Glossary extracted starting with automatic seeds, with BOW for the domain roy and language EN

poet laureate	Apollo degreed that poets should receive laurels as a prize
rhythm	the quality of the pacing and speed of a script’s plot action and scene sequences.
cash game	A game where each hand is played for real money as opposed to tournament play
bas-relief	Sculptural relief in which the projection from the surrounding surface is slight and no part of the modeled form is undercut.
dissonance	The use of discordant sounds either to create an unpleasant effect or to create an interesting variation from what is rhythmically expected.
internal rhyme	below.
crisis	A turning point in the action of a story that has a powerful effect on the protagonist
asphodel	Various Old World usually perennial herbs of the lily family with flowers in usually long erect racemes.
chamber opera	an opera for intimate theatre
ballad measure	Traditionally, ballad measure consists of a four-line stanza or a quatrain containing alternating four-stress and three-stress lines with an ABCB or ABAB rhyme scheme
il est honteux	(French) It's shameful
epilogue	A conclusion added to a literary work such as a novel, play, or long poem
neapolitans	Natives or inhabitants of Naples, Italy.
im film	(German) on the screen
cyclorama	In a proscenium theatre, a large piece of curved scenery that wraps around the rear of the stage and is illuminated to resemble the sky or to serve as an abstract neutral background
cheat a script	Fudging the margins and spacing of a screenplay on a page (usually with a software program) in an attempt to fool the reader into thinking the script is shorter than it really is.
metaphor	A comparison between essentially unlike things without an explicitly comparative word such as like or as
denotation	A literal dictionary meaning of a word
inside straight	See inside straight draw
im handumdrehen	(German) in a flash, in no time, in the twinkling of an eye, in the wink of an eye
canon law	That by which the clergy and, to some extent, the laity are governed. Approved by Parliament, it has the force of law and covers matters of worship and practice. Mayfield, in his "The Church of England: its members and its business" has some 11 pages on this subject. Confusingly, the constituent parts of canon law are referred to as canons! .
litotes	A form of meiosis using a negative statement
myth	An ancient story with magic elements included.
heroic couplet	which was rhymed iambic pentameter
ode	Grand lyric poem in praise of something or some person
charnel	A building or chamber in which bodies or bones are deposited.
reversal	The point at which the action of the plot turns in an unexpected direction for the protagonist
ignoratio elenchi	(Latin) the fallacy of refuting a proposition different from that set forth by one's opponent (hence, any irrelevant argument)
paraskenia	In ancient Greek theater, the wings of the skene.
in the round	A type of theater space in which the audience is, usually in a circular configuration, on all sides of the playing area.
iambisch	(German) iambic, giambico (Italian), iambique (French), yámbico (Spanish)
audio/visual script	A dual column screenplay with video description on the left and audio and dialogue on the right, used in advertising, corporate videos, documentaries and training films.
motif	an image or action in a literary work that is shared by other works and that is sometimes thought to belong to a collective unconsciousness.
drag light	To pull chips away from the pot to indicate that you don't have enough money to cover a bet
suck out	A situation when a hand heavily favored to win loses to an inferior hand after all the cards are dealt
censer	A covered incense burner, usually swung from a chain at funerals or other religious ceremonies.
shih poetry	Shih is Chinese for "songs." There is no general word for "poetry" specifically in Chinese, but there are exact words for different genres of poetry
inversion	Another term for anastrophe.
coin flip	A situation where two players have, perhaps wisely, invested all their money in the pot and it's a roughly even chance which of them wins
flush deck	A continuous deck of a ship laid from stem to stern without any break.
implied author	The term reminds the interpreter to realise the difference between a real author and the narrator of a story
bob	a one-foot line in certain stanzaic forms of medieval alliterative poetry, such as Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.
implied audience	the "you" a writer or poet refers to or implies when creating a dramatic monologue
palpably	Easily perceptible by the mind
plucking a flexible tongue	Jew's harp, thumb piano, music box, etc.
novella	A narrative in prose longer than a short story and shorter than a novel
style	The author's words and the characteristic way that writer uses language to achieve certain effects
alla marcia	"in the style of a march".
metaphor	a figure of speech that states two unlike things are the same in a figurative way (without using “like” or “as”); example: She was the wind.
miltonic sonnet	see Sonnet.
stanza	A verse or set of lines of poetry, the pattern of which is repeated throughout the poem.
palinode	an ode or song that retracts what the poet wrote in a previous poem; a recantation.
ma non troppo	but not too much
metaphysical poets	In his 1693 work,
largo	broadly; i.e., slowly
present action	action that takes place in the present moment as opposed to backstory.
a niente	to nothing; an indication to make a diminuendo to pppp
imponenza	(Italian f.) an imposing style, haughty
k¯oken	Black-garbed and veiled actors' assistants who perform various functions onstage in kabuki theatre.
turn out	actor is to face downstage, toward the audience
disengaño	Spanish term meaning "disillusionment," that is, the act of removing all illusions about the world; theater and drama was a means of achieving disengaño.
internal rhyme	In poetry, internal rhyme, or middle rhyme, is rhyme that occurs in a single line of verse.
batrachomyomachia	The Battle of Frogs and Mice, a comic epic or parody on the Iliad.The word by itself means "a silly altercation."
imitatio homophonia	(Latin) imitation at the unison, the first species of imitation
church of england	We shall need to be selective here! The Church of England is the established church of the realm (in Scotland, the established church is the Church of Scotland, which is Presbyterian in ecclesiology). This has typically laid responsibilities on it and its ministers eg the incumbent
immer gest.	(German) or immer gestopft (German), always stopped, alway muted
iastian	one of the ancient Greek modes, identical to the Ionian mode
idéal	(French m.) ideal (English, Spanish m.), ideale (Italian m.), Ideal (German n.)
immortelle	(French f., literally 'ever-lasting') a flower of papery texture which retains its colour and shape when dried
kabbalah	Kabbalah (‘tradition') is the mystical theosophical system developed in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, as represented by the Zohar, and later reinterpreted and recast by Isaac Luria (the Ari), in sixteenth century Safed.
argument	A statement of a poem's major point--usually appearing in the introduction of the poem
mood - setting tone	Authors set a Tone in literature by conveying emotions/feelings through words
mystery play	The drama of the late medieval times, always with religious subjects based on the Bible
sea shanty	Sea shanties (singular "shanty", also spelled "chantey"; derived from the French word "chanter", 'to sing') were shipboard working songs
drawing thin	Not drawing completely dead, but chasing a draw in the face of poor odds
horse	A player financially backed by someone else
idiomatic writing	when applied to music, a term synonymous with 'idiomatic music'
leggiero	lightly, delicately
exodos	In Greek tragedy, the departure ode of the chorus at the end of the play.
rhyme	words that end in the same sound but have a different beginning sound; examples: cat/hat, toy/joy
weak player	A player who is easily bullied out of a hand post-flop by any sort of action (betting, raising), whether he has the best hand or not
motivation	That which can be construed to have determined a person's (or character's) behavior
enjambment	A line ending in which the syntax, rhythm and thought are continued and completed in the next line, for example ‘With candles and with lanterns/throwing giant scorpion shadows/on the sun-baked walls/they searched for him’ (Night of the Scorpion by Nissem Ezekiel).
verse	a line or the form of poetry
capriccioso	"capriciously"
vielle cour	"Old Yard"
confessional poetry	Vividly sensational self-revelatory verse, a literary movement led by American poets from Allen Ginsberg and Robert Lowell to Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, and John Berryman.
il est vrai	(French) It's true
parody	An imitation of the plot, character, tone, or style of a literary work; by way of an alienating effect the original suddenly seems ridiculous and satirised.
meter	as opposed to prose.
linguistics	Linguistics is the scientific study of human language
sprung rhythm	a metrical system devised by Gerard Manley Hopkins that has 1-to-4-syllable feet, each starting with a stressed syllable (sometimes a foot by itself), where the spondee replaces the iamb as a dominant measure, and where rests and multiple non-stressed syllables can be discounted in scansion
madonna	Madonna is a medieval Italian term for a noble or otherwise important woman
decorum	The requirement that individual characters, the characters' actions, and the style of speech should be matched to each other and to the
shootout	A poker tournament format where the last remaining player of a table goes on to play the remaining players of other tables
scarabaeus	Any of a family (Scarabaeidae) of stout-bodied beetles with lamellate or flabellate antennae
nonsense verse	lines that read like word-salad, where individually the terms may be recognizable but in their order and grammatical relations make no sense, or where common words accompany neologisms in expressions intended to mystify and amuse
cacophony	Language that is discordant and difficult to pronounce, such as this line from John Updike's "Player Piano": "never my numb plunker fumbles." Cacophony ("bad sound") may be unintentional in the writer's sense of music, or it may be used consciously for deliberate dramatic effect
tormentor lights	spotlights mounted on a vertical pipe batten on either side of the stage just behind the tormentors and used as side lighting
scene	Subdivision in an act of a play, a sequence of uninterrupted action
big bet game	A game played with a no limit or pot limit betting structure.
dream vision	a (traditionally medieval) poet's relation of how he fell asleep and had an often allegorical dream
colloquial	Refers to a type of informal diction that reflects casual, conversational language and often includes slang expressions
fiorituri	Taken from "fior" which means "flower" in Italian, fioratura refers to the actual flowery, embellished vocal line within an aria.
cgi	Computer Generated Image; a term denoting that computers will be used to generate the full imagery.
con amor	"with love" – Tenderly.
outcome	the resolution of a story in terms of the protagonist’s objective.
song	A lyric poem with a number of repeating stanzas (called refrains), written to be set to music in either vocal performance or with accompaniment of musical instruments
wyrd	Often translated as "fate," wyrd is an
register	A printed image is an optical illusion
larghetto	"somewhat slowly"; not as slow as largo.
il doppio movimento	(Italian) the tempo to be doubled, twice as fast
dolcissimo	"very sweetly"
pine	As a verb, to yearn intensely and persistently especially for something unattainable.
revolving stage	Large turntable on which scenery is placed so that as it moves, one set turns out of sight while a new one is brought into view.
il est essentiel	(French) It's essential
iconoclasm	Bilderstürmerei (German f.), iconoclasia (Spanish f.), iconoclastia (Spanish f., Italian f.), the destruction of works of art on the grounds that they are impious
idee	(German f.) idea (English, Italian f., Spanish f.), idée (French f.)
deuteragonist	A sidekick who accompanies the main
tableau	moment in which a living picture is created on stage and held by actors without motion or speech
purple prose	Purple prose is a term of literary criticism used to describe passages, or sometimes entire literary works, written in prose so overly extravagant, ornate, or flowery as to break the flow and draw attention to itself
aural	a film element that can be heard (such as an off screen sound like a dog howling or a gun firing).
tableau vivant	Tableau vivant (plural: tableaux vivants) is French for "living picture." The term describes a striking group of suitably costumed actors or artist's models, carefully posed and often theatrically lit
sarcasm	Another term for verbal irony--the act of ostensibly saying one thing but meaning another
trochee	In poetry: one stressed syllable is followed by an unstressed syllable.
a 2	see a due in this list
bunraku	A Japanese puppet theatre, founded in the seventeenth century and still performed today.
logline	A "25 words or less" description of a screenplay.
gossamer	Something light, delicate, or insubstantial
caryatid	A sculpted female figure serving as an architectural element such as a column or a pillar
simile	a figure of speech comparing two unlike things using “like” or “as”; example: She was as fast as the wind.
masculine rhyme	A masculine rhyme is a rhyme that matches only one syllable, usually at the end of respective lines
choregus	In ancient Greece, a wealthy person who underwrote most of the expenses for the production of an individual playwright's works at a dramatic festival.
measure	the period of a musical piece that encompasses a complete cycle of the time signature, e.g., in 4/4 time, a measure has four quarter-note beats
impulsar	(Spanish) to impel
motif	fairy tale, romance.
illustratore	(Italian m.) illustrator
envoy	Diplomatic rank is the system of professional and social rank used in the world of diplomacy and international relations
eclogue	An eclogue is a poem in a classical style on a pastoral subject
marzial	"martially."
2nd person	"You" is used to tell the story; these tend to be like Choose Your Own Adventure stories or computer games and are usually in the present tense.
fable	A story in which the characters are animals and not human beings
iawm	abbreviation of 'International Alliance for Women in Music'
intertextuality	Intertextuality is the shaping of texts' meanings by other texts
proscenium	Arch or frame surrounding the stage opening, like a picture frame; developed during the Italian Renaissance.
comic relief	A humorous scene, incident, character, or bit of dialogue occurring after some serious or tragic moment
ideale	(Italian m.) ideal (English, Spanish m.), Ideal (German n.), idéal (French m.)
poco	"a little", as in poco più allegro ("a little faster"), for example.
alliteration	Repeating a consonant sound in close proximity to others, or beginning several words with the same vowel sound
iambique	(French) iambic, giambico (Italian), iambisch (German), yámbico (Spanish)
menages-humored	Domestically suited, domesticated.
crisis	See conflict
euphony - phonaesthetics	Phonaesthetics (from the Greek, "voice-sound"; and "aesthetics") is the claim or study of inherent pleasantness or beauty (euphony) or unpleasantness (cacophony) of the sound of certain words and sentences
rack	1
heroic couplet	A couplet of two lines of iambic pentameter with the same end rhymes and forming a logical whole.
parisian	Of or relating to Paris, France.
imperat.	abbreviation of 'imperative' (of a mood, expressing a command, for example, sing this!)
litotes	In rhetoric, litotes are a figure of speech in which understatement is employed for rhetorical effect when an idea is expressed by a denial of its opposite, principally via double negatives
il cantilena	see cantilena
off	Short for offstage
despotism	A system of government in which the ruler has unlimited power.
im tempo i zurückkehren	(German) returning to Tempo I
metre - meter	* Metrical foot - Foot (prosody)
acatalectic	An acatalectic line of verse is one having the metrically complete number of syllables in the final foot
epistrophe	Epistrophe (Greek: ἐπιστροφή, "return"), also known as epiphora (and occasionally as antistrophe), is a figure of speech and the counterpart of anaphora
push	To bet all in.
imperf.	abbreviation of 'imperfect' (of a tense, denoting action in progress but not completed, for example, they were singing)
scrim	A theatrical fabric woven so finely that when lit from the front it appears opaque and when lit from behind it becomes transparent
virelai	A virelai is a form of medieval French verse used often in poetry and music
incipient	Beginning
abstract	A record held by the INDIAN LAND REGISTRY, listing all land dealings ("transactions") on a particular Indian reserve, or in a particular region
procatalepsis	Procatalepsis, also called prebuttal, is a figure of speech in which the speaker raises an objection to his own argument and then immediately answers it
promulgate	To make known by open declaration.
theatron	From the Greek for "seeing place"; the original Greek theatre.
peking opera	Popular theater of China which developed in the nineteenth century.
donjon-keep	Dungeon
couplet	A pair of lines of verse, usually rhymed and of the same number of feet.
box set	Interior setting using flats to form the back and side walls and often the ceiling of a room.
stage center	More commonly known as Center Stage, it is the center of the performance space, used for placement of the actors and the set.
