Literary devices 

1. Cliché

An overused expression or idea.

Example: "Every cloud has a silver lining."

2. Climax

The most intense or important moment in a story.

Example: In Romeo and Juliet, the climax is when Romeo kills Tybalt.

3. Conflict

The struggle between opposing forces in a narrative.

Example: Man vs. Nature in The Old Man and the Sea.

4. Connotation

The implied meaning of a word beyond its literal definition.

Example: "Home' connotes warmth and comfort.

5. Denotation

The literal dictionary definition of a word.

Example: "Home' means a place where one lives.

6. Diction

The writer's choice of words.

The writer's choice of words.

Example: "The sky was blue" vs. "The cerulean sky stretched endlessly."

7. Ellipsis

Omission of words for effect.

Example: "I went to the park... and then home."

8. Enjambment

Continuation of a sentence without a pause beyond a line of poetry.

Example: "I think that I shall never see / A poem lovely as a tree."

9. Epigram

A brief, witty statement.

Example: "I can resist everything except temptation. Oscar Wilde

10. Epistolary

A story told through letters.

Example: Dracula by Bram Stoker.

11. Farce

A comedic work using exaggerated characters and situations.

Example: The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde.

12. Foil

A character who contrasts with another character.

Example: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

13. Free Verse

Poetry without a regular meter or rhyme scheme.

Example: Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass.

14. Hubris

Excessive pride or arrogance.

Example: Macbeth's downfall is caused by his hubris.

15. Idiom

A phrase with a figurative meaning different from its literal meaning.

Example: "Kick the bucket" means to die.

16. Intertextuality

References to other texts within a work.

Example: T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land references multiple literary works.

17. Inversion

Reversal of normal word order for emphasis.

Example: A chronological recount of events in a novel.

18. Parody

Imitation of a work for comic effect.

Example: Scary Movie parodies horror films.

19. Pathos

Appeal to emotion in literature.

Example: "For you, a thousand times over in The Kite Runner evokes loyalty and sacrifice.

20. Polysyndeton

Use of multiple conjunctions in close succession.

Example: "We laughed and talked and sang and danced."

21. Prologue

An introduction to a story.

Example: The prologue in Romeo and Juliet.

22. Quatrain

A stanza of four lines, often with a rhyme scheme.

Example: "Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, / Humpty Dumpty had a great fall."

23. Refrain

A repeated line or phrase in a poem or song.

Example: "Do not go gentle into that good night."

24. Sarcasm

Use of irony to mock or convey contempt.

Example: "Oh, great. Another homework assignment!"

25. Setting

The time and place of a story.

Example: The moors in Wuthering Heights.

26. Stream of Consciousness

Narrative mode capturing a character's thought process.

Example: James Joyce's Ulysses.

27. Synecdoche

A part representing the whole.

Example: "All hands on deck."

28. Theme

The central idea or message in a work.

Example: Love and sacrifice in Romeo and Juliet.

29. Understatement

Minimizing the significance of something.

Example: "It's just a scratch" for a deep wound.

30. Verse

Writing arranged in metrical rhythm.

Example: Sonnets by Shakespeare.

31. Zeugma

Using one word to modify two others in different ways.

Example: "She broke his car and his heart."