The Miller Analogies Test or MAT tests your knowledge through analogies. In order to do well on MAT literature analogies, you need to master the basics of literary terminology, among other things.
Act: Major part of a play
Allegory: Work in which things represent or stand for other things
Alliteration: Repeated sounds in consecutive words
Allusion: Reference to something
Anachronism: Error in time sequence
Antagonist: Character who opposes the work’s hero
Antihero: Main character who lacks heroism
Apostrophe: Direct reference to something that is absent
Assonance: Repetition of vowel sounds
Ballad: Poem that tells a tale and is usually meant to be sung
Bildungsroman: Autobiographical novel
Canto: Division of a long poem
Cliché: An overused, formerly meaningful element in a work
Climax: Point of highest drama in a work
Couplet: Two consecutive lines of verse that rhyme with each other
Denouement: Final part of a work
Doggerel: Bad poetry
Elegy: Poem expressing sadness
Epic: Long heroic poem
Epiphany: A work or section of a work presenting a moment of revelation
Essay: Short work expressing the author’s opinion
Fable: Short story containing a moral lesson
Foot: Unit of verse
Foreshadowing: When the author hints at future plot developments
Genre: Type of literature
Haiku: Japanese three-line poem
Hyperbole: Exaggeration
Idiom: A saying that has a figurative meaning
Imagery: When the author uses descriptive words to enhance his meaning
Irony: Something that means the opposite of its literal meaning
Kitsch: Work of poor quality or reputation
Lampoon: Satirical portrayal
Limerick: Five-line humorous poem
Metaphor: Description of something done by comparing it to something else
Meter: A poem’s rhythm
Motif: Repeated theme in a work
Onomatopoeia: Word that sounds like what it means
Oxymoron: Term that contradicts itself
Parable: Story with a moral lesson
Paradox: Illogical statements used to create insight
Parody: Work that mocks another work
Pathos: Something used to get sympathy
Personification: Giving human attributes to things that are not human
Plot: Events of a literary work
Prose: Nonpoetic language
Pun: A humorous use of words to suggest alternate meanings
Rhetoric: An art that writers use to be more persuasive
Rhetorical Question: A question that makes a point; no reply is expected
Sarcasm: An ironic statement usually used in a negative way
Satire: Work that makes fun of something
Scene: Part of a play happening in a certain location
Simile: Description accomplished by comparing one thing to another
Sonnet: Fourteen-line poem
Stanza: Part of a poem consisting of a group of lines
Symbol: A representation of an idea
Theme: The core subject that an author is writing about
Thesis: The primary argument in an essay
Tone: The author’s attitude towards the subject matter
Verse: Poetry, or a part of a poem
