Literary Devices Quiz
Questions: 16 · 10 minutes
1. A writer says, “The impatient wind rattled every window on the street.” Which device is most clearly used?
Personification
Allusion
Onomatopoeia
Understatement
2. A fire station burns down because of an accidental electrical fault. Which device best describes the contrast between the outcome and what people normally expect?
Situational irony
Dramatic irony
Verbal irony
Satire
3. A novelist uses a caged bird to represent a character’s lack of freedom. What device is this?
Paradox
Pun
Metonymy
Symbolism
4. A news report states, “The White House released a statement,” using the building’s name to refer to the presidential administration. Which device is used?
Synecdoche
Allegory
Apostrophe
Metonymy
5. In a play, the audience sees a key hidden under a rug. A character enters, searches the room, and declares that escape is impossible. Which device shapes this scene?
Situational irony
Foreshadowing
Flashback
Dramatic irony
6. A first-person narrator insists that she has never entered a particular house, yet accurately describes a hidden room inside it. Which narrative device should a reader most reasonably suspect?
A frame narrative
An objective narrator
An unreliable narrator
A stream-of-consciousness narrator
7. Which device appears in the phrase “deafening silence”?
Oxymoron
Euphemism
Antithesis
Allusion
8. In the phrase “silver sails slipped silently seaward,” which sound device is most prominent?
End rhyme
Assonance
Onomatopoeia
Alliteration
9. The phrase “go slow over the road” repeats a long “o” vowel sound. Which sound device does this illustrate?
Consonance
Onomatopoeia
Assonance
Alliteration
10. A poet writes, “O Moon, remain with me through this lonely night,” directly addressing the moon. Which device is defined by this kind of direct address?
Allusion
Apostrophe
Anaphora
Metonymy
11. Which sentence contains a simile?
The old floorboards groaned in protest.
A blanket of fog covered the harbor.
The lake shone like a sheet of polished glass.
I have told you a million times.
12. Which sentence uses hyperbole?
The kettle hissed on the stove.
Her answer was as sharp as a thorn.
This suitcase weighs a thousand pounds.
The city woke beneath a gray sky.
13. In a poem, a sentence continues from one line to the next without terminal punctuation or a grammatical pause. What is this technique called?
Caesura
Enjambment
End-stopping
Refrain
14. Throughout a novel, images of changing seasons repeatedly accompany the protagonist’s personal growth. What is the best term for this recurring element?
Motif
Allegory
Archetype
Euphemism
15. Early in a novel, a bridge develops a widening crack. Much later, it collapses during the climax. What is the early detail primarily doing?
Creating a flashback
Foreshadowing a later event
Using comic relief
Introducing an allegory
16. In the sentence “After the announcement, the classroom became a pressure cooker,” which device compares the classroom to something else without using “like” or “as”?
Simile
Metaphor
Personification
Euphemism