200 terms and definitions for language arts. a group of scenes in a play an act

200 terms and definitions for language arts

A group of scenes in a play

an act

A small part added to the beginning or end of a word to change its meaning.

an affix

Repetition of initial consonant sounds: “Peter Piper Picked a peck of pickled peppers.”

alliteration

A book containing lists of facts, published every year.

an almanac

A comparison between two pairs of things:apple : red :: banana : yellow

an analogy

Clearly stated; easy to see

apparent

Transfer an idea from your reading to a new situation in real life.

apply

Take something for granted.

assume

A book of maps

an atlas

How the author feels about his or her topic.

attitude

The person who wrote the selection

an author

The story of a person’s life; written by that person.an autobiography

A summary of events that happened before the story begins.

background information

The start of a selection

the beginning

A strong opinion about a topic that influences the way a writer writes.

bias

The story of a person’s life written by another author

a biography

Words written in dark, heavy type that looks like this.

bold print

A list of all the characters in a play, found at the beginning of the script.

cast of characters

Something that makes something else happen

a cause

A person or animal who takes part in a story

a character

Details that describe what kind of person a character is.

characteristics

Make the writing clearer and easier to understand.

clarify

The most important event in the story; the moment the conflict is resolved.

the climax

A play with a happy ending; usually funny but it doesn’t have to be!

a comedy

Tell how two things are alike.

compare

A statement that tells how two things are alike or different

a comparison

A decision a reader makes about what is happening in the story, based on evidence.

a conclusion

The problem characters in a story are trying to solve.

a conflict

Explain how ideas in a selection are similar to other texts and the real world.

connect

Words around an unknown word that help you figure out its meaning.

context clues

Tell how two things are different.

contrast

A moveable piece of cloth separating the audience from the stage in a drama

a curtain

Writing that gives details about a person, place, thing, or action.

descriptive writing

A variety of English spoken by a certain group of people: “You ain’t gone?”

a dialect

Words characters say to one another in piece of writing.

dialogue

A book of words and their definitions

a dictionary

Twist the facts out of their true meaning.

distort

A piece of writing intended to be performed by actors.

drama

Changed a story into a drama

dramatized

The result of a cause

an effect

Point something out as being important.

emphasize

Feelings that make you act in a certain way.emotional factors

A book or set of books containing facts and explanations of a wide variety of subjects

encyclopedia

Judge the quality of something good; decide how good or bad something is.

evaluate

A piece of writing that tells how good or bad something is.

an evaluation

Something that happens in a story

an event

Stretching the truth; making something greater than it really is.

exaggeration

Things that have happened in a person’s life

experiences

A description of an event by a person who was there

eyewitness account

A statement that can be proved to be true

a fact

Reasoning that has mistakes: the facts do not support the conclusion.

faulty logic

A story made up by an author.

fiction

Words that don’t mean exactly what they say, such as similes and metaphors.

figurative language

The story is told by a character inside the story.

first person

A scene in a story that brings the reader back to an event that happened before.

flashback

Hints the author gives about what will happen next.

foreshadowing

A broad statement that could apply to more than one situationa generalization

A category of writing

genre

A section in a book that gives the meaning of words used in that book

a glossary

A combination of words and pictures that show how a selection is organized

graphic organizers

The title of one section of a selection

a heading

Exaggeration: “Your dog is so ugly it could…”

hyperbole

A picture, diagram, drawing, figure, graph, or table that adds information to the selection.

an illustration

A picture that a selection makes in your mind

an image

Make an educated guess about what is happening in the story.

infer

An educated guess you make about what is happening in the story.

an inference

Understand and explain the meaning of something.

interpret

Writing at the beginning of a selection that tells you what will come.

introduction

When a character says one thing and means another.

verbal irony

When events do not work out as planned

situational irony

When the reader knows something the characters do not.

dramatic irony

Writing that slants to the side like this

italic

A group of words next to one another in a poem

a line

A publication printed regularly that focuses on one particular topic.

a magazine

What the author says about the topic; the most important message of the selection.

main idea

The conflict of the story

main problem

Blank space around the edges of the page

margin

The story of a person’s life, written by that person (Also called autobiography)

memoir

A comparison between two things that does not use “like” or “as”

metaphor

A long speech by one character in a drama

monologue

The feeling of the selection; the way the author wants the reader to feel.

mood

A word that can have more than one meaning, such as orange

multiple-meaning word

A story told in prose.

a narrative

The person telling the story

narrator

Bad (used to describe feelings)

negative

Not having any emotions about a topic, not negative or positive.

neutral

A publication usually printed every day that contains current news updates.

newspaper

Writing that is true, telling about real-life people, places, things, or ideas.

nonfiction

A statement about the way a person feels about something; it cannot be proven to be true for everybody.

an opinion

Re-stating an idea in your own words

paraphrase

A comparison between a non-human and a human, giving a non-human human qualities.

personification

A group of words, not a complete sentence

phrase

A piece written that is intended to be performed by actors, also called a drama.

play

The author of a drama

a playwright

What happens in the story.

plot

The author of a poem

a poet

A piece of writing that uses sounds and figurative language to express an imaginative thought.

