Literary Devices List With Examples

Explore literary devices and story craft terms with definitions and examples. The Literary Devices & Techniques app brings together genre-specific tips, pitfalls to avoid, and practice prompts alongside its explanations. It is for writers who want to explore the language and techniques used in stories.

Choose All Terms to browse the collection, or use the Literary Devices and Story Craft tabs to explore those categories. Look up a term for a clear definition and an example, then use the genre-specific tips and practice prompts as you work. The app also points out pitfalls to avoid.

Each term below has a one-line definition; open it in the app for examples, genre tips and a practice prompt. You can also find writing prompts on the home page or explore story structure with the plot generator.

What you get

• Definitions and examples
• Genre-specific tips and pitfalls to avoid
• Practice prompts and story craft terms

Literary devices and story terms, defined

• Alliteration: The repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words.
• Allusion: A reference to another work of literature, person, or event.
• Analogy: A comparison between two things to show their similarities.
• Anaphora: The deliberate repetition of the first part of the sentence to achieve an artistic effect.
• Antagonist: A character or force that opposes the protagonist.
• Archetype: A typical character, situation, or symbol that represents universal patterns of human nature.
• Assonance: The repetition of vowel sounds within non-rhyming words.
• Characterization: The methods an author uses to develop the personalities of characters.
• Climax: The most intense, exciting, or important point in a story.
• Conflict: A struggle between opposing forces, often the central element of a plot.
• Connotation: The associated or secondary meaning of a word beyond its literal definition.
• Denotation: The literal or primary meaning of a word.
• Diction: The author's choice of words and their arrangement.
• Euphemism: A mild or indirect word or expression substituted for one considered too harsh or blunt.
• Chekhov's Gun: A dramatic principle: every element in a story must be necessary. If you show a gun in Act One, it must fire by Act Three.
• Foreshadowing: Hints or clues about what will happen later in the story.
• Hyperbole: Deliberate and obvious exaggeration used for effect.
• Imagery: Descriptive language that appeals to the senses.
• Irony: A contrast between expectation and reality.
• Metaphor: A direct comparison between two unrelated things.
• Mood: The atmosphere or emotional feeling created by a piece of writing.
• Motif: A recurring element that has symbolic significance in a story.
• Onomatopoeia: A word that imitates the sound it represents.
• Oxymoron: A figure of speech where contradictory terms appear together.
• Paradox: A statement that contradicts itself but reveals a deeper truth.
• Personification: Giving human characteristics to non-human things.
• Point of View: The perspective from which a story is told.
• Protagonist: The main character in a story.
• Satire: The use of humor, irony, or exaggeration to criticize or expose flaws.
• Simile: A comparison using "like" or "as."
• Symbolism: The use of symbols to represent ideas or qualities.
• Theme: The central idea or message in a literary work.
• Tone: The writer's attitude toward the subject or audience.
• Understatement: The presentation of something as less significant than it is.
• Act: A major division within a play, used in structuring a narrative.
• Allegory: A narrative with a deeper meaning, often moral or political.

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