses and no subordinate clauses. e.g., Kathy likes to dance, and Brian likes to sing. A complex sentence consists of one or more independent clauses and one or more subordinate clauses. e.g., Although Kathy likes to dance and Brian likes to sing, neither has tried out for the school play. A compound‐complex sentence consists of at least two independent clauses and at least one subordinate clause. e.g., Kathy and Brian, who enjoy dancing and singing, have not tried out for the school play; we should encourage them to audition.
Sentence Variety Various sentence structures, styles, and lengths that can enhance the rhythm of or add emphasis to a piece of text. The presence of multiple sentence structures in a text (simple, complex, compound, compound-complex) and/or various sentence beginnings (e.g., dependent and independent clauses, phrases, single words).
Sequence of Steps A literary organizational form that presents the order in which tasks are to be performed.
Setting The time and place in which a story unfolds.
Simile A comparison of two different things that utilizes “like” or “as”.
Soliloquy A dramatic speech, revealing inner thoughts and feelings, spoken aloud by one character while alone on the stage.
Sonnet A 14 line poem written in iambic pentameter. There are two types of sonnets: Shakespearean and Italian. The Shakespearean sonnet is written with 3 quatrain and a couplet in abab, cdcd, efef, gg rhythmic pattern. An Italian sonnet is written in 2 stanzas with an octave followed by a septet in abba, abba, cdecde or cdcdcd rhythmic pattern.
Sound Devices Elements of literature that emphasize sound (e.g., assonance, consonance, alliteration, rhyme, onomatopoeia).
Speaker The voice used by an author to tell/narrate a story or poem. The speaker is often a created identity, and should not automatically be equated with the author. See also narrator and point of view.
Spondee A foot consisting of two syllables of approximately equal stress.
Stage Direction A playwright’s written instructions provided in the text of a play about the setting or how the actors are to move and behave in a play.
Stanza Group of lines offset by a space and then continuing with the next group of lines with a set pattern or number of lines.
Stichic Adjective describing poetry with lines of the same meter and length throughout, but not organized into regular stanzas. Example: Form of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's "Frost at Midnight"
Structure of Poem The rhyming pattern, meter, grammar, and imagery used by a poet to convey meaning.
Style The author’s choices regarding language, sentence structure, voice, and tone in order to communicate with the reader.
Stylistic Techniques The ways in which the writer may employ multiple elements of writing to distinguish and strengthen a piece of writing. These include variations in sentence structure, word choice, tone, usage, and point of view.
Subject‐Verb Agreement A grammatical rule in which the subject of a sentence must agree with its verb in both number and tense. e.g., The women at the ticket booth buy their tickets. The woman at the ticket booth buys her ticket.
Subjunctive Subjunctive forms of verbs are typically used to express various states of unreality such as wish, emotion, possibility, judgment, opinion, necessity, or action that has not yet occurred. Subjunctive verbs are often found in "that" clauses. The verb requires "that" to follow it e.g. 'He insisted that was the wrong way'.
Sublime Adjective meaning an immeasurable experience, unable to be rationalized.
Suffix Groups of letters placed after a word to alter its meaning or change it into a different kind of word, from an adjective to an adverb, etc.
Summarize To capture all of the most important parts of the original text (paragraph, story, poem), but express them in a much shorter space, and as much as possible in the reader’s own words.
Symbolism A device in literature where an object represents an idea.
Synecdoche A term where an entire idea is expressed by something smaller, such as a phrase or a single word; one part of the idea expresses the whole. This concept can also be reversed.
Synonym A word that is similar in meaning to another word (e.g., sorrow, grief, sadness).
Syntax The study of how words are arranged in a sentence. Ex.- Line 68 of Coleridge’s “Dejection: An Ode,” is difficult to determine its syntax because of the way the words are arranged: “Which wedding Nature to us gives in dower.” The word “wedding” could be seen as a verb or a noun.