Wordbay · Books & writing

Words about books and writing

Words about words: the forms, styles and habits of writers, and the terms a review or a book club throws around.

Everyday (30)

abridged adjective. Shortened by cutting parts out while keeping the main sense, usually of a book or text.
anthology noun. A published collection of poems, stories or other pieces by various writers, or by one writer.
censorship noun. The cutting or banning of books, films, news or speech that an authority considers harmful or unacceptable.
cliffhanger noun. A dramatic ending to an episode or chapter that leaves the outcome unresolved and the audience eager for more.
digress verb. To wander away from the main subject while speaking or writing.
epilogue noun. A section at the end of a book or play that rounds off the story, often showing what happened afterwards.
foreshadow verb. To hint at or signal something that will happen later, especially in a story.
ghostwriter noun. A writer paid to write a book, speech or article that is published under someone else's name.
interrobang noun. A punctuation mark that merges a question mark and an exclamation mark into one (‽).
lampoon verb. To mock a person or institution publicly through satire.
lyrical adjective. Expressing feeling in a beautiful, songlike or poetic way.
manuscript noun. A book or document written by hand, or an author's text before it is printed.
memoir noun. A book in which the author tells the story of part of their own life and the people and events in it.
muse noun. A person or thing that inspires an artist's work.
narrative noun. A story or account of connected events, or the way a set of facts is presented to make a particular sense.
obelus noun. The division sign ÷, or a dagger-shaped mark used to flag a doubtful passage or a footnote.
peruse verb. To read or examine something carefully and thoroughly.
plagiarism noun. Passing off someone else's words or ideas as one's own.
posthumous adjective. Happening, appearing or awarded after a person’s death.
prologue noun. An opening section of a book, play or poem that introduces the story or sets the scene.
protagonist noun. The main character in a story, play or film; also a leading figure in a cause or contest.
pseudonym noun. A made-up name used by an author or other person in place of their real one.
satire noun. Using humour, exaggeration or irony to expose and criticise people's folly or vices.
stationery noun. Paper, envelopes, pens and other things for writing.
synopsis noun. A brief summary of the main points of a story, article or argument.
synthesis noun. The combining of separate ideas or parts into a connected whole.
tittle noun. The small dot above a lowercase i or j.
tome noun. A book, especially a large, heavy and serious one.
tsundoku noun. Buying books and letting them pile up unread.
verbose adjective. Using more words than are needed.

Well-read (32)

allegory noun. A story, poem or picture in which characters and events stand for deeper ideas, often moral or political.
anachronism noun. Something placed in the wrong period of time, or that seems to belong to the past.
antihero noun. A central character who lacks traditional heroic qualities such as courage, honesty or kindness.
bibliophile noun. A person who loves books, especially one who collects them for their bindings, editions or rarity.
bildungsroman noun. A novel that follows a young person's growth from childhood to maturity and their education in life.
bowdlerise verb. To remove parts of a text thought to be improper or offensive, often weakening it.
circumlocution noun. Using many words, or roundabout phrasing, where a few direct ones would do.
coda noun. A closing passage that rounds off a piece of music or a story.
comprise verb. To consist of or be made up of.
denouement noun. The final part of a story, in which the threads of the plot are drawn together and things are explained.
deus ex machina noun. An unlikely event or character that suddenly solves a seemingly hopeless problem in a story.
elegy noun. A poem or song of serious reflection, especially a lament for someone who has died.
epigraph noun. A short quotation placed at the start of a book or chapter to suggest its theme.
epistolary adjective. Told through letters, or relating to the writing of letters.
griffonage noun. Handwriting so careless that it can barely be read.
hagiography noun. A biography that flatters its subject uncritically; originally the writing of saints' lives.
hitherto adverb. Until now, or until the time being talked about.
juvenilia noun. Works produced by a writer or artist when young, often published or studied only after they became famous.
marginalia noun. Notes, comments or doodles written in the margins of a book or manuscript.
neologism noun. A newly coined word or expression, or a new meaning for an old one.
octothorpe noun. The # symbol, also called the hash or pound sign.
oeuvre noun. The whole body of work produced by an artist, writer or composer.
picaresque adjective. Telling the episodic adventures of a likeable rogue who wanders from place to place.
pilcrow noun. The paragraph mark ¶.
pithy adjective. Short, clever and full of meaning.
polemic noun. A strongly worded attack on someone's opinions or on a cause.
purple prose noun. Writing so ornate, flowery or overwrought that it draws attention away from what it is saying.
red herring phrase. Something that draws attention away from the real question, sometimes on purpose.
roman à clef noun. A novel in which real people and events appear under thin disguise as fiction.
sinewy adjective. Lean and muscular, with tendons that show; tough and strong.
tendentious adjective. Written or said to promote a particular point of view, especially a disputed one.
verisimilitude noun. The quality of seeming true or real, especially in a work of fiction or art.

Advanced (19)

amanuensis noun. A person employed to write down what someone else dictates or to copy manuscripts.
anacoluthon noun. A sentence that sets off in one grammatical direction and finishes in another.
anagnorisis noun. The moment in a story when a character discovers a crucial truth about their situation or identity.
aposiopesis noun. Breaking off a sentence before the end, as if unable or unwilling to go on.
bibliomancy noun. Seeking guidance or predicting the future by opening a book at random and reading the first passage seen.
bibliophage noun. A person who devours books, reading constantly and voraciously.
bibliotaph noun. A person who hoards books and keeps them locked away, refusing to lend them.
colophon noun. A note at the end of a book giving details of its printing, or a publisher's emblem on the spine or title page.
compendious adjective. Giving a lot of information in a brief, concise form.
ekphrasis noun. Writing that vividly describes or responds to a work of visual art.
epithalamium noun. A poem or song written to celebrate a wedding.
florilegium noun. A collection of literary extracts; also a book of detailed botanical illustrations of flowers.
incunabula noun. Books printed in Europe before 1501, in the earliest decades of printing with movable type.
jejune adjective. Dull, dry and lacking substance.
lexiphanic adjective. Using showy, pretentious words to impress.
lipogram noun. A piece of writing that deliberately leaves out a particular letter of the alphabet throughout.
palimpsest noun. A manuscript scraped clean and written over; also anything that shows layers of its past beneath the present.
pasquinade noun. A satire or lampoon, especially one posted in a public place.
sesquipedalian adjective. Given to using long words, or itself long and many-syllabled.