style	The specific manner in which a play is shaped, as determined by its genre, its historical period, the sort of impact the director wishes to convey to the audience, and the skill of the artists involved
downswing	A period during which a player loses (or lost more) than expected
turn in	actor is to face upstage, away from the audience
upstage	(noun) In a proscenium theatre, that part of the stage farthest from the audience; the rear of the stage, so called because it was in fact raised ("up") in the days of the raked stage
dotage	A condition of decay marked by decline of mental poise and alertness, usually attributed to old age.
close reading	Reading a piece of literature carefully, bit by bit, in order to analyze the significance of every individual word, image, and artistic ornament
dimidiation	in which a nobleman's son might take two animals found on his father's and mother's coats of arms combine them into a composite creature to illustrate his genealogy.
come sopra	like the previous (tempo)
limerick	A five line poem
iglesia presbiteriana	(Spanish f.) Presbyterian Church
capo	head; i.e., the beginning (of a movement, normally)
new comedy	The Greek comedy the developed circa 300 BCE, stressing romantic entanglements, wit, and unexpected twists of plot.
primary source	Literary scholars distinguish between
sub-genre	A sub-division of a literary genre
neoclassicism	a movement which dominated during the eighteenth century and was notable for its adherence to the forms of classical drama
più	"more"; see mosso for an example.
improvisar	(Spanish) to improvise
imitatio per diminutionem	(Latin) diminution, one of the rhythmic proportions of imitation
semi-bluff	When a player bluffs on one round of betting with an inferior or drawing hand that might improve in a later round
vers de société	sophisticated light verse of a kind appealing to the gentry
iggawin	a Mauritanian griot
title	Text that appears onscreen denoting a key element of the movie, a change of location or date, or person involved in the making of the movie.
ballad stanza	quatrain rhyming abcb and alternating four-stress and three-stress lines.
script	the printed text of a drama
metaphor	An implied comparison
hamartia	Hamartia (Ancient Greek: ἁμαρτία) is a term developed by Aristotle in his work Poetics
burlesque	1
folk song	popular, often anonymous sung lyrics that may be passed on by word-of-mouth originally before being compiled by scholars into literary collections.
cliffhanger	A melodramatic narrative (especially in films, magazines, or serially published novels) in which each section "ends" at a suspenseful or dramatic moment, ensuring that the audience will watch the next film or read the next installment to find out what happens
alienation effect	A distancing technique attributed to Bertold Brecht in which actors were directed not to 'become' their parts, so as to ensure spectators did not become too attached to characters and to remind them that it was a production
pace	The speed at which it seems appropriate to read a poem
grandioso	grandly
furioso	"wildly"
ben ha-melekh ve-ha-nazir	("The Prince and the Ascetic"), the Hebrew version (made from Arabic) of an Indian folk-tale, which reached Europe through Persian and Greek under the title Barlaam and Josaphat.
abase	To lower or be lowered in rank, prestige, or esteem
broken chord	a chord in which the notes are not all played at once, but in some more or less consistent sequence
fustian	Excessively embellished or affected writing or speech.
semplice	simply
inverted imperfect authentic cadence	one or both chords are inverted
death of the novel	The death of the novel is the common name for the theoretical discussion of the declining importance of the novel as literary form
epilogue	An extra part after the end of a book or play
addling	Confusion
analepsis	a flashback.
blocking	above.
grazioso	"gracefully."
full-length play	See opposite: one-act play
isocolon	See discussion under parallelism.
avant-garde	Avant-garde (French pronunciation: [avɑ̃ɡaʁd]) means "advance guard" or "vanguard"
tinctured	Affected
improvvisando	(Italian) improvising
mano destra	[played with the] right hand (abbreviation: MD or m.d.)
echoism	see Onomatopoeia.
principal photography	the phase of production in which all of the moving images are photographed and recorded according to the instructions of the screenplay in preparation for later editorial cutting and assembly.
ching hsi	the Peking Opera or, more broadly, Chinese opera.
ilarità	(Italian) hilarity, cheerfulness, mirth
hireling	A member of an Elizabethan acting company who was paid a set salary and was not a shareholder.
betting structure	The complete set of rules regarding forced bets, limits, raise caps, and such for a particular game
internalize	To make vocabulary and concepts a part of one's learning
essay	Non-fictional form of text: it shows the writer´s own opinion on a particular topic
plebeian	One of the common people; a member of the Roman plebs
quadruplet	a four-syllable foot.
il est probable	(French) It's probable
objective correlative	An objective correlative is a literary term referring to a symbolic article used to provide explicit, rather than implicit, access to such traditionally inexplicable concepts as emotion or colour.
archives	Collections of old or unpublished records which can be used in historical and other RESEARCH
non-plussed	Perplexed
avant-garde	In military terms, the "advance-battalion" of an army that goes beyond the front lines to break new ground; in theatre terms, those theatre artists who abandon conventional models and create works that are in the forefront of new theatrical movements and styles.
redeal	To deal a hand again, possibly after a misdeal.
beresina	A river in Belarus, once part of the Soviet Union
side game	A ring game running concurrently with a tournament made up of players who have either been eliminated or opted not to play the tournament.
moto	motion; usually seen as con moto, meaning with motion or quickly
waistcoat	Another name for a vest
carol	a hymn or poem often sung, as at Christmas, by a group, with an individual taking the changing stanzas and the group taking the burden or refrain
serioso	seriously
given circumstances	the environmental facts, previous action, and polar attitudes of a dramatic story.
übermarionette	"Superpuppet": term coined by Edward Gordon Craig in the early twentieth century to describe what he considered the ideal performer—one who would allow the director to control the performance totally.
talit	The fringed prayer-shawl with stripes (black or blue) wrapped by Jewish men round their shoulders during times of prayer.
proedria	In ancient Greek theaters, front-row seats reserved for political and religious dignitaries.
thingspielen	In Nazi Germany, massive propagandistic theatrical spectacles staged outdoors.
senza	without
il est inutile	(French) It's useless
choice of words	Careful selection of words in a literary piece of art by the narrator / author in order to achieve the intended meaning.
bishop	There are lots of these, in all shapes and sizes. Diocesan bishops are the senior clergy
corrales	Spanish term for theaters.
flashback	Sometimes in prose and drama the chronological order is interrupted in order to deal with past events that took place before the beginning of the story.
bellicoso	warlike, aggressive
hand history	The textual representation of a hand (or hands) played in an Internet cardroom
renaissance	The English Renaissance immediately followed the Middle Ages and is considered to last from about 1200 to about 1600
chagrin	A gnawing, corroding grief
assonance	the repetition of internal vowel sounds in words close together (time line, free and easy)
il faut	(French) there is needed, there are needed, it's necessary to
sonnet	below.
peripety	See turning-point.
fuoco	fire; con fuoco means with fire
stanza	In poetry, a stanza is a unit within a larger poem
impair	(French) odd (numbers)
poch.	very little
release	A legal document given to unrepresented writers for signing by agents, producers or production companies, absolving said entities of legal liability.
il est temps	(French) It's time
terzain	a stanza of three lines.
il a des ennuis	(French) he's got problems
critical reading	Careful analysis of an essay's structure and logic in order to determine the validity of an argument
circular structure	" in which the poem or story ends by coming back to the narrative's original starting spot, or by returning a similar situation to what was found at the beginning of the tale
tenor	the second lowest of the standard four voice ranges (bass, tenor, alto, soprano)
thespian	Actor; after Thespis, the first Greek actor.
moderato	moderate; often combined with other terms, usually relating to tempo; for example, allegro moderato
alliosis	While presenting a reader with only two alternatives may result in the logical fallacy known as false dichotomy or either/or fallacy, creating a parallel sentence using two alternatives in parallel structure can be an effective device rhetorically and artistically
sublime	the main characteristic of great poetry, Longinus held, was sublimity or high, grand, ennobling seriousness.
hyperbole	A boldly exaggerated statement that adds emphasis without in-tending to be literally true, as in the statement "He ate everything in the house." Hyperbole (also called overstatement) may be used for serious, comic, or ironic effect
georgic	A poem about rural life modelled on Virgils Georgics which extolled the life of the farmer as the moral and political basis of Republican health.
allegory	Representation of an abstract theme or themes through symbolic use of character, action, and other concrete elements of a play
flat call	A call, in a situation where one might be expected to raise
poet	Writer of poetry.
mock epic	a poem amusingly subverting the conventions of the epic, more often to comment on a topic satirically than to make fun of the epic
third man walking	A player who gets up from his seat in a cash game, after two other players are already away from the table, is referred to as the "third man walking"
con slancio	with enthusiasm
il est dommage	(French) It's too bad
flashback	a transition from a scene to one that has taken place prior to it.
deigning	Condescending reluctantly and with a strong sense of the affront to one's superiority that is involved.
isochronous metre	all stressed syllables are separated in isochronous metre by equal duration of time no matter how many slacks or unstressed syllables occur between them.
feudalism	the cult of chivalry and courtly love.
characterization	The techniques an author uses to develop a character: description of physical appearance, thoughts and feelings, speech, and behavior
aneurism	An aneurysm (or aneurism) is a bulge in a blood vessel caused by disease or weakening of the vessel wall
alliteration	above.
pesante	"heavy and ponderous."
cantando	in a singing style
mezzo forte	half loudly; i.e., moderately loudly
kenning	A form of
collusion	A form of cheating involving cooperation among two or more players
ibishikiso	(Burundi) in Burundian drumming, the drum that echoes the motifs played on the inkiranya
friction idiophones	rubbing the vibrating object
arcaded	Designs arranged in the form of arches.
romance	a play in which the emphasis is on love and/or adventure
thebes	The capital of Egypt during part of the Eleventh Dynasty
lambent	Flickering
epic	An epic in its most specific sense is a
cast page	A page that typically follows the Title Page of a play, listing the characters, with very brief descriptions of each.
anagram	a word spelled out by rearranging the letters of another word
tale	Tale may refer to:
colloquialism	A word or phrase used everyday in plain and relaxed speech, but rarely found in formal writing
mansardes	A mansard roof has two slopes on all sides with the lower slope steeper than the upper one
ij	also %, one of a number of idem or repetition signs used in modern editions of medieval music showing where, when the underlay in the source is ambiguous, the singable version has been filled out with repeats of words or syllables drawn from the original text or with neutral syllables
chip leader	The player currently holding the most chips in a tournament (or occasionally a live no limit game).
staccato	an indication to play with a sharp attack, and briefly
turn	Also called a volta, a turn is a sudden change in thought, direction, or emotion at the conclusion of the sonnet
quintain	a five-line stanza, such as a limerick or Edmund Waller's "Go lovely rose." Also called a cinquain.
ear poetry	see concrete poetry.
connotation	Emotions and associations which the use of a specific word evokes within the reader / listener.
image	A picture in the reader´s mind which is created by the author´s words
unsolicited script	A method of script submission in which the writer sends the script, without prior contact, to the theater or production company
double raise	The minimum raise in a no-limit or pot-limit game, raising by just the amount of the current bet.
morality play	The morality play is a genre of Medieval and early Tudor theatrical entertainment
impelagarsi con	(Italian) to get stuck with
consonant blend	A combination of two or three consecutive consonants each representing a distinct sound (i.e., thr, br)
ibídem	(Spanish) ibidem
necromancy	sorcery: the belief in magical spells that harness occult forces or evil spirits to produce unnatural effects in the world; conjuring up the dead, especially for prophesying.
euphony	Euphony ("good sound") refers to language that is smooth and musically pleasant to the ear
irregular declaration	An action taken by a player in turn that is not a straightforward declaration of intent, but that is reasonably interpreted as an action by other players, such as pointing a thumb up to signify "raise"
trumpery	A trivial or worthless article
il est question de	(French) it is about, there is talk of
repente	suddenly
arcadia	A mountainous region of Greece which was represented as the blissful home of happy shepherds
illustrated	(English) decorated with pictures or other features usually for the purpose of clarifying the context
cards speak	See main article: cards speak.
victorianism	Literary period named after the reign of Queen Victoria (1837 - 1901): victorian virtues are supposed to be hard work, respectability, earnestness and piety.
sonnet	A lyric poem of fourteen lines, usually in iambic pentameter, with rhymes arranged according to certain definite patterns
memoir	A memoir (from the French: mémoire from the Latin memoria, meaning "memory", or a reminiscence), is a literary genre, forming a subclass of autobiography – although the terms 'memoir' and 'autobiography' are almost interchangeable in modern parlance
lyrical i	The "I-narrator" in a poem.
marcia	a march; alla marcia means "in the manner of a march."
iglesia menonita	(Spanish f.) Mennonite Church
vellum	The skin of a young calf used as a writing surface--the medieval equivalent of "paper." A technical distinction is usually made between vellum and parchment; the latter is made from goatskin or sheepskin
folktale	Folktales are stories passed along from one generation to the next by word-of-mouth rather than by a written text
rondel	A short poem resembling the rondeau
i legni	(Italian) woodwind instruments
troupe	a theatrical company
play	a script of unidentified genre by the author, catalog, or agent
accentato	"with emphasis"
eye rhymes	and inexact rhymes or imperfect rhymes
metaphysical conceit - conceit	In English literature the term is generally associated with the 17th century metaphysical poets, an extension of contemporary usage
live game	A game with a lot of action, usually including many unskilled players, especially maniacs
surcingle	A belt, band, or girth passing around the body of a horse to bind a saddle or pack fast to the horse's back.
trimeter	A line consisting of three metrical feet
theatre of the absurd	See absurd.
footpads	Thieves who rob pedestrians
mock epic	satire
analogue	usually a semantic or narrative feature in one work said to resemble something in another work, without necessarily implying that a cause-and-effect relationship exists (as would be the case with source and influence)
legend	written information superimposed on an image or blank screen (e.g., “Long ago, in a galaxy far away…”
impromtü	(German n.) impromptu
illustré	(French m.) illustrated magazine
focalization	Dutch literary theorist Mieke Bal coined the term focalization to describe a shift in perspective that takes place in literature when an author switches from one character's perspective to another
stage convention	An understanding, established through custom or usage, that certain devices will be accepted or assigned specific meaning or significance arbitrarily—that is, without requiring that they be natural or realistic.
imbattersi in	(Italian) or accordarsi con (Italian) to fall in with
cycle plays	See Mystery plays.
prologue	In Greek tragedy, a speech or brief scene preceding the entrance of the chorus and the main action of the play, usually spoken by a god or gods
accoutred	dressed, clothed, outfitted.
malays	People of the Malay Peninsula, eastern Sumatra, parts of Borneo, and some adjacent islands.
polysyndeton	The use of a considerable number of conjunctions very closely together (opposite: asyndeton)
romanticism	A nineteenth-century European movement away from neoclassic formalism and toward outsized passions, exotic and grotesque stories, florid writing, and all-encompassing worldviews
passes for amontillado	A dry sherry noted for its delicate bouquet, resembling the wine of Montilla, Spain, from which it derives its name
div.	divided; i.e., in a part in which several musicians normally play exactly the same notes they are instead to split the playing of the written simultaneous notes among themselves
cyhydedd naw ban	A syllabic verse form in ancient Welsh poetry in which some lines are composed of nine syllables
piacevole	pleasant
clandestinely	Marked, held, or conducted secretly.
character	a person in fiction, drama, or poetry
tournure	A woman's shape or figure; Any device used by women to expand the skirt of a dress below the waist; French bustle used to replace petticoats.
