127 Literary Devices: Definitions & Examples
Written by: Nick Redgrove
Reviewed by: Emma Dow
Last updated
Contents
Whether you’re analysing Shakespeare or poetic techniques for your English Language exams, this guide has you covered. It provides student-friendly definitions to all of the essential literary terms you will ever need.
It's a single, alphabetical glossary of all 127 literary devices, with clear, exam-ready definitions you can use in your GCSE, IGCSE, A Level or IB exams.
Key Takeaways
Literary devices are the techniques writers use to create meaning, mood and effect.
The terms literary terms, literary techniques and language devices all mean roughly the same thing.
Naming a device isn't enough - exams reward you for explaining its effect on the reader.
This glossary covers 127 devices, from allegory to volta.
What Are Literary Devices?
Literary devices are any techniques a writer uses to create a particular effect. They can carry a message, shape the mood of a text, or pull a specific emotional response from a reader.
You'll see them called lots of things:
Literary terms
Literary techniques
Language devices
Language techniques
They all point to the same idea: the tools writers use to build meaning.
10 Common Literary Devices, With Examples
If you're short on time, start here. These are the devices that you should know like the back of your hand. They come up in exams often.
Device | What it does | Example |
Metaphor | Compares one thing to another directly | "Time is a thief." |
Simile | Compares using "like" or "as" | "Brave as a lion." |
Personification | Gives human traits to non-human things | "The wind whispered." |
Alliteration | Repeats the same opening sound | "Wild and windy weather." |
Onomatopoeia | Words that imitate sounds | "Buzz", "crash", "hiss." |
Hyperbole | Deliberate exaggeration | "I've told you a million times." |
Symbolism | One thing stands for something bigger | A dove standing for peace. |
Imagery | Language that appeals to the senses | "The crisp, golden toast." |
Foreshadowing | Hints at what's coming later | Dark clouds before a tragedy. |
Irony | A gap between what's said and what's meant | "Lovely weather," in a storm. |
Literary Devices Glossary (All 127)
Literary device | Definition |
a literary work in which the characters and events represent particular qualities or ideas relating to morals, politics or religion | |
words that begin with the same sound (often the repetition of letters) placed closely together | |
an unexplained or implicit reference to someone or something outside of the text | |
where two unrelated objects are compared for their shared qualities | |
the repetition of the same phrase at the beginning of a sentence or clause | |
a short and interesting story, or an amusing event, often proposed to support or demonstrate a point | |
a character who opposes the main character | |
where an animal or non-human object is given human form, behaviour or personality | |
a person or thing that is the direct opposite of someone or something else | |
a short statement that is intended to express a general truth | |
addressing a person who is not present, or a thing that is personified | |
a typical example of something, or the original model of something from which others are copied | |
the repetition of the same or similar vowel sounds close together | |
where conjunctions are left out between words or parts of a sentence, often creating a list-like style | |
a type of poem that tells a narrative which was traditionally set to music and usually written in quatrains | |
a narrative or novel about events and experiences in the life of the main character as they mature and become an adult | |
a type of poetry that does not rhyme, usually with ten syllables in each line | |
a pause within a line of poetry | |
a highly exaggerated representation of a character in a text, often for comic effect | |
the release of strong or repressed emotions, usually by an audience | |
the act of creating and describing characters in literature, including their traits and psychological make-up | |
when words, grammatical constructions or concepts are repeated in reverse order | |
something or someone that is not at all original, surprising or interesting because it has very often been seen before | |
the highest point of tension or drama in a piece of writing | |
the use of informal words or phrases in writing or speech | |
a feeling or idea that is implied by a word that is separate from its dictionary meaning | |
the same consonant sound repeated within a group of words | |
a pair of consecutive lines of poetry that create a complete thought or idea | |
the literal meaning or dictionary definition of a word | |
the resolution of conflict in a narrative plot structure | |
an unnatural or very unlikely end to a story or event, that solves or removes any problems easily | |
the exchange of spoken words between characters in a piece of writing | |
