Word of the Day

Noun · pronounced LY-tuh-teez

What it means:

Litotes is a form of understatement that makes a point by denying its opposite, often with a dry or ironic edge.

Calling a blizzard "not the best day for a picnic" is litotes.

Noun

What it means:

Pathetic fallacy is giving human emotions to nature or objects, so that the setting seems to share the characters' mood.

The sullen sky over the funeral is pathetic fallacy at work.

Noun

What it means:

Chekhov's gun is the principle that every detail a writer puts in front of the reader should pay off. The playwright Anton Chekhov said that a rifle hanging on the wall in the first act should go off by the third.

The fishing knife in the glove box was Chekhov's gun, and we all knew it.

Latin phrase · pronounced in MAY-dee-us RAYZ

What it means:

In medias res means "into the middle of things." A story that begins in medias res drops the reader into the action and fills in the backstory later.

The novel opens in medias res, with the truck already sliding toward the river.

Noun

What it means:

An unreliable narrator is a narrator whose account can't be taken at face value, because they are lying, mistaken, biased or simply don't see the whole picture.

Halfway through, we realized the unreliable narrator had been leaving out the one detail that mattered.

Noun · pronounced BIL-doongz-roh-mahn

What it means:

A bildungsroman is a novel that follows a character's growth from youth into adulthood, and the lessons, losses and choices that shape them. The word is German for "novel of formation."

Great Expectations is a classic bildungsroman: we watch Pip grow up, get it wrong, and finally get some of it right.

Noun · pronounced ZOOG-muh

What it means:

Zeugma is when a single word links to two others in a sentence, usually in two different senses, often for a wry or comic effect.

"He lost his keys and his temper" is a tidy bit of zeugma.

Noun · pronounced meh-TON-uh-mee

What it means:

Metonymy replaces the name of a thing with the name of something closely associated with it.

"The White House issued a statement" is metonymy; the building said nothing, the people inside it did.

Noun · pronounced FOYL

What it means:

A foil is a character whose contrast with another character brings out that character’s qualities.

Steady, ordinary Dr. Watson is Sherlock Holmes’s foil; standing next to him, Holmes’s brilliance is impossible to miss.

Noun · pronounced uh-NAF-er-uh

What it means:

Anaphora is the repetition of the same word or phrase at the start of several sentences or lines, building rhythm and weight.

"We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds" is a famous use of anaphora.

Noun · pronounced day-noo-MAHN

What it means:

The denouement is the part of a story after the climax, where loose ends are tied up and the characters settle into what comes next. The word is French for "untying."

The fight ends on page 300, but the denouement, a quiet breakfast twenty pages later, is what readers remember.

Noun · pronounced ih-PIF-uh-nee

What it means:

An epiphany is the moment a character suddenly sees the truth of something, often something that was in front of them all along.

Her epiphany came in the parking lot: he had never once asked how her day went.

Noun

What it means:

Foreshadowing is a hint or clue planted early in a story about something that will happen later. Done well, readers feel it without quite noticing it.

The cracked teacup in chapter one was foreshadowing; by chapter twenty the whole house had come apart.

Noun · pronounced sin-EK-duh-kee

What it means:

Synecdoche is a figure of speech where a part of something stands for the whole thing, or the whole stands for a part.

When the captain called for “all hands on deck,” he was using synecdoche; he wanted the sailors, not just their hands.

Verb

What it means:

If you are bemused by something, you are confused or bewildered by it, and often also somewhat amused.

The contestant seemed somewhat bemused by the question but gave the correct answer.