caesura	In meter, a caesura (alternative spellings are cæsura and cesura) is a complete stop in a line of poetry
consonance	Repetition of consonantal sounds to make a pattern, usually in verse.
impresor	(Spanish m.) printer
meno	"less"; see meno mosso, for example, under mosso.
motivation	a) the situation, reasoning, or driving compulsion behind a character’s intent; b) the character background or situational factors that actors analyze to “motivate” their performance of a role.
arietta	a short aria
motif	a recurring image, sound, line, action or other element that makes a symbolic, allegorical, metaphoric or thematic point in a movie.
chopping the blinds	Ending a hand when all players have folded to the blinds with the blinds being returned to those who paid them
imbarcare	(Italian) to embark
mattock	A digging and grubbing tool with features of both an axe and a pick.
improvisação coletiva	(Portuguese) group improvisation
trim clamp	a metal clamp used to hold several lines to a counterweight system so that scenery can be held in trim
expressionism	Movement which developed and flourished in Germany during the period immediately preceding and following World War I
medieval romance	See discussion under
ichor	A thin watery or blood-tinged discharge.
technical demands	The extent to which a play requires specific lighting, sound, sets, etc
reverie	The condition of being lost in thought; daydreaming.
vignette	A picture where the image fades off gradually into the surrounding paper, a short descriptive literary sketch, a brief incident or scene.
disinter	To take a body out of its grave or tomb.
trips	When one of a player's hole cards in Texas hold 'em connects with two cards on the board to make three of a kind
obstreperous	Marked by unruly or aggressive noisiness; Stubbornly resistant to control.
devoto	religiously
outs	See main article: out.
yawl	A ship's small boat.
points	Percentage participation in the profits of a film.
double-reefed	To reef is to reduce the size of a sail by using ropes running through eyelets in the sail
duplet	a two-syllable foot.
trampoline	a framework of net, webbed or rubberized material used to cushion the fall of an actor from a height
colla	with the (col before a masculine noun, colla before a feminine noun); (see next for example)
beat	A heavy stress or accent in a line of poetry
espirando	expiring; i.e., dying away
stream-of-consciousness technique	The most intense use of a central consciousness in narration
synaeresis	syncope, and acephalous lines
thrust	A stage configuration in which the playing area protrudes into the audience; the actors have audience on three sides of them.
sagacity	Shrewdness
medieval estates satire	A medieval
antistrophe	Epistrophe (Greek: ἐπιστροφή, "return"), also known as epiphora (and occasionally as antistrophe), is a figure of speech and the counterpart of anaphora
concussion idiophone	striking together two objects capable of vibration
sul tasto	in string playing, an indication to bow over the fingerboard.
hellenistic theatre	Ancient Greek theatre during the fourth and third centuries B.C
elegy	In literature, an elegy is a mournful, melancholic or plaintive poem, especially a funeral song or a lament for the dead.
pure poetry	verse that aims to delight rather than to instruct the reader.
tapers	As a noun, a taper is a slender candle.
composite	a character that is based upon more than one person or personality in a writer’s life or imagination.
explication	a line by line explanation of a poem or other literary work
illustre	(French, Italian) distinguished, illustrious
thesis play	serious treatment of social, moral, or philosophical ideas
nobilmente	in a noble fashion
upstage	The rear part of the stage.
allegory	leit-motif and motif
fantasy	Fantasy is a genre that uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, and/or setting
ideograph	also called a logograph or ideogram, this is a written symbol system in which a single marking or collection of markings represents not a phonetic sound but rather an entire word or idea
il ne casse rien.	(French) He's, It's nothing special, nothing to get excited about
smash cut	A quick or sudden cut from one scene to another.
joruri	In Japanese puppet theater, chanted texts.
rising action	See Plot.
grazioso	gracefully
tragic flaw - hamartia	Hamartia (Ancient Greek: ἁμαρτία) is a term developed by Aristotle in his work Poetics
modesto	modest
con moto	"with motion."
excoriations	Abrasions of the skin
veloute	A white sauce made of chicken, veal, or fish stock and cream and thickened with butter and flour.
idem	(Latin) the same (particularly, the same author - used to avoid repetition of the name of an author already referred to - idem originally referred to male authors; the equivalent for female authors is eadem)
gaiters	Cloth or leather leg coverings reaching from the instep to above the ankle or to mid-calf or knee.
dénouement	Final point in the plot of a comedy when everything is solved, misunderstandings are sorted out and made clear to the reader of a story or the audience of a play
chanticleer	Rooster or Cock.
carros	Spanish pageant wagons.
interlude	A scene or staged event in a play not specifically tied to the plot; in medieval England, a short moral play, usually comic, that could be presented at a court banquet amid other activities.
imagism	below.
off-off-broadway	A term designating certain theatre activity in New York City, usually nonprofessional (although with professional artists involved) and usually experimental and avant-garde in nature
continuation bet	A bet made after the flop by the player who took the lead in betting before the flop (Texas hold 'em and Omaha hold 'em)
speaker	The voice which speaks to the reader / listener in a piece of verse (not necessarily identical with the poet
alla breve	two minim (half-note) beats to a bar, rather than four crotchet (quarter-note) beats
neoclassic couplet	See discussion under heroic couplet.
layout	The layout is responsible for the attractiveness of some printed material
dealer's choice	A version of poker in which the deal passes each game and each dealer can choose, or invent, a new poker game each hand or orbit
luñetas	In the Spanish golden age, semicircular benches located in the front of the pit.
ghost characters	This term should not be confused with characters who happen to appear on stage as ghosts
repetition	Repetition is the simple repeating of a word, within a sentence or a poetical line, with no particular placement of the words, in order to emphasize
parallelism	Sometimes a writer uses parallel structures for his paragraphs or sentences in which identical words or almost identical words are used; not restricted to sentence beginnings, s
thrust stage/open stage/apron stage	wraparound theater space where the stage extends out into the audience and the spectators view the action from three sides
nouvelle heloise	A romantic novel by Jean-Jacques Rousseau written in 1761
liverpool poets	a 1960s group of popular writers from the west-England city of Liverpool, including Adrian Henri, Roger McGough, and Brian Patten.
wet board	The texure of the community cards
ensemble	Literally, the group of actors (and sometimes directors and designers) who put a play together; metaphorically, the rapport and shared sense of purpose that bind such a group into a unified artistic entity.
verdant	Green in tint or color
dream visions	especially Biblical passages regarding divine premonitions appearing in the form of dreams
impropre à	(French) unfit for
neoclassical	A new or modern style of writing based on Greek or Roman models.
jing	In xiqu, the "painted-face" roles, often of gods, nobles, or villains.
range of hands	The list of holdings that a player considers a opponent might have when trying to deduce their holding
impazientandosi	(Italian) impatiently
rake	A stage that is slanted so that as an actor moves away from the audience, he gets higher
objectification	a figure of speech where the poet treats an abstract thing or object as if it were a place
agile	swiftly
literary text	A wide range of texts that tell a story to make a point, express a personal opinion, or provide an enjoyable experience
il	(Italian, m
aside	In drama, a few words or a short passage spoken by one character to the audience while the other a
il est rare	(French) It's rare
cooler	A case in which playing a strong hand (often the second best) that normally justifies the maximum bet is beaten by a still stronger hand
classical drama	Technically, plays from classical Greece or Rome
tag	A "tight aggressive" style of play in which a player plays a small number of strong starting hands, but when in pots plays aggressively.
ballad stanza	A quatrain that alternates tetrameter with trimeter lines, and usually rhymes a b c.
literal language	When words mean exactly what they say.
jaggeree	Now spelled "jaggery", it is an unrefined brown sugar made from palm sap
check out	To fold, in turn, even though there is no bet facing the player
iglesia congregaciona	(Spanish f.) Congregational Church
demur	Hesitation, (as in doing or accepting) usually based on doubt of the acceptability of something offered or proposed.
irony	below.
althing	The closest approximation the Icelandic Vikings had to a government/court system/police--a gathering of representatives from the local things to decide on policy, hear complaints, settle disputes, and proclaim incorrigible individuals as outlaws (see below)
paraphrase	A prose restatement of the central ideas of a poem, in your own language.
rubicund	Ruddy, having a healthy reddish color.
beetling	Projecting, jutting out.
imbarcazione	(Italian f.) boat
archival research	RESEARCH that looks for facts in the records held by ARCHIVES
gunwale	Upper edge or topmost planking of the side of a ship or boat
legato	"smoothly"; in a connected manner
case card	The last available card of a certain description (typically a rank)
polish	In theory, to rewrite a few scenes in a script to improve them
verse	There are three general meanings for verse (1) a line of metrical writing, (2) a stanza, or (3) any composition written in meter (i.e., poetry generally)
micro-limit	Internet poker games with stakes so small that real cardrooms couldn't possibly profit from them, are said to be at the "micro-limit" level (e.g
braggart warrior	stock character of the Roman theater (and subsequent ages); he was portrayed as a boastful soldier who, in reality, was a coward
pendulous	Poised without visible support.
maestoso	majestically, in a stately fashion
verse	below, a vers is a song in Old Provencal almost indistinguishable from the chanson, but vers is the older term.
aragoto	The flamboyant and exaggerated masculine style of acting employed in certain kabuki roles.
ionic	a Classical Greek and Latin double foot consisting of two unstressed syllables and two stressed syllables, either ionic a majore / ' ' ~ ~ / or ionic a minore / ~ ~ ' ' /.
lyric	Originally poetry meant to be sung, accompanied by lyre or lute
cashing out	Exchanging chips for cash when leaving a game
metaphor	A stated comparison of two things that have some quality in common not using the words like or as
complication	the building of the conflict in plot as part of the rising action
haiku	a poem with 3 lines, containing five, seven, and five syllables each, often concerning a theme in nature
chorus	below.
drop	Large piece of fabric, generally painted canvas, hung from a batten to the stage floor, usually to serve as backing.
impuro	(Spanish) impure
danegeld	the practice of paying extortive Vikings to go away without attacking.
envoy	A poem, or the final stanza of a poem, that blesses or gives advice to someone departing.
ethereal	Heavenly
benefice	One of those words loved by the lawyers that are difficult to define. The Shorter Oxford Dictionary says "an ecclesiastical tenure", whatever that may mean. For our purposes it may do to say that it relates to all that an incumbent
apostrophe	An address, either to someone who is absent and therefore cannot hear the speaker or to something nonhuman that cannot comprehend
andante	"moderate tempo," just this side of slow.
off-broadway	The New York professional theatre located outside the Broadway district; principally in Greenwich Village and around the upper East and West Sides
ijexá	African-derived rhythm that sensuously underpins much of the music heard during Carnival in Brazil
con affetto	with affect (that is, with emotion)
big stack	A stack of chips that is relatively large for the stakes being played
point of view	the position from which an image is supposed to be seen, requiring the placing of the camera in that relationship (e.g., “Benjamin’s POV through the swim goggles as he walks toward the pool” would require the camera operator to shoot through swim goggles as the camera is dollied [pushed on a camera dolly] toward a pool.)
bluff	A bet made with a hand that is mathematically unlikely to be profitable either to make money or to disguise play patterns
primary source	An original source, such as someone's diary or journal, a survey or interview, letters, autobiographies, and observations
made hand	See main article: made hand
land payments	A term used in the early part of the 19th century in eastern Canada, to refer to monies from the sale of SURRENDERED Indian lands that were paid to or banked for the bands concerned
sapphic verse	see Ode.
mora	Mora (plural moras or morae) is a unit of sound used in phonology that determines syllable weight (which in turn determines stress or timing) in some languages
kraken	Probably no legendary sea monster was as horrifying as the Kraken
haiku	A form of Japanese poetry which has three lines focused on a single element
box set	A theatrical structure common to modern drama in which the stage consists of a single room setting in which the "fourth wall" is missing so the audience can view the events within the room
parallelism	two or more expressions that share traits, whether metrical, lexical, figurative, or grammatical, and can take the form of a list.
open limp	Being the first person in the pot preflop, but not raising.
accentual verse	Accentual verse has a fixed number of stresses per line or stanza regardless of the number of syllables that are present
designer	Theater professional whose job it is to envision any of the following elements in a play: costumes, sets, lights, sound or properties.
vicissitudes	Natural changes or mutations visible in nature or in human affairs
brio	"vigour"; usually in con brio (see next).
quatrain	A four-line stanza.
sonnet	a fixed verse poem that has 14 lines and often is about a feeling ot idea
musical	A generic name for a play with a large number of songs, particularly when there is also dancing and/or a chorus.
bocca chiusa	with closed mouth.
golden line	The golden line is a type of Latin dactylic hexameter frequently mentioned in Latin classrooms in English speaking countries and in contemporary scholarship written in English.
placid	Tranquil, gentle, quiet, or undisturbed.
imperfection	in music of the Renaissance, the reduction of a trinary note value to binary
flashback	A narrated scene that marks a break in the narrative in order to inform the reader or audience member about events that took place before the opening scene of a work
grandiloquent	A lofty, extravagantly colorful, pompous, or bombastic style, manner, or quality especially in language.
insurance	A "business" deal in which players agree to split or reduce a pot (roughly in proportion to the chances of each of them winning) with more cards to come rather than playing out the hand, or else a deal where one player makes a side bet against himself with a third party to hedge against a large loss.
stage business	See business.
epic theatre	As popularized by Bertolt Brecht, a style of theatre in which the play presents a series of semi-isolated episodes, intermixed with songs and other forms of direct address, all leading to a general moral conclusion or set of integrated moral questions
hashigakari	In n¯o theater, the bridge on which actors make their entrance from the dressing area to the platform stage.
appennines	Now spelled "Apennines", a mountain system, running the entire length of the Italian peninsula.
mezzo piano	"half softly" – Directs the musician to play moderately soft
dactyl	a metrical foot consisting of an accented syllable followed by two unaccented ones / ' ~ ~ /
horatian ode	see Ode.
shareholders	In Elizabethan acting troupes, members who received part of the profits as payment.
epithet	From Latin epitheton, from Greek, from epitithenai meaning to add, an adjective or adjectival cluster that is associated with a particular person or thing and that usually seems to capture their prominent characteristics
este	The House of Este was an Italian noble family, from the Welf (or Guelf) branch of which numerous German princely lines descended (including the English house of Windsor)
improvisatrice	(French f.) a poetess, a female improviser
idilico	(Spanish) idyllic
suspense	The anxious anticipation of a reader or an audience as to the outcome of a story, especially concerning the character or characters with whom sympathetic attachments are formed
videography	the recording of a performance by means of video camera and videotape.
query	A method of submission in which a writer approaches a theater with a brief letter, accompanied by a synopsis and sample pages.
rake	To position scenery on a slant or angle other than parallel or perpendicular to the curtain line; also, an upward slope of the stage floor away from the audience.
beat poets	A San Francisco-based group of counter-culture poets such as Allen Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and Kenneth Rexroth.
william henson	William Samuel Henson was an engineer and inventor who was familiar with the aeronautical work of George Cayley
certificate of title	A secondary legal document issued to show that a grant of public (Crown) land or mineral rights has been made to a private owner
uncoated	Paper or board which has not had its surface modified by the application of clay or other pigments and adhesive materials to improve its finish in terms of printability, colour, smoothness or opacity
pan	A camera direction indicating a stationary camera that pivots back and forth or up and down.