when an author explicitly tells a reader directly what a character is like | |
when the audience or reader knows something the characters in the story do not | |
a poem written as if someone is speaking to an unseen listener about important thoughts | |
an cruel or unfair society, especially an imaginary society in the future, in which there is a lot of hardship or suffering | |
a serious, melancholic poem, often written to mourn the loss of someone who has died | |
when the last syllables or words in two or more lines rhyme with each other | |
a line of poetry ending in a grammatical break, for example with a full stop | |
the continuing of a sentence from one line of a poem into the next line | |
a poem, quotation, or sentence, usually placed at the beginning of a piece of writing | |
an argument that appeals to an audience’s morality by highlighting the speaker’s credibility or trustworthiness | |
a word or phrase used to avoid saying an unpleasant or offensive word | |
the description or explanation of background information within a work of literature | |
a metaphor that is further developed throughout all or part of a piece of writing | |
the part of the plot that occurs after the climax has been reached and the major conflict has happened | |
literature in the form of prose that describes imaginary events and people | |
the use of non-literal phrases or words to elicit an emotional response from a reader or audience | |
when a story is narrated by one character from their own perspective, usually using the pronouns “I”, “me” and “my” | |
a device that moves the reader from the present moment in a chronological piece of writing to a scene in the past | |
a device used by a writer to provide hints or clues to the reader or audience about what will happen later on in the text | |
the type or genre of a text that a writer has chosen to use | |
a poem which uses a strict metre, rhyme and form, especially in fixed forms such as sonnets, villanelles, etc. | |
a poem that does not use a strict metre or rhyme scheme | |
a specific literary style that involves a particular set of characteristics | |
a specific type of Japanese poem which has 17 syllables divided into three lines of five, seven, and five syllables | |
the flaw in character which leads to the downfall of the protagonist in a tragedy | |
a verse form found in epic poetry, where the lines are in rhyming pairs | |
excessive pride or self-confidence | |
deliberate exaggeration used for effect | |
a verse line consisting of ten syllables, organised into five pairs of alternating unstressed and stressed syllables | |
a short expression or phrase that means something more than just its literal meaning | |
the use of words to describe ideas or situations | |
revealing details about a character without explicitly or directly stating what they are like | |
a story which begins in the middle of events, without any introduction | |
rhyme that occurs between words within a verse line | |
the relationship a text may have with other texts | |
when there is a noticeable, often humorous, difference between what is written and its intended or expected meaning | |
the placement of two or more things side by side, often in order to bring out their differences | |
the words, phrases and literary devices a writer uses for effect | |
understatement used for rhetorical effect | |
an argument that appeals to someone's sense of reason | |
the unintentional misuse of a word by confusion with one of similar sound, often with humorous results | |
a figure of speech that makes a direct comparison by relating one thing to another unrelated thing | |
a figure of speech that refers to something by using a word that describes its qualities or is closely associated with it | |
the regular and rhythmic arrangement of stressed and unstressed syllables according to a particular pattern | |
an extended speech uttered by one character, either to others or as if alone | |
a recurring image or idea in a piece of writing | |
the description of a series of events, usually in a novel | |
a poem, especially one that is written in praise of a particular person, thing, or event | |
a narrator who is all-knowing about plot, characters as well as characters’ motivations and emotions | |
words whose pronunciations imitate the sounds they describe | |
a figure of speech that puts together opposite elements | |
a statement that contradicts itself, or that must be both true and untrue at the same time | |
where similar ideas are arranged in phrases, sentences, and paragraphs that balance one element with another of equal importance and similar wording | |
a humorous piece of writing, drama, or music which imitates the style of a well-known person or represents a familiar situation in an exaggerated way | |
the use of inanimate objects, most commonly the weather, to reflect human feelings and tone | |
an appeal to an audience’s emotion, often evoking pity, sadness, or tenderness | |
the narrative voice that a writer adopts for a specific piece of writing | |
