Forbiddingly stern; severely simple and unornamented The austere woman believed that children should be seen and not heard. Austere Forbiddingly stern; severely simple and unornamented 2. The austere room had only a single couch and table.

Increase; make something greater by adding to it. Augment Increase; make something greater by adding to it. After a losing season, the football team augmented their talent by drafting a star quarterback.

Completely dominating another’s will authoritarian Completely dominating another’s will Authoritarian parenting style involves parents telling their children exactly what they can and cannot do.

autonomous Self-governing The autonomous drivers decided that they didn’t need roads, because they had the ability to drive where ever they wanted.

aversion Firm dislike In order to become a stronger, faster kitty, Super Kitty stuck her paw in cold water as a form of aversion therapy. Now she is impervious to cold.

Contradict; give a false impression belie Contradict; give a false impression The elevator’s buttons belied the direction is was set to travel. 2.

benevolent Generous; charitable

bolster Support; reinforce Try as he might, the boss just couldn’t bolster morale. The creepy clown did nothing to make the employees excited about working. 2. Meg bought a billow to bolster her back while she sat on the couch.

braggart boaster Hillary was a true braggart. She showed off her new $3,000 watch to everyone she met.

Concise and exact use of word in writing or speech brevity Mr. Chicken believed that his saying used excellent brevity. However, Mrs. Chicken then proved him wrong. 2. The Geico add used brevity to prove that it’s 15% savings was a great selling point.

cajole Coax; wheedle Smooty the Alien tried to use treats to cajole his alien dog Jabber into completing tricks.

Deliberately planned; likely calculated Deliberately planned; likely Harold the Mouse had carefully calculated a way to steal the cheese.

Frankness; open honesty candor Frankness; open honesty

Unpredictable; fickle; fanciful Capricious Unpredictable; fickle; fanciful Fancy Kitty should have been at work, but due to his capricious nature, he went to a spa instead.

Severely critical of others censorious Severely critical of others Triston felt as thought his girlfriend was censorious. She wouldn’t let him talk about the importance of clean socks.

Blame; criticize; an expression of formal disapproval Censure Censure was used on the judges previous rulings , because he was found biased.

Use of force to get someone to obey coercion Use of force to get someone to obey The mother used coercion to get her kids to complete their chores. If they wanted wifi, they would follow the rules. 2. Using a hot hair drying, the bunny coerced the snow people into giving up their carrot noses.

commemorate Honor the memory of The students commemorated the holocaust victims with a moment of silence.

Assemble; gather; accumulate compile Assemble; gather; accumulate As Little Kitty’s farts compiled in the room, the air became more and more dangerous to breath.

Self-satisfaction; smugness complacency Self-satisfaction; smugness The Gazelle’s complacency that she was faster than the lioness resulted in a very unhappy ending.

Asyndeton Consists of omitting conjunctions between words, phrases, or clauses. This can seem more emphatic than if a final conjunction were used.

Atmosphere The emotional mood created by the entirety of a literary work, established partly by the setting and partly by the author’s choice of objects that are described. Frequently foreshadows events and can create mood.

Chiasmus A figure of speech in which two successive phrases or clauses are parallel in syntax, but reverse the order of the analogous words.

Clause A grammatical unit that contains both a subject and a verb. An independent or main clause expresses a complete thought and can stand alone in a sentence. A dependent or subordinate clause cannot stand alone as a sentence and must be accompanied by an independent clause.

Colloquial/colloquialism The use of slang or informalities in speech or writing. Not generally acceptable for formal writing, colloquialism give a work a conversational, familiar tone. Colloquial expressions in writing include local or regional dialects.

Conceit A fanciful expression, usually in the form of an extended metaphor or surprising analogy between seemingly dissimilar objects. A conceit displays intellectual cleverness as a result of the unusual comparison being made.

Connotation The non literal, associative meaning of a work; the implied, suggested meaning. Connotations may involve ideas, emotions, or attitudes.

Denotation The strict, literal, dictionary definition of a word, devoid of any emotion, attitude, or color.

Diacope Repetition of a word or phrase after an intervening word or phrase. Ex. We will do it, I tell you; we will do it.

Didactic From the Greek, didactic literally means “teaching.” Didactic works have the primary aim of teaching or instructing, especially the teaching of moral or ethical principles.