take five	slang term used to indicate that you are going to take a break from working for five minutes
three of a kind	See main article: three of a kind
heads up poker	Playing against a single opponent
abductor muscle	Any muscle used to pull a body part away from the midline of the body
hysteron proteron	The hysteron proteron (from the Greek: ὕστερον πρότερον, hýsteron próteron, "latter before") is a rhetorical device in which the first key word of the idea refers to something that happens temporally later than the second key word
imitation mass	masses based on a polyphonic source, as distinct from cantus firmus masses which are based on a monophonic source
allegory	beast fable, and parable
meter	cf
decrepitude	Wear from old age.
agitprop	short for "agitation-propaganda," a form of drama that incites the emotions ("agitation") and then teaches social and political lessons to encourage the audience to engage in a particular political action
underground press	The phrase underground press is most often used to refer to the independently published and distributed underground papers associated with the counterculture of the late 1960s and early 1970s in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, and other western nations
ambiguity	a statement with two or more meanings that may seem to exclude one another in the context
discomfited	Put into a state of perplexity and embarrassment
abridgment/adaptation	a shortening/rearrangement of another work
protected pot	A pot that seems impossible to bluff to win because too many players are active in it and the chances of another player either calling you to the end or raising beyond measure become an assurance.
con fuoco	"with fire" – In a fiery manner.
squeeze play	A bluff reraise in no limit hold'em with less-than-premium cards, after another player or players have already called the original raise
chaise longue	A long chair used for reclining.
contretemps	An inopportune or embarrassing occurrence or situation.
spiritoso	spiritedly
hyperbole	Hyperbole (from ancient Greek ὑπερβολή 'exaggeration') is the use of exaggeration as a rhetorical device or figure of speech
imperiosità	(Italian) stateliness, pomposity
cyrch a chwta	A Welsh verse form consisting of an octave stanza of six rhyming or alliterating seven-syllable lines plus a couplet
ignorer tout de	(French) to know nothing about
synecdoche	Synecdoche (from Greek synekdoche (συνεκδοχή), meaning "simultaneous understanding") is a figure of speech in which a term is used in one of the following ways:
confidant	Minor character in whom the protagonist confides.
showdown	When if more than one player remains after the last betting round, remaining players expose and compare their hands to determine the winner or winners
filigreed	Ornamental work especially of fine wire of gold, silver, or copper applied chiefly to gold and silver surfaces.
immer schnell	(German) still quick
courtly love	brotherhood in arms, and feudalism
contrast	the emphasized difference between story elements pointed up by a juxtaposition of those elements to one another.
comedy of manners	A form of comedy consisting of five or three acts in which the attitudes and customs of a society are critiqued and satirized according to high standards of intellect and morality
rit.	held back; i.e., slower (usually more so but more temporarily than a ritardando, and it may, unlike ritardando, apply to a single note)
col legno	"with the wood"; indicates that the strings are to be struck with the wood of the bow; also battuta col legno: "beaten with the wood."
masculine ending or rhyme	see rhyme.
fouled our anchor	The anchor became entangled in the chain or rope that it was connected to.
im volkston	(German m.) in the style of a German folk song, in a popular (German) style
structured	A structured betting system is one where the spread of the bets may change from round to round.
improvisação	(Portuguese) improvisation
scherzoso	playfully
passive	A style of play characterized by checking and calling
delicatamente	"delicately"
epic	A long narrative poem, told in a formal, elevated style, that focuses on a serious subject and chronicles heroic deeds and events important to a culture or nation
illustrativo	(Italian) illustrative
argument	The poems plot or sequence of ideas that forms its conceptual structure.
epicurus	Epicurus was a philosopher from 300 B.C
acatalectic	see Catalytic.
chip race	An event in tournament poker where chips of a value lower than the minimum required are removed from play
altissimo	very high
universality	a quality that transcends the subjective experience of the individual to find the universal reality of human experience.
ottava	octave; e.g. ottava bassa: an octave lower
impetuoso	impetuously
dénouement	The resolution of the plot of a literary work.
subplot	A subplot is a secondary plot strand that is a supporting side story for any story or the main plot
avoirdupois	A system of weights based on a pound containing 16 ounces or 7,000 grains
formal elements	The main elements of analysing literature in a so-called formal analysis
blaze	A Non-standard poker hand of five face cards that outranks a flush.
novella	A short novel
lighting	Equipment for providing light for the stage.
rathole	To remove a portion of your chips from the table while the game is underway
slow roll	To delay or avoid showing one's hand at showdown, forcing other players to expose their hands first
pesante	heavy, ponderous
italian sonnet	see sonnet.
plot	(1) As distinct from story, a patterned arrangement of events and characters for a drama
spondaic	The adjective spondaic describes a line of poetry in which the feet are composed of successive spondees
one-eyed royals	See main article: one-eyed royals.
impropriété	(French f.) incorrectness, error
largamente	broadly; i.e., slowly (same as largo)
melodrama	romance, medieval, and romance, renaissance.
assonance	The rhyme-pattern produced inside the poetic line by repeating similar vowels, or clusters of consonants and vowels.
fathom	As a unit of measurement, a fathom is six feet.15 fathoms = 90 feet40 fathoms = 240 feetIt also means, "to understand".
lugubre	lugubrious, mournful
poco a poco	"little by little."
seraphim	An order of angels; The 6-winged angels standing in the presence of God.
light and dark show	a play blending comedic and tragic elements
downstage line	performance mode in which the actors stand in a semicircle on the forestage and deliver their lines; the style was popular in France in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
onomatopoeia	Words imitating sounds.
syntax	In linguistics, syntax (from Ancient Greek σύνταξις "arrangement" from σύν syn, "together", and τάξις táxis, "an ordering") is the study of the principles and rules for constructing sentences in natural languages.
arsis	In music and prosody, arsis and thesis refer to the stronger and weaker parts of a musical measure or poetic foot
immer offen	(German) always open
closed	See main article: closed.
heroic couplet	Two lines in iambic pentameter that rhyme.
imperfect	not perfect, less than perfect (particularly when speaking of intervals or chords)
irony	stating something by saying another quite different thing, sometimes its opposite
camera angle	the angle from which a shot is to be taken (e.g., a close-up angle is a shot that should be made from a close proximity to the subject, either through tighter lens focusing or by the camera being placed physically closer to the action).
alliteration	The repetition of a consonant at the beginning of words close together in a literary piece of art
imposta sul valore aggiunto	(Italian) or IVA, valued added tax, VAT
peu à peu	little by little
pindaric ode	see Sonnet.
celtic revival	Irish poets such as George Russell (AE), James Joyce, John M
apocalypse	From the Greek word apocalypsis ("unveiling"), an apocalypse originally referred to a mystical revelation of a spiritual truth, but has changed in twentieth-century use to refer specifically to mystical visions concerning the end of the world
portmanteau word	Lewis Carroll's phrase for a neologism created by combining two existing words
dead blind	A blind that is not "live", in that the player posting it does not have the option to raise if other players just call
arena	Type of stage which is surrounded by the audience on all four sides; also called theater-in-the-round.
symbolism	Frequent use of words, places, characters, or objects that mean something beyond what they are on a literal level
torpid	Numb
il est bon	(French) It's good
miracle of the virgin	A vita or a miracle play that dramatizes some aspect of humanity activity, and ends with the miraculous intervention of the Blessed Virgin
company	A group of theatre artists gathered together to create a play production or a series of such productions.
classical	The term in Western culture is usually used in reference to the art, architecture, drama, philosophy, literature, and history surrounding the Greeks and Romans between 1000 BCE and 410 BCE
pyrrhic	A pyrrhic is a metrical foot used in formal poetry
austere	Stern and cold in appearance or manner.
ode	A lyric poem form usually rhymed and in the form of an address
imputación	(Spanish f.) charge
diodorus siculus	Diodorus Siculus was a Greek historian
fuocoso	fiery; i.e., passionately
shoe	A slanted container used to hold the cards yet to be dealt, usually used by casinos or in professional poker tournaments.
chorus	A group of actors in Greek drama who comment on the action of the play
illumination	as it refers to medieval manuscripts, the decoration of a manuscript with gold leaf; the term is used loosely, but not strictly correctly, to refer to any illustrated manuscript
quads	Four of a kind.
corpulent	Having a large bulky body
personification	A statement that an inanimate object has lifelike characteristics
waki	The secondary character in n¯o.
setting	time (date, time of day, season) and place - a piece of writing will generally have many settings and each setting will generally carry with it a mood or atmosphere.
settlement	An unorganized, unincorporated townsite or village, usually one which has been surveyed into lots or claims
dry ace	In Omaha hold 'em or Texas hold 'em, an ace in one's hand without another card of the same suit
short story	See unity of effect as well
verism	Verism is the artistic preference of contemporary everyday subject matter instead of the heroic or legendary in art and literature; a form of realism
metaphor	A literary term designating a figure of speech that implies a comparison or identity of one thing with something else
cashing	Winning a share of the prize money in a tournament.
set piece	Piece of scenery which stands independently in a scene.
coadjutors	Assistants; Those who work together with one another.
frieze	A sculptured or richly ornamented band (as on a building or piece of furniture).
sate	An old spelling of "sat", past tense of "sit"
toggle bar	horizontal pieces of wood used in constructing a flat to make it rigid
accompagnato	"accompanied" – The accompaniment must follow the singer who can speed up or slow down at will.
scholiasts	Commentators, annotators
idilio	(Spanish m.) idyll
diction	The selection of words in a literary work
family pot	A deal in which every (or almost every) seated player called the first opening bet.
felt	The cloth covering of a poker table, whatever the actual material
ima	Institute for the Musical Arts
nepenthe	A potion used by the ancients to induce forgetfulness of pain or sorrow; Something capable of causing oblivion of grief or suffering.
caricature	A portrait in literature intended to make fun of a person by exaggerating the negative sides of his /her character: one-sided over-emphasis of certain character traits
ikonographie	(German f.) iconography
theatre in the round	an arena style production in which the audience surrounds the acting stage, and the actors use the various aisles for exits and entrances
texture	a characteristic visual or tactile quality produced by certain kinds of images (such as a story that has many scenes that take place in the rain or which incorporates images drenched in rain to produce a cold and “damp” feeling in the viewer).
charismatic	One of the strands of theological belief (see also catholic, evangelical, liberal)
rhyme	The repetition of sound, almost always to achieve an effect or to create a rhythm. end rhyme is the repetition of the end sounds of the words at the ends of lines of poetry; near rhyme or off rhyme or slant rhyme is not quite true or pure - "tree" rhyme with "hurry"; internal rhyme rhymes a word in the middle of a line of poetry with a word elsewhere in the line.
knight	A military aristocrat in medieval Europe and England who swore service as a vassal to a liege lord in exchange for control over land
pensionnaire	Hireling in a French acting troupe.
asyndeton	lists of words, phrases, or expressions without conjunctions such as `and' and `or' to link them
zadacha	Russian for "task"; (though commonly translated as "objective"); according to Konstantin Stanislavsky, the character's (fictional) tasks (or goals) that the actor must pursue during the play.
elements	the smaller parts of a movie that must be written and noted during the breakdown and budgeting process (e.g., cast, set pieces, vehicles, music, etc.).
moultrie	William Moultrie was an American general in the Revolution
quatrain	Also sometimes used interchangeably with "stave," a quatrain is a
freeroll	See main article: freeroll.
environmental theatre	Plays produced not on a conventional stage but in an area where the actors and the audience are intermixed in the same "environment" and where there is no precise line distinguishing stage space from audience space.
metre	The pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a poem.
genre	A term used to designate a type of literature according to its subject matter and how the subject is treated.
macaronic language	Macaronic refers to text spoken or written using a mixture of languages, sometimes including bilingual puns, particularly when the languages are used in the same context (as opposed to different segments of a text being in different languages)
marinism	Marinism (Italian marinismo, or secentismo, "17th century") is the name now given to an ornate, witty style of poetry and verse drama written in imitation of Giambattista Marino (1569-1625), following in particular La Lira and L'Adone.
elision	Technique used in poetry: vowels or syllables are left out in order to maintain the correct metre in a line.
rhyme	when final vowel and consonant sounds in the last syllable of one word match those of another, usually at the end of lines
come prima	like the first (time); i.e., as before, typically referring to an earlier tempo
foil	A character which is used to contrast with another character.
imitieren	(German) to imitate
triolet	A triolet is a one stanza poem of eight lines
pluto	The Roman god of the underworld.
prologos	In classical Greek drama, the opening scene which sets the action and provides the necessary background information.
purloiner	Thief, burglar.
prose	Writing that isn't poetry.
affidavit	A formal written statement of facts to which the person making the statement attaches a formal oath swearing that everything in it is true
fiction	A story that is not true.
kathakali	A traditional dance-drama of India.
spread-limit	A form of limit poker where the bets and raises can be between a minimum and maximum value
button	Most commonly a marker that indicates the dealer position at the table, but other specialized buttons exist
stereotype	A character who is so ordinary or unoriginal that the character seems like an oversimplified representation of a type, gender, class, religious group, or occupation
hypermetric	a verse with one or more syllables than the metre calls for, a line with metrically redundant syllables.
mezzo	"half"; used in combinations like mezzo forte (mf), meaning "moderately loud."
evidence	Evidence in its broadest sense includes everything that is used to determine or demonstrate the truth of an assertion
prosimetrum	A prosimetrum (Latin) is a literary piece that is made up of alternating passages of prose and poetry.
improvisato	improvised, or as if improvised
immagine musicale	(Italian f.) musical imagery
thesis	A dissertation or thesis is a document submitted in support of candidature for a degree or professional qualification presenting the author's research and findings
rondel	roundel, roundelay, villanelle.
couplet	Two consecutive lines of poetry which are paired in length or rhyme, for example ‘I was angry with my friend: I told my wrath, my wrath did end’ (A Poison Tree by William Blake).
zaffre	Zaffre is a crude oxide of cobalt obtained by heating cobalt ore in a current of air
found poem	a passage in a piece of prose shaped by a reader into quasi-metrical lines and republished as a poem.
pun	A comic effect suggesting two meanings from one word or phrase.
monograph	A monograph is a work of writing upon a single subject, usually by a single author
in articulo mortis	The moment of death
romanzo d' appendice	Romanzo d'appendìce (Italian for Feuilleton) was a popular genre in literature, which originated in England and France, in the second half of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th.
octave	An octave is a verse form consisting of eight lines of iambic pentameter (in English) or of hendecasyllables (in Italian)
džnouement	A French term meaning "unraveling" or "unknotting," used to describe the resolution of the plot following the climax
unequivocal	Unquestionable
ignoramus	(Latin) an ignorant person
rush	A prolonged winning streak
bleed	Consistently losing chips through bad play, possibly resulting from tilt
missed blind	A required bet that is not posted when it is a player's turn to do so, perhaps occurring when a player absents himself from the table
tenor	The drift of something spoken or written
a priori	Found by deduction
previous action	action that has taken place prior to the opening of the movie, which the audience must know in order to understand the storyline and motivations of the character.
split screen	A screen with different scenes taking place in two or more sections; the scenes are usually interactive, as in the depiction of two sides of a phone conversation.