giving human characteristics to an inanimate object, abstract thing or an animal | |
the narrator’s point of view in a story | |
the sequence of events that make up a narrative | |
the overuse of the same connective (for example, using “and” in between every item in a long list) | |
where the order of events in a narrative is disrupted so that a future plot point is told earlier in the narrative than it actually occurs | |
written language in its ordinary form (structured in sentences and paragraphs) rather than set out as poetry | |
the chief character in a literary work | |
the humorous use of a word or phrase that has several meanings or that sounds like another word | |
a stanza of four lines | |
a word, line, or phrase repeated in a poem | |
the intentional repeating of certain words, phrases or other literary devices in a text | |
speech or writing intended to influence or persuade people | |
a question that is used for dramatic effect that does not expect an answer | |
a word that has the same last sound as another word | |
a poet's chosen pattern of lines whose last syllables rhyme with other lines in a poem (for example ABAB, or CDCD) | |
a pair of rhyming lines of poetry, typically of the same length, next to each other | |
a strong pattern of sounds or words in verse or prose, determined by the relation of long and short or stressed and unstressed syllables | |
the section of the narrative that leads towards its climax | |
the use of humour, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticise people’s stupidity or vices | |
using the pronouns “you”, “your” and “yours” to refer to someone | |
words which make a “s”, “z” or “sh” sound | |
a description that uses “like” or “as” to compare two things that are not obviously similar, but share a common quality | |
a dramatic speech uttered by one character speaking aloud while alone on the stage (or while under the impression of being alone) | |
a fourteen-line poem written in iambic pentameter with a strict rhyme scheme | |
one of the parts into which a poem is divided | |
a type of narration where a character’s every thought and feeling is expressed directly to the reader | |
the deliberate organisation of a text by an author | |
any image or thing that stands for something else | |
a literary device in which a writer uses one thing to represent something more abstract | |
a figure of speech in which a part is made to represent the whole or vice versa | |
the use of different words to say the same thing twice in the same statement | |
a set or group of three lines of verse rhyming together or connected by rhyme with an adjacent triplet | |
a central idea or topic in a literary or non-fiction text | |
when the narrator of a story stands outside of the world of the story and relates the events using the pronouns “he”, “she”, “it” and “they” | |
the attitude that a character, narrator or writer takes towards a given subject | |
an idea, phrase or image that is recurrent in a writer's work | |
a 19-line poetic form consisting of five tercets (made up of three lines) followed by a quatrain (consisting four lines) | |
a change in mood or focus in a poem |
How to Use This Glossary in Your Exams
Knowing the name of a device is only step one. Examiners reward you for explaining its effect - what it does to the reader and why the writer chose it.
So don't just spot the metaphor. Say what it suggests, how it builds a theme, or how it shapes the mood.
To put these devices into practice on your set literature texts, head to our:
Everything's course-specific, so you'll only see what's relevant to your exam.
Frequently Asked Questions
What's the difference between literary devices and figurative language?
Literary devices are the full toolbox of techniques a writer uses, including structure, narrative voice and sound.
Figurative language is one type of literary device - the techniques where words mean something beyond their literal sense, like metaphor, simile and personification. So all figurative language is a literary device, but not all literary devices are figurative language.
Are literary devices and literary techniques the same thing?
Yes, more or less. "Literary techniques", "literary terms" and "language devices" are all used to mean the same thing: the methods a writer uses to create an effect. Different exam boards and textbooks just prefer different labels.
Nail Your English Literature Grades with Save My Exams
Literary devices are only powerful when you can use them, not just name them. The students who pick up the marks are the ones who explain why a writer reached for a metaphor, a caesura or a shift in tone.
That's where we come in. Save My Exams turns the theory into exam technique, so you walk in knowing exactly what examiners reward.
Bookmark this glossary, pair it with your revision notes, and start spotting these devices in everything you read.
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