poetry

Who’s telling the story (in fiction) OR The author’s perspective on his/her topic (in nonfiction)

point of view

Good (used to describe feelings)

positive

Guess what will happen next.

predict

A guess about what will happen next.

a prediction

A group of letters added to the beginning of a word that change the word’s meaning.

a prefix

A piece of writing written by someone who was involved in the event he/she describes.

primary source

Something that causes difficulty for one or more characters

a problem

An object an actor uses or carries on stage.

a prop

Writing that tries to persuade the reader to act based on emotions and not on facts

propaganda

Writing in sentences and paragraphs (not drama or poetry)

prose

The reason why a person does something

purpose

Punctuation marks that surround dialogue; they look like this: “ “quotation marks

Emphasizing a sound, word, or idea by using it over and over again

repetition

The way the conflict in the story is solved.

resolution

Something or someone that can give you needed information.

a resource

Repetition of the ending sounds of words: hat/cat/mat or take/break/shake.

rhyme

The “beat” in a poem, a pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables

rhythm

A small part of a word that gives it a basic meaning

root

A section of a play taking place in a single setting

scene

A drama written for TV or movies

a screenplay

The written copy of a drama, containing dialogue and stage directions

a script

A piece of writing written by someone who was not involved in the event he/she describes.secondary source

Language that appeals to any of the five senses: touch, taste, sound, smell, or sight.

sensory words

Anything that is constructed or painted to make the stage look like the setting of the play

a set

When and where a story takes place

setting

A shorter story next to the main selection that gives more detail about a topic related to the main selection

a sidebar

Important

significant

A comparison between two things that uses the words “like” or “as”

simile

A short, informal drama

a skit

The way a problem could be solved.

solution

The narrator of a poem

speaker

The area where a play is performed

stage

Instructions to the actors about how to move and say their linesstage directions

The author’s position on a topic: how he/she feels about it.

stance

A group of lines in a poem

a stanza

Said or written

stated

A graphic organizer that shows the parts of a story (character, plot, setting, sequence, resolution, etc.)

story map

A plan for how to complete a task

a strategy

A smaller heading that gives the title of one section of a selection

subheading

Words underneath the title of a selection that give more information

subtitle

A group of letters added to the end of a word that change the word’s meaning.

a suffix

Re-tell the story by listing the most important events: to “make a long story short.”

summarize

A brief re-telling of the most important events in a story

a summary

A fact or idea that helps to prove that the main idea is correctsupporting detail

Something that stands for something else

a symbol

The building in which a play is performed.

a theater

The moral or lesson about life that a story teaches

theme

A book of words and their synonyms

a thesaurus

A narrator, who is not a character in the story, tells the story.

third person

The name of a selection

a title

The way the author feels about his or her topic.

tone

What the selection is about.

topic

A drama with a sad ending

a tragedy

The appearance of words, lines, or stanzas in the poem that add to the poem’s meaningvisual elements

The decisions a writer makes about what words to use.

word choice

Overused or commonplace

trite

Vague or unclear

ambiguous

Unnecessary repetition of a word

or idea

redundant

Worried, anxious

distraught

Present reasons for or against something

argue

Gloomy, sad, serious

somber

Wild excitement

pandemonium

Overused expression

cliché

Extreme confusion

bedlam

Showing remarkable originality

ingenious

Suffering severely from hunger;

starving.

famished

Words imitating sounds

onomatopoeia

To condemn openly, criticize.

denounce

To plunge into a liquid,

submerge.

douse

To give up,desert,disown

forsake

Back up with details or evidence.

support

To illustrate and explain

demonstrate

To give more details

elaborate

To cause somebody to adopt a certain position, belief, or course of action

persuade

Not clearly seen, heard, or

understood.

indistinct

Extremely sorrowful or emotionally painful

grievous

Feeling of guilt

remorse

The reason a character behaves a certain way.

motivation

The art of evaluating or analyzing the play

critique

Uncertainly

tentatively

The items needed to make the food.

ingredients

One follows this to make a cake, cookies, or any other food.

recipe

A cup, teaspoon, tablespoon, pinch, dash, or an ounce

measurements

Turn on the oven early to get it to a specific temperature before putting the food in to cook or bake.

preheat

The character who opposes the main character

antagonist

The main or central character in a literary work

protagonist

A story from the past, often about a famous person or event, based at least somewhat on historical fact

a legend

A story that attempts to explain something about the world

a myth

A brief tale, usually about an animal, that teaches a moral or lesson.

a fable

A story passed down from one generation to the next.

a folktale

The person or persons for whom you are writing

audience

To look quickly through a reading for specific information

scan

To look quickly at a reading for a general idea of what it is about.

skim

A main idea that is not directly stated; but discovered by inference.

implied

A reading strategy to help with comprehension by going back and reading the selection again

re-reading

An alphabetical list in a printed work that gives each item listed the page number where it may be found.

index

To foresee and deal with or provide for beforehand

anticipate

A wrong or mistaken idea

misconception

To think seriously and carefully about what occurred.

reflect

A device used in a household, especially in the kitchen.

utensil

So clear in statement that there is no doubt about the meaning

explicit

A newspaper or magazine article that gives the opinions of its editors

editorial

A changing from one state, stage, place, or subject to another

a transition