groundlings	While the upper class paid two pennies to sit in the raised area with seats, and some nobles paid three pennies to sit in the Lords' rooms, the majority of viewers who watched Shakespeare's plays were called
deconstructionism	postmodern critical approach that "constructs" new meanings of old texts by subverting (or "deconstructing") them; based on the premise that language is an imprecise instrument that has been manipulated by the traditional Eurocentric worldview
kirschenwasser	A cherry brandy manufactured chiefly in the Black Forest in Germany.
hebraism	Hebraism is the identification of a usage, trait, or characteristic of the Hebrew language
piangevole	plaintive
abeyance	Suspension, temporary inactivity.
hyacinthine	Of the color of a hyacinth, either the gem or the flower
position bet	A bet that is made more due to the strength of the bettor's position than the strength of the bettor's cards.
impronte digitali	(Italian f
volta	a turn is a sudden change in thought, direction, or emotion at the conclusion of the sonnet
distich	A couplet.
improntare	(Italian) to impress, to imprint, to mark, to prepare
blackout	A common stage direction at the end of a scene or an act.
emotional recall	Stanislavski's exercise to assist the actor in presenting realistic emotions
run-on line	See discussion under enjambement
ruvido	roughly
open poetic form	A poem of variable length, one which can consist of as many lines as the poet wishes to write
railbird	A non-participatory spectator of a poker game
cut time	same as the meter 2/2: two half-note (minim) beats per measure
nassau balloon	In 1837, Charles Green, Robert Holland, and Thomas Monck Mason really did take a balloon trip from London, England to Weilburg, Germany
traditional k'unshan play	a highly stylized one-act play from the Ming Dynasty, 1368-1644
variance	The statistical measure of how far actual results differ from expectation
downstage	That part of the stage closest to the audience
parataxis	linking clauses just by sequencing them, often without conjunction(s) and only by means of associations that are implied, not stated.
understatement	A technique of saying less than necessary in a piece of writing (playing down rather than exaggerating) in order to make something clear
catalepsy	A condition of suspended animation and loss of voluntary motion in which the limbs remain in whatever position they are placed.
a prima vista	Playing something at first sight of the sheet music
preparation	(1) Previous arranging of circumstances, pointing of character, and placing of properties in a production so that the ensuing actions will seem reasonable
silencio	silence.
vellum	Vellum is generally defined as a material made from calfskin, sheepskin, or virtually any other skin obtained from a relatively small animal, e.g
correspondences	An integral part of the medieval and Renaissance model of the universe known as the
didaskolos	in the Greek theater, the "teacher" of the chorus; the forerunner of the modern choreographer and choral director.
illustration	(English, French) exemplification, example, a visual representation (often designed to make something clear or attractive)
quatrain	four lines of poetry that form a unit
black musical	See black theatre.
imperative	urgent, obligatory, commanding, peremptory
personification	Presentation of inanimate objects as having human qualities, for example ‘And all that mighty heart is lying still!’ (Composed Upon Westminster Bridge by William Wordsworth).
digression	The introduction of material into some literary work which is only partially or completely unrelated to its main subject (dt
d.s. al fine	(or dal segno al fine) "from the sign to the end": means to return to a place in the music designated by the sign and continue to the end of the piece
fable	parable
semiotics	In theater history, an approach based on the argument that historians need to focus on audiences' responses to elements of a production in which function and signs and have a specific meaning for viewers.
compression	When the narrating time
villanelle	A versital genre of poetry consisting of nineteen lines--five tercets and a concluding quatrain
oral transmission	The spreading or passing on of material by word of mouth
four-straight	Four cards in rank sequence; either an open-ender or one-ender
anti-hero	In fiction, an antihero (sometimes antiheroine as feminine) is generally considered to be a protagonist whose character is at least in some regards conspicuously contrary to that of the archetypal hero, and is in some instances its antithesis
spenserian stanza	The Spenserian stanza is a fixed verse form invented by Edmund Spenser for his epic poem The Faerie Queene
1st person	"I" tells the story and is a character in the story; this can be present tense or past tense.
cywdd deuair hirion	In Welsh prosody, the term refers to a form of light verse consisting of a single couplet with seventeen syllables
imperiosamente	(Italian) imperiously, pompously, haughtily, stately
ballad opera	genre in which popular songs and ballads are inserted into the action to advance plot, character, or theme
comedy western	a play blending humorous elements in an Old West context
imperfect measure	an old term for the time of only two in a bar, also called 'binary measure'
imperfect rhyme	another term for inexact rhyme or slant rhyme
reader	A person who reads screenplays for a production company or stageplays for a theater company and writes a report about them, often being paid per report.
abstruse	Difficult to understand.
beast poetry	Beast poetry, in the context of European literature and Medieval studies, refers to a corpus of poems written in Latin from the 8th to the 11th century.
ethnography	The approach to the study of any given social group through investigation of their routine, habits, institutions, food and dress.
disputation	In the scholastic system of education of the Middle Ages, disputations (in Latin: disputationes, singular: disputatio) offered a formalized method of debate designed to uncover and establish "truths" in theology and in other sciences
immer wuchtig	(German) always weighty
sephardi	A Hebrew term, meaning "native of Spain" - Jews of Spanish and Portuguese extraction
audition	The process whereby an actor seeks a role by presenting to a director or casting director a prepared reading or by "reading cold" from the text of the play being presented.
chiaroscuro	In painting, emphasis of contrasts between light and shadow, associated with Giambattista Piranesi and others.
im lebhaftesten zeitmaße	(German) in the quickest time possible
bildungsroman	The Bildungsroman (German pronunciation: [ˈbɪldʊŋs.ʁoˌmaːn]; German: "formation novel") is a genre of the novel which focuses on the psychological and moral growth of the protagonist from youth to adulthood
anomalous	deviating from the normal; aberrant or abnormal.
censorship ordinance of 1559	This law under Queen Elizabeth required the political censorship of public plays and all printed materials in matters of religion and the government
epic poem	a long poem that tells a story, often of a great hero or a very significant event
pantun	The pantun is a Malay poetic form
imprimer	(French) to print, to imprint, to impart
syntax	The way in which the words and phrases of a sentence are ordered that shows how they relate to each other
hasmonean	The Maccabaean family which led the revolt against Antiochus Epiphanes (see Hanukah) are referred to in Hebrew sources as Hasmoneans, i.e
parable	A simple story that centres around a general truth, an idea, a moral lesson
chirurgical journal	"Chirurgeon" is an old word for surgeon
elegy	below.
carros	In the Spanish golden age, pageant wagons on which autos sacramentales were staged.
organic form	Refers to works whose formal characteristics are not rigidly predetermined but follow the movement of thought or emotion being expressed
antithesis	The balancing of contrasting ideas, principles, sentences, or words
rit.	an abbreviation for ritardando;[1][2][3][4] also less frequently considered an abbreviation for ritenuto[5][6][7]
vellum	which is made from the hide of young calves
suspense	a state of excitement or apprehension created by the pacing and sequencing of scenes, through the raising of a protagonist’s emotional or physical stakes, or through the creation of jeopardy situations for a protagonist.
brick & mortar	A brick & mortar or B&M casino is a "real" casino based in a building, as opposed to an online casino
script cover	What protects the script on its travels between the writer and its many potential readers
flashback	An event in a narrative presented out of sequence from an earlier time
copyright	Proof of ownership of an artistic property that comes with registering your script through the United States Register of Copyrights.
middle diction	See Diction.
rhetoric	The art of persuasive argument through writing or speech--the art of eloquence and charismatic language
tutti	"all together," usually used in an orchestral or choral score when the orchestra or all of the voices come in at the same time, also seen in baroque-era music where two instruments share the same copy of music, after one instrument breaks off to play a more advanced form, and they both play at the "tutti." See also: ripieno.
yard	In Elizabethan public theaters, the pit, or standing area.
script	A play's text as used in and prior to play production, usually in manuscript or typescript rather than in a published version.
characterization	The means by which writers present and reveal character
slapstick	Literally, a prop bat made up of two hinged sticks that slap sharply together when the bat is used to hit someone; a staple gag of the commedia dell'arte
vibrato	A slight variation in the pitch of a note, used to give a richer sound
im alten stil	all'antico (Italian) in the ancient style, in a former style, in an old style (usually a reference to the style associated with classical Greek or ancient Roman), dans le style ancien (French)
impronta del piede	(Italian f.) foot-print
catholic	Properly meaning "universal" or "worldwide", but often used as shorthand for Anglo-catholic. Hence "the catholic group in the General Synod".
genre	a type of film for which audience have a set of particular expectations in regard to plot, style, tone, outcome, and theme.
improvisando	(Italian) with improvisation
rencontre	A violent meeting
parenthetical	one or two words that qualify the tone of a dialogue line when it is not clear from the subtext or context of the line how it should be played; a parenthetical is placed in parentheses just above the dialogue line and indented.
play	A specific piece of drama, usually enacted on a stage by diverse actors who often wear makeup or costumes to make them resemble the character they portray
con	with; used in very many musical directions, for example con allegrezza (with liveliness), con amore (with tenderness); (see also col, colla, above)
poesy	the art and craft of making poems, or the poems themselves.
exposed card	A card whose face has been deliberately or accidentally revealed to players normally not entitled to that information during the play of the game
athwart	Across
subplot	A minor or subordinate secondary plot, often involving a deuteragonist's struggles, which takes place simultaneously with a larger plot, usually involving the protagonist
batavia	Known today as Jakarta, the port capital of Indonesia.
traveler	A curtain that, instead of flying out (see fly), moves horizontally and is usually opened by dividing from the center outward.
eschatology	The branch of religious philosophy or theology focusing on the end of time, the afterlife, and the Last Judgment
imprudencia	(Spanish f.) imprudence
gioioso	gaily
action	what happens in the story line of a play; a plot consists of events that create the play's action.
tracks	slots in a stage floor created for guiding portable scenery, wagons, and properties
lords' rooms	In English Renaissance theater, boxes frequented by wealthy patrons.
ad lib	A line improvised by an actor during a performance, usually because the actor has forgotten his or her line or because something unscripted has occurred onstage
one-hour episodic	A screenplay for a television show whose episodes fill a one-hour time slot, week to week.
churchyards	Areas of land surrounding churches, and often, if well maintained, providing much appreciated amenity. They are used for the burial of parishioners.
thespian	actor; after Thespis, the first Greek dramatist
stanza	a unit of lines in a poem which usually share a metrical or thematic pattern
ich-erzähler	(German m.) first-person narrator
canticle	A hymn or religious song using words from any part of the Bible except the Psalms.
vers de société	Vers de société, a term for social or familiar poetry, which was originally borrowed from the French, and has now come to rank as an English expression.
antagonist	See discussion under character, below.
altissimo	"very high"
parashah	Literally ‘division': the weekly portion of the Torah
voiced and unvoiced	consonants are voiced when the vocal cords move (/b/) and unvoiced when they remain still (/p/).
illusoire	(French) illusory
precocity	having mature qualities at an unusually early age.
intermezzi	In the Italian Renaissance, entertainments performed between the acts of operas and full-length plays.
ad personam	Copies numbered with Roman numerals or prefixed ‘AP' are in every respect identical to the other conventionally-numbered copies in the edition
vacillating	Hesitating
charles green	Charles Green (1785-1870), was Britain's most famous balloonist of the 19th century.
idillico	(Italian) idyllic
fluency	The ability to easily speak, read, or write a language; automatic word recognition, rapid decoding, and checking for meaning
partisan	A firm adherent to a party, faction, cause, or person; especially one exhibiting blind, prejudiced, and unreasoning allegiance.
poetry	Literary form of writing which is arranged in verse instead of prose
chiasmus	A crosswise placing of elements in prose or verse
cartilaginous	Composed of, relating to, or resembling cartilage.
cosmogony	A theory of the origin of the universe.
ode	A long, often elaborate stanzaic poem of varying line lengths and sometimes intricate rhyme schemes dealing with a serious subject matter and treating it reverently
rue	The french word for "Street"
mla	The
pun	an expression that uses a homonym (two different words spelled identically) to deliver two or more meanings at the same time
stock shot	A sequence of film previously shot and available for purchase and use from a film library.
cable	A cable television network such as HBO, or cable television in general.
figurative language	Language enriched by word meanings and figures of speech (i.e., similes, metaphors, personification, hyperbole)
troubadour	A troubadour was a composer and performer of Occitan lyric poetry during the High Middle Ages (1100–1350)
comprehensive	One of the glories of the Church of England is said by many to be its comprehensiveness. Others condemn it. It effectively means that its members – and even its clergy – can hold almost any belief or none, and still claim membership, and loyal membership at that. Thus an inability to accept the historicity of, for example, the Virgin birth or the bodily resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ has proved to be no bar to the holding of office, nor has a disbelief in His deity. The problem comes when one tries to agree on the limits of that comprehensiveness. The debate continues!
burden	the choric line or lines that signal the end or the beginning of a stanza in a carol or hymn.
slang	elision
epistrophe	in which the poet or rhetorician repeats the concluding phrase over and over for effects
gemel	A final couplet that appears at the end of a sonnet
paraphrase	to record someone elses words in the writers own words
gold-tooling	A method of decorating a book using heated tools to impress gold or silver metal leaf into the cover or spine.
ballad	bard, epic, folklore, oral-formulaic, etc.
both ways	Both halves of a split pot, often declared by a player who thinks he or she will win both low and high.
corral	In the Spanish golden age, a theater usually located in the courtyard of a series of adjoining buildings.
mezzo piano	half softly; i.e., moderately softly
trilogy	Three plays performed in sequence; the basic pattern of ancient Greek tragedies, of which one - Aeschylus' The Oresteia (Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers, and The Eumenides) - is still extant.
interview	Special kind of dialogue, prepared in advance, following a special pattern, and broadcast or printed later.
mime	A stylized art of acting without words
benefit	Tradition begun in eighteenth-century theater whereby the profits from an evening's performance were given to a performer or group of performers.
trey	A 3-spot card
in medias res	See Plot.
iglesia apostolica	(Spanish f.) Apostolic Church
simultaneous setting	Medieval convention of presenting more than one locale onstage at the same time; also called multiple setting.
match cut	A transition in which something in the scene that follows in some way directly matches a character or object in the previous scene.
iglesia bautista fundamental	(Spanish f.) Fundamental Baptist Church
hybrid	A literary type which shows similarities to other literary types.
substitutionary narration	Presentation of a character´s consciousness, his thoughts, secret motives, feelings, or sensations
freeze	To keep absolutely still and motionless.
imbibed	Received into the mind and retained
personification	a description of something that is not a person as though it were a person; example: The stream made a happy, singing sound through the forest.
harangue	A ranting speech or writing
duke's seat	the ideal seat in a court theater from which the ranking official could view the action (and especially the scenic perspective) from a perfect vantage point.
melodrama	Historically, a distinct form of drama popular throughout the nineteenth century which emphasized action, suspense, and spectacular effects; generally melodrama used music to heighten the dramatic mood
accede	To express approval or give consent; give in to a request or demand.
cut	the transitional movement on screen from once scene or shot to the next.
ideas completamente antediluvianas	(Spanish f.pl.) really old-fashioned ideas
imperturbabile	(Italian) quietly, easily
impennato	(Italian) requilled (jacks)
combination company	In the nineteenth century, a complete touring production, including supporting players, scenery, and costumes.
flashback	An interruption of a work's chronology to describe or present an incident that occurred prior to the main time frame of a work's action
simultaneous dialogue	When two characters speak at the same time, written in two columns side by side.
schism	A schism is a split or division in the church concerning religious belief or organizational structure--one in which a single church splits into two or more separate denominations--often hostile to each other
petrarchan conceit	A
da capo	from the head; i.e., from the beginning (see capo in this list)
strambotto - ottava rima	Ottava rima is a rhyming stanza form of Italian origin
act	To make a play (bet, call, raise, or fold) at the required time
cloister	A place or state of seclusion
free verse	Verse without a regular rhyme, metre or length of lines
encomium	A poem praising a person, object or idea.
mizen-mast	The aftermost mast of a ship.
psychoanalytic theory	Psychoanalytic theory refers to the definition and dynamics of personality development which underlie and guide psychoanalytic and psychodynamic psychotherapy
fauces	The narrow passage from the mouth to the pharynx, situated between the soft palate and the base of the tongue; -- called also the isthmus of the fauces
iguales ante la ley	(Spanish) equal in the eyes of the law
eroico	"heroically"
metonymy	See Metaphor.
cut card	A distinctive card, usually stiff solid-colored plastic, held against the bottom of the deck during the deal to prevent observation of the bottom card.
set	The physical elements that are constructed or arranged to create a sense of place.
flashback	A scene from the past that interrupts the action to explain motivation or reaction of a character to the immediate scene.
renga	Renga (連歌 renga?, collaborative poetry) is a genre of Japanese collaborative poetry
homily	A homily is a commentary that follows a reading of scripture
rhetorical device	In rhetoric, a rhetorical device or resource of language is a technique that an author or speaker uses to convey to the listener or reader a meaning with the goal of persuading him or her towards considering a topic from a different perspective
cavea	In Roman theater, the seating area.
west end	The commercial theatre district of London, England.
tracking a platform	building a track into the stage that helps to guide a platform to its proper place
fastidious	Possessing or displaying careful, meticulous attention to detail; difficult to please; exacting.
eulogy	A poem or discourse in praise of a dead person.
tempo di valse	waltz tempo
retrospection	Act of talking about events that took place at a point in the past.
stichomythy	Dialogue consisting of one-line speeches designed for rapid delivery and snappy exchanges
buy-in	The minimum required amount of chips that must be "bought" to become involved in a game (or tournament)
hessian	A German mercenary serving in the British forces during the American Revolution.
allusion	A reference in a literary work to a person, place, or thing in history or another work of literature.
imperioso	"imperiously"
intimo	intimately
intermission	In England, "interval"; a pause in the action, marked by a fall of the curtain or a fade-out of the stage lights, during which the audience may leave their seats for a short time, usually ten or fifteen minutes
parchment	vellum, and manuscript.
brusquerie	Abruptness of manner.
comedy of humors	comic genre that focuses on a single personality flaw of a character; it was based on the medieval belief that human behavior was influenced by bodily fluids (or "humors") and that an imbalance of these fluids led to erratic behavior.
starting hand	See main article: starting hand.
gendarme	A police officer
bagtelle	Usually a short and light piano piece
archetypal character	a recurring figure who transcends the particulars of time and place to take on a symbolic value with universal appeal; a primary example
beast fable	A short, simple narrative with speaking animals as characters designed to teach a moral or social truth
peripeteia	the reversal of fortune
imitando la voce	(Italian) imitating the inflections of the voice
imbarcazione di salvataggio	(Italian f.) lifeboat
teetotum	A small spinning top usually inscribed with letters.
early position	See position.
live poker	A retronym for poker played with at a table with cards, as opposed to video poker or online poker.
im auge behalten	(German) keep in sight, bear in mind (figurative)
manuscript	parchment, and vellum, below.
sonnet	a fourteen line lyric poem usually in iambic pentameter
pernicious	Highly injurious or destructive; wicked.
special reserve	Land set aside for Indian use by owners other than the CROWN
anadiplosis	Anadiplosis (pronounced /ænədɨˈploʊsɨs/, AN-ə-di-PLOH-sis; from the Greek: á¼Î½Î±Î´Î¯ÏÎ»ÏÏÎ¹Ï, anadàplÅsis, "a doubling, folding up") is the repetition of the last word of a preceding clause
perforations	Openings or holes.
trap	Opening in the stage floor, normally covered, which can be used for special effects, such as having scenery or performers rise from below, or which permits the construction of a staircase that ostensibly leads to a lower floor or cellar.
raked stage	Stage which slopes upward away from the audience toward the back of the stage.
sylph	An immortal yet soulless (elemental) being that inhabits the air
saint's life	Another term for the medieval genre called a vita
lenaea	The winter dramatic festival in ancient Athens
aubade	a medieval love poem welcoming or lamenting the arrival of the dawn
freeze frame	The image on the screen stops, freezes and becomes a still shot.
tarn	A bog or marsh
con larghezza	with broadness; broadly
imponente	(Italian) imposing in style, haughtily, emphatic
il est regrettable	(French) It's regrettable
deus ex machina	literally, "the god from the machine," a reference to the practice of lowering a god onto the stage in the ancient Greek and Roman theaters; as a literary term it refers to a character that is introduced late in the play to provide a contrived solution to an apparently insolvable problem
volante	flying
inhumed	buried, as in a grave.
production manager	the main supervisor of the crew in charge of keeping a film project on time and on budget; the PM negotiates all financial and contractual affairs for the project during pre-production, principal photography, and sometimes post production.
limp-reraise	A reraise from a player that previously limped in the same betting round
short play	See one-act play
imzhad	see imzad
mad trist	A "story within a story", apparently created by Poe in "The Fall of the House of Usher"
coal gas	A mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen, produced by burning coal
lake poets	The Lake Poets are a group of English poets who all lived in the Lake District of England at the turn of the nineteenth century
proscenium arch	The arch separating the audience area from the main stage area
ritual	Specifically ordered, ceremonial religious, personal, or social event.
tsure	In n¯o theater, a secondary role.
enjambement	below.
lost generation	The "Lost Generation" is a term used to refer to the generation that came of age during World War I
paradox	A statement that is seemingly contradictory or opposed to common sense and yet is perhaps true
parashah	Literally ‘division': the weekly portion of the Torah, also called Sidra (order [of reading]).
hexameter	A line of six feet.
improvisatori	Those that improvise, like actors or poets.
imparare con la pratica	(Italian) to learn by doing
connotation	Associations and implications that go beyond the literal meaning of a word, which derive from how the word has been commonly used and the associations people make with it
chorus	(1) A group of singers who stand alongside or off stage from the principal performers in a dramatic or musical performance
formal analysis	Modern method of interpreting literature: analysing character, action, setting and other formal elements
level	Used in tournament play to refer to the size of the blinds that are periodically increased
confirmation	Infant baptism leaves a problem. Unless one believes that the very act of baptism is a sign that the infant has, indeed, become regenerate regardless of the undoubted fact that the child will have had no understanding of what was being done to it or for it, one needs some formal opportunity for that child to endorse what was done at baptism. The service of confirmation provides this. It is the bishop who presides at the service, underlining that the candidate is being received as a member by and into the universal church; during the service he lays hands on the candidates and prays for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit within them.
syllabification	The act, process, or method of forming or dividing words into syllables
backraise	A reraise from a player that previously called in the same betting round
alla	to the, in the manner of (al before masculine nouns, alla before feminine)
vegetable parchment	A paper made by passing a completely unsized sheet of paper through a number of chemical processes which eventually form a very tough, stiff, smooth paper with an almost identical appearance to that of animal parchment.
vegetable parchment	A paper made by passing a completely unsized sheet of paper through a number of chemical processes which eventually form a very tough, stiff, smooth paper with an almost identical appearance to that of animal parchment
petulantly	Rudely or insolently
antistrophe	one of the three principal divisions of a Greek play; it means "counterturn" (see strophe)
counterfeit	See main article: counterfeit
pitch	a brief verbal description of a screenplay idea or script (often based on a written logline) usually told by a writer, director, or producer to someone who is interested in buying, financing, or developing a story idea or script.
ineffable	Indescribable
portato	non-legato but not as short as staccato (same as portamento [2], in this list).
comedy	Popularly, a funny play; classically, a play that ends happily; metaphorically, a play with some humor that celebrates the eternal ironies of human existence ("divine comedy").
bard	originally a Celtic name for a poet-singer.
black-box theatre	A rectangular room with no fixed seating or stage area; this theatre design allows for a variety of configurations in staging plays.
contemporary	At the same time when an author was writing
il est obligatoire	(French) It's obligatory
ode	a poem of high seriousness with irregular stanzaic forms.
modernism	Literary period since the late 19th century when the writers freed themselves from established forms of literature and their restrictions and conventions
a tempo	"in time", used on its own to indicate that the performer should return to the main tempo of the piece (after an accelerando or ritardando), also may be found in combination with other terms such as a tempo giusto (in strict time) or a tempo di menuetto (at the speed of a minuet).
gonzo journalism	Gonzo journalism is a style of journalism that is written subjectively, often including the reporter as part of the story via a first-person narrative
vulgate	The Vulgate is a late 4th-century Latin version of the Bible, and largely the result of the labors of St
prothalamion	see Epithalamion.
pick-up	When the house picks up cash from the dealer after a player buys chips.
a prima vista	at first sight; i.e., playing or singing something at first sight of the music sheet
paradoxical	A paradox is a statement that is seemingly contradictory or opposed to common sense and yet is perhaps true.
biomechanics	An aspect of Vsevelod Meyerhold's theory of acting: the idea that an actor's body should be machinelike and that emotion can be represented externally.
canzone	hendecasyllabic lines in stanza form
idealization	a portrayal of something as ideal or perfect
downstage	The part of the stage closest to the audience, so named because when stages were raked (slanted), an actor walking toward the audience was literally walking down
alliteration	using the same consonant to start two or more stressed words or syll= ables in a phrase or verse line, or using a series of vowels to begin such words or syllables in sequence
il me faut	(French) I need
comic relief	Those short comic passages in tragedy (interludes or episodes) are intended to relieve tension for a moment, add a variety, counterpoint and heighten the tragic element by way of contrast.
paraphrase	A brief restatement in one's own words of all or part of a literary or critical work, as opposed to quotation, in which one reproduces all or part of a literary or critical work word-for-word, exactly.
secco	"(I) dry"
comparison	See simile.
avant-garde	an intelligentsia that develops new or experimental forms, especially in the arts.
intimo	"intimately"
head	The first paragraph in a news story - usually in bold print - in which the most important information of the whole article is given.
kabbalah	Kabbalah (‘tradition') is the mystical theosophical system developed in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, as represented by the Zohar
high concept	A brief statement of a movie's basic idea that is felt to have tremendous public appeal.
pythiambic	a Classical Greek and Latin metrical form, dactylic hexameter and iambic trimeter couplets.
viand	An item of food.
fold	To discard one's hand and forfeit interest in the current pot
demur	Hesitation (as in doing or accepting) usually based on doubt of the acceptability of something offered or proposed.
rising action	In dramatic structure, the escalating conflict; events and actions that follow the inciting action.
format	the specific layout, typeface, point size, and punctuation required by the film industry for professional screenplays.
roquelaire	A knee-length cloak worn especially in the 18th and 19th centuries
hypocritical	Being a hypocrite
flop game	A community card game.
au troisieme	French for "on the third," but the meaning is the fourth floor, because the count starts after the ground floor.
zeal	Enthusiasm for a person, cause, or object.
emphasis	Emphasis means the stress that is placed on special words or phrases by way of imagery, punctuation, structure, and other features of style
metal dies	Engraved steel, brass or bronze stamps used in embossing a design or letter in leather.
subplot	A secondary plot in a play, usually related to the main plot by play's end
imitatio aequalis motus	(Latin) imitation by similar melodic motion
irony	Condition that is the reverse of what we have expected; also, a verbal expression whose intended implication is the opposite of its literal sense
scheme	figure of speech that varies the order and sound of words
hauteur	arrogance, haughtiness
dynamic character	Also called a round character, a dynamic character is one whose personality changes or evolves over the course of a narrative or appears to have the capacity for such change
epic	A long narrative poem about heroic adventures of some kind, or about history.
multimedia	Use of electronic media, such as slides, film, and videotape, in live theater.
francs	French dollars.
top pair	In community card poker games, top pair is a pair comprising a pocket card and the highest-ranking card on the board
cinquain	a verse form of five lines with lines of 2, 4, 6, 8, and 2 syllables.
fable	allegory, and symbolism, or click here for a PDF handout discussing the differences between these terms.
stereotype	Preconceived idea of what a person or thing is like.
a piacere	"at pleasure"
plot pay-off	the consequence or outcome of a plot point or story element that is set-up earlier in a screenplay.
resolution	the final phase of the falling action in plot when things are returned to normal
illusion	(English, French f.) an erroneous mental representation
come prima	like the first (tempo), as before
interpolation	"Introduction of additional words in a text, as when an editor uses explanatory words
local color	Inclusion in scenery of locations that audience members will recognize from their own community
freddo	cold(ly); hence depressive, unemotional
action	A real or fictional event or series of such events comprising the subject of a novel, story, narrative poem, or a play, especially in the sense of what the characters do in such a narrative
scenery	The visual environment created onstage using a backdrop and props
additive monster	above.
cold call	To call an amount that represents a sum of bets or raises by more than one player
facilis descensus averni	"The descent into Hell is easy", a quote from Virgil's "Aeneid", written around 20 BC
sonatina	a little sonata
cavalier	A follower of Charles I of England (ruled c
coverage	The notes prepared by script readers at literary agency, film production company, theater company or script competition
daughters of delos	The three daughters of king Anius of Delos, Oeno (wine), Spermo (wheat) and Elais (oliveoil)
cash plays	An announcement, usually by a dealer, that a player requested to buy chips and can bet the cash he has on the table in lieu of chips until he receives his chips
estinto	"as soft as possible," "lifeless" (literally "extinguished").
eye-rhyme	cf
forward motion	A house rule of some casinos states that if a player in turn picks up chips from his stack and moves his hand toward the pot ("forward motion with chips in hand"), this constitutes a commitment to bet (or call), and the player may not withdraw his hand to check or fold
pat	Already complete
calculus	A central branch of mathematics dating back to the ancient greeks.
cosmic irony	See Irony.
escritoire	A writing table or desk.
decorum	Propriety and good taste in conduct or appearance.
hypercatalectic	see Catalectic.
aghast	Terrified, struck with amazement, showing signs of terror or horror.
octosyllabic	having eight syllables.
jacobean era	Jacobean era refers to the period in English and Scottish history that coincides with the reign of King James VI (1567â€"1625) of Scotland, who also inherited the crown of England in 1603
solomon de caus	Little is known about the life of Salomon de Caus (1576-1626)
ifmc	abbreviation of 'International Folk Music Council'
guignol - grand guignol	Le Théâtre du Grand-Guignol (French pronunciation: [ɡʁɑ̃ ɡiɲɔl]: "The Theater of the Big Puppet") — known as the Grand Guignol — was in the Pigalle area of Paris (at 20 bis, rue Chaptal)
comedy drama/comedy-drama	a play blending light and serious elements
setting	Or "set," the fixed (stable) stage scenery.
check-raise	Deceptive play whereby a player initially checks with the intention of raising should another player bet
technical rehearsal	rehearsal for perfecting the technical elements of a show, such as the scene and property shifts, lighting, sound, and special effects
narrative poetry	Narrative poetry is poetry that has a plot
col pugno	"with the fist"; bang the piano with the fist.
ilwc	abbreviation of 'International League of Women Composers'
biographical criticism	An approach to literature which suggests that knowledge of the author's life experiences can aid in the understanding of his or her work
tiring house	In English Renaissance theater, a three-story stage house behind the raised platform stage.
canon	someone's list of authors or works considered to be "classic," that is, central to the identity of a given literary tradition or culture.
roman stoicism	The philosophy espoused by Marcus Aurelius's Meditations, "Roman Stoicism" actually originates with earlier Greek thinkers, a specific school of philosophers that met at the stoa in Athens
antibacchic	Classical Greek and Latin foot consisting of long, long, and short syllables / ' ' ~ /
foreshadowing	a metaphoric or symbolic indication of something to come.
beat	A parenthetically noted pause interrupting dialogue, denoted by (beat), for the purpose of indicating a significant shift in the direction of a scene, much in the way that a hinge connects a series of doors.
choir	Gone are the days when every parish church had a choir of boys and men to lead the worship. Many still do, but many do not. The parish church choir of today will, almost certainly, include girls and women; many cathedral
under the gun	The playing position to the direct left of the blinds in Texas hold 'em or Omaha hold 'em
pocket pair	In community card poker or stud poker, when two of a player's private cards make a pair
cacophony	when the poet intentionally mixes jarring or harsh sounds together in groups that make the phrasing either difficult to speak aloud or grating to the ear
dramatic monologue	a serious solo piece in which a character (the speaker) addresses a distinct but silent audience imagined to be present in the poem in such a way as to reveal a dramatic situation and, often unintentionally, some aspect of his or her temperament or personality
allegro	cheerful or brisk; but commonly interpreted as lively, fast
mosso	"motion"; used in conjunction with "più" or "meno", respectively, for more movingly or less movingly (about tempo).
stringendo	tightening, narrowing; i.e., with a pressing forward or acceleration of the tempo (that is, becoming stretto, see preceding entry)
serial	A story which appears in print (or on TV) in parts at regular intervals.
historical criticism	An approach to literature that uses history as a means of understanding a literary work more clearly
praeternatural	Supernatural, or inexplicable by ordinary means.
closed couplet	see couplet.
sfz	made loud; i.e., a sudden strong accent
exemplum	a narrative that teaches a moral.
template	(pattern, gobo) a metal pattern that, when placed inside an ellipsoidal spotlight, throws a shadow pattern on the stage
diction	One of the six important features of a drama, according to Aristotle, who meant by the term the intelligence and appropriateness of the play's speeches
fz	see sforzando in this list
catharsis	the emotional effect upon an audience resulting from a re-living or re-experiencing of a remembered emotion.
mood	The way the reader feels when reading a story.
groundlings	While the upper class paid two pennies to sit in the raised area with seats, and some nobles paid three pennies to sit in the Lords' rooms, the majority of viewers who watched Shakespeare's plays were called groundlings or understanders
smorz.	dying away, extinguishing or dampening; usually interpreted as a drop in dynamics, and very often in tempo as well
phantasm	Illusion, ghost, a product of fantasy, a mental representation of a real object.
calling station	A player who frequently calls bets, but rarely raises them
rapture	Ecstasy
desvanes	"Attics": in the Spanish golden age, cramped, low-ceilinged boxes located on the fourth floor of a corral.
dan	In xiqu, the female roles and the actors who play them.
enfranchisement	The process by which an Indian person or family gives up its INDIAN STATUS, or is forced to give it up, is called enfranchisement
acute	1
scherzo	"a joke."
gustoso	with gusto
choriamb	Greek and Latin metrical foot consisting of long, short, short, and long syllables / ' ~ ~ ' /; also an iambic alexandrine line with a spondee or trochee instead of an iambus in the sixth foot
rhythm	The pattern of sound in a poem
crown	The King or Queen as Canada's Head of State
subtext	the undercurrent of emotions and polar attitude shifts that lie beneath physical action and between the lines of dialogue.
elegy	the epithalamion, the hymn, the ode, and the sonnet
il est urgent	(French) It's urgent
exact rhyme	perfect rhyme, rhyme, eye rhyme, and inexact rh
stakes	The definition of the amount one buys in for and can bet
idylle	(French f., German) a musical composition of peaceful, pastoral character, as, for example, the Siegfried Idyll by Richard Wagner (1813-83)
pantomime	Originally, a Roman entertainment in which a narrative was sung by a chorus while the story was acted out by dancers
portamento	1
organic structure	a writing structure in which all of story elements relate to one another and to the whole in a complete and unified manner so as to make overall emotional or thematic sense to the reader or audience.
out of continuity	out of chronological or linear order (used to describe the way in which movie scenes are shot during principal photography).
simile	a comparison made with "as," "like," or "than."
dim out	To fade the lights gradually to blackness.
ignotum per ignotius	(Latin) an attempt to explain something about which little is known by reference to something about which even less is known
advertising	To make an obvious play or expose cards in such a way as to deliberately convey an impression to your opponents about your style of play
representative character	A flat character who embodies all of the other members of a group (such as teachers, students, cowboys, detectives, and so on)
choree	a trochee.
bill	The play or plays that together constitute what the audience is seeing at any one sitting
platonic	In common usage, people often use the word "platonic" to mean "intellectual rather than physical." Thus, a Platonic love-affair is one in which the couple is attracted to each other for mental or psychological qualities rather than bodily attributes
style	and speech of an ordinary soldier
a pipe of	The Portuguese word for barrel is pipa
free verse	free meter refers to a type of Welsh poetry in which the meters do not correspond to the "strict meters" established in the 1400s
scansion	The study of verse for patterns of accented and unaccented syllables; also known as "metrics."
numbered treaties	The eleven post -Confederation TREATIES covering northern Ontario, the Prairie provinces and parts of British Columbia and the Northwest Territories
neufchatelish	Refers to Neufchâtel-en-Bray (town of Normandy - France)
tension	See suspense
eclectic	Theater artist who works in a variety of modes and does not identify with one particular artistic movement.
type scene	A type scene is a literary convention employed by a narrator across a set of scenes, or related to scenes (place, action) already familiar to the audience
three-quarter right	performer is in a position halfway between full back and right profile
onomatopoeia	Words which actually convey the sound being made, for example ‘Bubbles gargled delicately’ (Death of a Naturalist by Seamus Heaney).
trough	a long metal container in which lamps are set
complication	"The interplay between character and event which builds up a tension and develops a problem out of the original situation given in the story." (Understanding Fiction).
adagietto	"rather slow."
connectors	Two or more cards of consecutive or close to consecutive rank.
pedale	pedal
peripety	See turning-point
top	pick up the energy, the pace, and the volume of a scene: one actor tops the other thereby building tension and emotional impact
character	An imaginary person that inhabits a literary work
im anzug sein	(German) be imminent (figurative)
cycle	In general use, a literary cycle is any group of closely related works
dissonante	dissonant
cutoff	The seat immediately to the right of the dealer button
punctuation	Punctuation helps to establish the pace for reading the poem
im begriffsein zu	(German) be about to
expansion	The narrating time is longer than the acting time (opposite: compression.
syntax	The arrangement of sentences; sentence construction: coordination, subordination
pre-flop	The time when players already have their pocket cards but no flop has been dealt yet
allegory	beast fable
exposition - dramatic structure	Dramatic structure is the structure of a dramatic work such as a play or film
robinsonade	Robinsonade is a literary genre that takes its name from the 1719 novel Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
universal symbol	Another term for an archetype.
ictus	the stress.
codicology	The study of the externalities of a manuscript (or printed book), for example the number of leaves (folded to make 4 writing surfaces) in each quire
cliché	An expression or idea that has been used so often that everybody takes it for granted; near prejudice
paraklausithyron	Paraclausithyron (Ancient Greek: ωδηπαρακλαυσίθυρον) is a motif in Greek and especially Augustan love elegy, as well as in troubadour poetry.
aegipans	Centaurs with the bodies of goats instead of horses
metaphysical poetry	The poetry of poets like John Donne and others in 17th century England
dissonante	"dissonant"
virtuoso	(noun or adjective) performing with exceptional ability, technique, or artistry
half bet rule	In some casinos, the rule that placing chips equal to or greater than half the normal bet amount beyond the amount required to call constitutes a commitment to raise the normal amount
feroce	ferociously
denotation	The minimal, strict definition of a word as found in a dictionary, disregarding any historical or emotional connotation
pun	A play upon words mostly used for humorous reasons
impugnar	(Spanish) to contest,to refute
ode	a lyric poem that praises a person or something important
rondel	roundel, villanelle.
phonemic awareness	The ability to hear, identify, and manipulate individual sounds (phonemes) in spoken words
accentual verse	lines whose rhythm arises from its stressed syllables rather than from the number of its syllables, or from the length of time devoted to their sounding
ballade	The ballade (pronounced /bəˈlɑːd/; not to be confused with the ballad) is a verse form typically consisting of three eight-line stanzas, each with a consistent metre and a particular rhyme scheme
asphytic	having asphyxia, a lack of oxygen or excess of carbon dioxide in the body that is usually caused by interruption of breathing and that causes unconsciousness.
value bet	A bet made by a player who wants it to be called (as opposed to a bluff or protection bet)
forecastle	That part of the upper deck forward of the fore mast
adagissimo	very slow
chai	In the Hebrew language, the word chai means "living", being the singular of the word for "life", chayyim
ballad stanza	In poetry, a Ballad stanza is the four-line stanza, known as a quatrain, most often found in the folk ballad
hemistich	see Line.
intercut	A script instruction denoting that the action moves back and forth between two or more scenes.
imbued	Infused
immaginare con anticipo	(Italian) to prefigure
ottava rima	Ottava rima is a rhyming stanza form of Italian origin
tintinnabulation	The ringing or sounding of bells
well-made play	Pièce bien faite in French; in the nineteenth century, a superbly plotted play, particularly by such gifted French playwrights as Eugène Scribe (1791-1861) and Victorien Sardou (1831-1908); today, generally used pejoratively, as to describe a play that has a workable plot but shallow characterization and trivial ideas.
molto	"very"
antares	Antares (Alpha Scorpii) is the brightest star in the constellation Scorpius and one of the brightest stars in the nighttime sky.
assonance	Repetition of similar sounds (esp
piece-bien-fait	The French term for the dramatic genre called the "well-made play." See discussion under well-made play.
empfindung	"Feeling" (Ger.)
pair	Two cards of the same rank
structure	The organisation of a poem
una corda	"one string" – a directive in piano music for the musician to depress the soft pedal, reducing the volume of the sound
pun	below.
hemistich	Half of an Alexandrine line, i.e
terza rima	Terza rima is a rhyming verse stanza form that consists of an interlocking three-line rhyme scheme
int.	Indoors.
gallows humor	Gallows humor is a type of humor that arises from stressful, traumatic, or life-threatening situations; often in circumstances such that death is perceived as impending and unavoidable
exposition	The first stage of a fictional or dramatic plot, in which necessary background information is provided.
mirroring or parallels	A character or incident mirrors another character or incident when the two follow similar plots, act in similar ways or contain similar elements or traits
flambeau	A flaming torch.
antagonist	but who highlight these characters or interact with them in such a way as to provide insight into the narrative action
burlesque	Burlesque is a humorous theatrical entertainment involving parody and sometimes grotesque exaggeration.
md	see mano destra and main droite
mendicants	Baggars, homeless people.
verse paragraph	a group of verse lines that make up a discourse unit, the first verse of which is sometimes indented, like a paragraph in prose.
science-fiction play	a play extrapolating man's use of science between the currently possible and the ultimately possible
graphic organizer	Visual representations of information used for constructing meaning in reading, writing, and speaking
syncope	the elision of an unstressed syllable so as to keep to a strict accentual-syllabic metre
virelay	An old French term for a short poem consisting of (A) short lines using two rhymes and (B) two opening lines that recur intermittently
throw away	underplay a moment in a scene; de-emphasize a line reading or a piece of business
theatre of the absurd	reveals man's inability to understand and control the world about him
cattymount	Now spelled "catamount", short for cat-a-mountain, any of various wild cats, like a cougar or a lynx.
angle	A particular camera placement.
iamb	meter, rhythm, and trochee
ode	Ode (from the Ancient Greek ὠδή) is a type of lyrical verse
business	Obvious and detailed physical movement of actors to reveal character, aid action, or establish mood; e.g., pouring drinks at a bar, opening a gun case.
repetition	A poet may repeat words or ideas to emphasise thoughts and feelings, for example ‘Five of us; dark He, fair He, dark She, fair She’ (The Five Students by Thomas Hardy).
post oak bluff	See main article: post oak bluff
university wits	In the English Renaissance, university graduates and professional dramatists who wrote plays based on Roman models but incorporating some medieval elements.
skene	In ancient Greek theater, the scene house behind the orchestra.
porphyrogene	Poe may have created the form of the word for his poem
magico	"magically"
literal meaning	The exact meaning of the words used in literature is intended
bedewed	To wet with or as if with dew.
epitaph	An epitaph (from Greek ἐπιτάφιον epitaphion "a funeral oration" from ἐπί epi "at, over" and τάφος taphos "tomb") is a short text honouring a deceased person, strictly speaking that is inscribed on their tombstone or plaque, but also used figuratively
scan	Scan may refer to:
breeches roles	Male roles played by females, particularly popular in Restoration and eighteenth-century English theater.
saracenic	A member of a nomadic people of the deserts between Syria and Arabia
medieval romance	See discussion under romance, medieval.
attitude	An attitude is a hypothetical construct that represents an individual's degree of like or dislike for an item
feudalism	The medieval model of government predating the birth of the modern nation-state
iconoclast	Bilderstürmer (German m.), iconoclasta (Spanish m./f., Italian m.), iconoclaste (French m./f.), individual subscribing to the philosophy of iconoclasm
chiuso	closed; i.e., muted by hand (for a horn, or similar instrument; but see alsobocca chiusa, which uses the feminine form, in this list)
compañias de partes	In the Spanish golden age, acting troupes organized according to the sharing system.
pertinacity	Adhering resolutely to an opinion, purpose, or design
afterpiece	a short entertainment, usually a song or dance, performed at the conclusion of a play.
swedenborg	Emmanual Swedenborg was Swedish mystic and philosopher
accentato	accented; with emphasis
buck	Marker to indicate which player is dealer (or last to act)
extrametrical verse - acatalexis	An acatalectic line of verse is one having the metrically complete number of syllables in the final foot
visual imagery	Imagery that invokes colors, shapes, or things that can be seen
figurative language	language which expresses more than a literal meaning (e.g., metaphor, simile)
prestissimo	"extremely quickly."
foot	meter, and scansion
imagery	Imagery is used in literature to refer to descriptive language that evokes sensory experience.
im tiefsten winter	(German) in the depths of winter
galvanic	Relating to, or producing a direct current of electricity.
gypsy	To enter the pot cheaply by just calling the blind rather than raising
touring play	A play with minimal technical demands that is meant to be easily packed up and moved from one performance space to another.
well of democritus	According to legend, the well of Democritus was bottomless
simile	"similarly"—i.e
history	A historical play, for example Shakespeare´s Richard III, Julius Caesar and so on.
leitmotif	The "red thread" of a literary piece; a motif that permeates the whole story and lends it unity
side pot	A separate pot created to deal with the situation of one player going "all in"
seraphs	An order of angels; The 6-winged angels standing in the presence of God.
imitative counterpoint	a polyphonic musical texture in which the various melodic lines use approximately the same themes
textual criticism	Textual criticism (or lower criticism) is a branch of literary criticism that is concerned with the identification and removal of transcription errors in the texts of manuscripts
eclat	Ostentatious display
nonliteral exercise	a practice of acting virtuosity and technique
acumen	Keenness and depth of perception
proscenium	A type of stage in which the actors play opposite the audience, from which they are separated
approved writer	A writer whom a television network trusts to deliver a good script once hired.
subplot	A subsidiary or subordinate or parallel plot in a play or story that coexists with the main plot
actor	a gifted individual who has studied the craft of acting in order to portray roles in performances of dramatic literaure.
mansion	Medieval scenic unit, often presented as an individual house or locale.
choral odes	In classical Greek drama, songs chanted by the chorus between the episodes.
marcatissimo	very accentuatedly
il est impossible	(French) It's impossible
post production	the phase of production that follows principal photography, in which raw footage is cut and assembled into a finished movie with added soundtrack and visual effects.
setting	The place and time when a story occurs
vomitoria	In Roman theater, covered exits for the performers.
largo	"slowly."
bacchanalian	The Bacchanalia were wild and mystic festivals of the Roman god Bacchus
sets	The physical objects and props necessary as scenery in a play (if they are left on-stage rather than in a character's possession).
social setting	The term means the social class / minority group / ethnic group to which the characters belong
litotes	a deliberate understatement.
title page	A page of the script that contains the title and the author's contact information.
eye-rhyme	assonance, consonance, and exact rhyme.
rotating repertory	The scheduling of a series of plays in nightly rotation
roman imperial period	After long centuries of representative democracy, within only a few generations, power in Roman government first collapsed into unofficial triumvirates and ultimately into dictatorships
tranquillo	calmly, peacefully
touring show	a play performed by a company at numerous locations
colour separation	The process of separating an image (usually by laser scanning) into its constituent colours of CMYK - cyan, magenta, yellow and black (which is sometimes referred to as ‘key')
dodona	At Dodona in Epirus, northwestern Greece, was a prehistoric oracle devoted to the Greek god, Zeus and the Mother Goddess identified as Dione
triple rhyme	A rhyme which comprises three syllables, very often found in limericks.
ims	abbreviation of 'International Musicological Society'
studding-sail	Light sails set outside the square sails, on booms rigged out for that purpose
il faut que	(French) It is necessary that
heater	See rush.
eidolon	An eidolon is the astral double of a living being; a phantom-double of the human form; a shade or perispirit; the kamarupa after death, before its disintegration
illative	inferential, relating to or having the nature of illation or inference
foot	a combination of syllables which represent one measure of meter in a verse line
poulter's measure	couplets in which a twelve-syllable line rhymes with a fourteen-syllable line
syncope	Loss of consciousness resulting from insufficient blood flow to the brain.
troupe	A group of actors who perform together, often on tour
shite	In n¯o theater, the leading actor.
anachronism	someone or something belonging to another time period than the one in which it is described as being.
voice	the personality or style of the writer or narrator that seems to come to life in the words
transcendentalism	Philosophy that advocates that there is an ideal spiritual state that 'transcends' the physical and empirical and is only realized through a knowledgeable intuitive awareness that is conditional upon the individual
feminine ending or rhyme	see Rhyme.
tricolon	The repetition of a parallel grammatical construction three times for rhetorical effect
slice-of-life story	See short story.
newfoundland	Any of a breed of very large heavy highly intelligent black, black and white, or bronze dogs developed in Newfoundland.
siparium	In Roman theater, a backdrop curtain at the rear of the stage.
four-flush	Four cards of the same suit
revue sketch	a short dramatic/comedic situation presented as a separate unit in a program; sometimes called a blackout
close up	A very close camera angle on a character or object.
n.c.	No chord, written in the chord row of music notation to show there is no chord being played, and no implied harmony.
in sooth	In truth; In reality
dramatic irony	See
message	The author's thoughts about a topic in informational text
fandango	Most important of the modern Spanish dances, for couples
rolled-up trips	In seven-card stud, three of a kind dealt in the first three cards.
anacrusis	The insertion of one or more unstressed syllables at the beginning of a line where the poetical metre would normally demand a stressed syllable.
mobile	flexible, changeable
gelatinous	Resembling gelatin or jelly.
fish	A weak player in poker or chess
satire	Literature which mocks human weaknesses, social circumstances, and so on by using irony and sarcasm
parenthetical	Also known as a "wryly" because of the propensity of amateur screenwriters to try to accent a character's speech -- as in BOB (wryly) -- an inflection to a speech noted by a writer
beast epic	A genre beginning with Aesops fables (6th century BC) and common in the middle ages
cavalier poets	A group of
duplicate	To counterfeit, especially when the counterfeiting card matches one already present in one's hand.
apocope	In phonology, apocope (pronounced /əˈpɒkəpiː/, from the Greek apokoptein "cutting off", from apo- "away from" and koptein "to cut") is the loss of one or more sounds from the end of a word, and especially the loss of an unstressed vowel.
steam	A state of anger, mental confusion, or frustration in which a player adopts a less than optimal strategy, usually resulting in poor play and poor performance
imagist	see 'imagism'
impensis	(Latin) at the expense
iamb	A unit or
poetaster	"A vile petty poet" (Samuel Johnson, 1755).
strategy card	A wallet sized card that is commonly used to help with poker strategies in online and casino games.
girting	Surrounding, encircling
cyning	A king, another term for an Anglo-Saxon
liriodendron tulipiferum	Family: Magnoliaceae (magnolia family)Common Names: tulip poplar, tulip tree, yellow poplar.This large, stately deciduous tree is fairly common in the eastern United States
clairvoyance	The power or faculty of discerning objects not present to the senses; for example the ability to see ghosts or spirits, to read minds, or predict the future.
theme	is the overall meaning we derive from the poem, story, play, essay
andante	at a walking pace; i.e., at a moderate tempo
naturalism	Special form of realism
cabaret	variety show, associated with the German theater, in which political skits and songs are performed in a restaurant and/or barroom.
didactic theater	propagandist theater whose primary aim is to instruct or teach
tragic irony - irony	Tragic irony is a special category of dramatic irony
il più forte possibile	(Italian) as loud as possible
balm in gilead	Gilead, a region of Palestine, known for its balm, a healing ointment."Is there balm in Gilead?" is like saying, "Are there palm trees in Florida?"
slice-of-life story	See short story
appoggiatura	"leaning" – A grace note that "leans" on the following note, taking up some of its value in the measure.
central question	the question that arises in the audience’s mind as they are introduced to a protagonist within a set of given circumstances that propel the character into some kind of action (e.g., “Sill he/she find someone to love?, Will he/she survive the plane crash?” “Will he/she escape from the concentration camp?”)
rakeback pro	Rakeback pro is the definition given to a poker player who may not be a winning player, however, uses rakeback to supplement his losses and turn them into winnings.
impressionisme	(French m.) impressionism
larboard	The old name for the left hand side of a ship
theme	Central thought of a play; the idea or ideas with which the play deals and which it expounds.
cesura or caesura	often called "railroad tracks"; indicates complete break in sound.
beguiling	Leading by deception
breve	A mark in the shape of a bowl-like half circle that indicates a light stress or an unaccented syllable.
connotation	The meaning we give a word.
comodo	"comfortable" – At moderate speed.
impayable	(French) 'priceless', impossible to equal
imper.	abbreviation of 'imperative' (of a mood, expressing a command, for example, sing this!)
form	The "shape" or organizational mode of a particular poem
il est certain	(French) It's certain
aeolus	The Greek god of the winds.
existentialism	A twentieth-century philosophy arguing that ethical human beings are in a sense cursed with absolute free will in a purposeless universe
feminism	In theater history, an approach based on the belief that woman's place in theater has not been sufficiently explored.
idi	see ideh
impétueusement	(French) impetuously
boat	Another name for Full house
pocket cards	See "hole cards".
end rhyme	Rhyme in which the last word at the end of each verse is the word that rhymes
didactic verse	poems that exist so as to teach the readers something, often a moral.
allegretto	a little lively, moderately fast
monastic	Relating to monasteries or to monks or nuns
pyrrhonism	The doctrines of a school of ancient extreme skeptics who suspended judgment on every proposition.
imitando	(Italian) imitating
buskins	Originally called kothorni in Greek, the word buskins is a Renaissance term for the elegantly laced boots worn by actors in ancient Greek tragedy
imprimis	(Latin) in the first place (introducing the first is a sequence of items)
miracle play	The drama of the late medieval times, always with religious subjects.
historiated initial	In the artwork of medieval manuscripts, a historiated initial is an enlarged, introductory letter in a written word that contains within the body of the letter a pictoral scene or figure related to the text it introduces
epiphany	In fiction, when a character suddenly experiences a deep realization about himself or herself; a truth which is grasped in an ordinary rather than a melodramatic moment.
courtly love	brotherhood in arm
vivace	"lively," "up-tempo."
tropes	In the Early Middle Ages, lyrics added to musical passages in religious services; these interpolations were often structured like playlets and evolved into liturgical drama.
suggested setting	A setting on stage in which a few set pieces or lighting or other technical elements take the place of elaborate set construction.
existentialism	Set of philosophical ideas whose principal modern advocate was Jean-Paul Sartre
living newspapers	The Federal Theater Project's dramatizations of newsworthy events in the 1930s.
rhetorical question	A question that is asked for effect where no answer is expected
literature	Literature (from Latin litterae (plural); letter) is the art of written works
extrinsic approach	Method of interpretation of literature which takes its findings from secondary material, i.e
euphemism	Technique in which more pleasant, more beautiful, more positive words are used than the probably more fitting descriptions, which would be unpleasant or embarrassing
amabile	amiable, pleasant
footlights	In a proscenium theatre, a row of lights across the front of the stage, used to light the actors' faces from below and to add light and color to the setting
pot	See main article: pot.
aperture	An opening or hole
locked pages	A software term for finalized screenplay pages that are handed out to the department heads and talent in preparation for production.
apron	the part of the stage closest to the audience and in front of the proscenium
sforzando or sfz	A sudden strong accent.
imprimerie	(French f.) printing (art), printing works
impetuoso	(Italian) impetuous, vehement, boisterous, impetuously, vehemently, boisterously
pastoral	Idealized dramatization of rural life, often including mythological creatures, popular during the Italian Renaissance.
imzad	or imzhad, a one-stringed Tuareg fiddle, played by women
il me reviendra.	(French) It'll come back to me.
il faut rebrousser chemin.	(French) We have to turn back.
couplet	A two-line stanza, not necessarily at the end of a poem.
foreshadowing	Where future events in a story, or perhaps the outcome, are suggested by the author before they happen
connotation	those words, things, or ideas with which a word often keeps company but which it does not actually denote
voice	Voice or voicing is a term used in phonetics and phonology to characterize speech sounds, with sounds described as either voiceless (unvoiced) or voiced
pararhyme	Pararhyme, also known as partial or imperfect rhyme is a term devised by the poet Edmund Blunden to describe a near rhyme in which the consonants in two words are the same, but the vowels are different
impazientemente	(Italian) impatiently, hurriedly
tell	A tell in poker is a detectable change in a player's behavior or demeanor that gives clues to that player's assessment of his hand
improvisado	(Spanish) improvised
screenplay contest	A submission opportunity for screenwriters in which a group of readers (judges) select one or more winners from the entered scripts
anti-utopia	Fictional text dealing with a negative place, society, or world
slugline	Another name for the SCENE HEADING
charismatic	One of the strands of theological belief (see also catholic, evangelical, liberal) within the church today. Its emphasis lies on the working of the Holy Spirit in healing, prophecy and miracles in the church today, and on the direct revelation of God's will to the individual believer.
falling meter	Meter which uses strong stress followed by one or more weak stresses and so creates a falling sense to the poem
denouement	The final scene or scenes in a play devoted to tying up the loose ends after the climax (although the word originally meant "the untying").
idée	(French f.) idea (English, Italian f., Spanish f.), Idee (German f.)
symbol	When a word, phrase or image represents a complex set of ideas, the meaning of which is determined by the surrounding context, for example, the gifts the jester gives to the Queen in The Cap and Bells by W B Yeats.
alliterative verse	alliterative prose
eclipsis	but differs in that an eclipsis has a word or words missing that may not be implied by a previous clause
idem sonans	(Latin) identity of pronounciation, that can lead to the miswriting of one word for another having the same sound (for example, in English, bough (of a tree) = bow (of a boat))
animato	animated, lively
stertorous	characterized by a harsh snoring or gasping sound
numbered scenes	Numbers that appear to the right and left of the scene heading to aid the Assistant Director in breaking down the scenes for scheduling and production.
verse	There are three general meanings for verse (1) a line of metrical writing, (2) a stanza, or (3) any composition written in
calando	"lowering"; getting slower and softer - rit
community card	See main article: community card poker.
doyen	In the Comédie Franáaise, the head of the company and the actor with the longest service.
tadmor	An ancient desert city mentioned in the Bible as being fortified by Solomon.
soft break	Exchanging a large bill or chip into both chips and cash, when a player buys in
imitatio inaequalis motus	(Latin) imitation by dissimilar or inverted melodic motion
brillante	"brilliantly," "with sparkle."
plot	The structure of the story
transition	A script notation denoting an editing transition within the telling of a story
idyll	either a pastoral poem about shepherds or an epyllion, a brief epic that depicts a heroic episode
inanition	Loss of vitality that results from lack of food and water
hyperobtrusive	Especially obvious
apocope	the omission of the last syllable of a word
poco a poco	little by little
monomaniac	A person with monomania, the excessive concentration on a single object or idea.
coppice	A thicket, grove, or growth of small trees.
beheading game	A
icons	graphic symbols or representations indicating, for example, pitch or rhythm, and used in lieu of or along with traditional symbols for these elements
ververt et chartreuse	Two poems by Jean Baptiste Gresset (1709-1777), best known for "Ververt" or "Vert-Vert"
autotelic	Autotelic is defined by one "having a purpose in and not apart from itself"
irony	Cicero referred to irony as "saying one thing and meaning another." Irony comes in many forms
persona	the speaker of a poem, a dramatic character distinguished from the poet, such as Robert Browning's "Fra Lippo Lippi."
liturgical drama	Any religious drama, usually sung or chanted, that relates to the Bible and is presented in Latin inside a church sanctuary
stage set	Props and scenery set up and arranged for a particular scene.
marziale	in the march style
transition	a direction in a screenplay that informs the filmmakers as to the quality of the cut from one scene to the next (such as “DISSOLVE TO:”); it appears flush right between the end of one scene and the beginning of the next.
polyptoton	repetition of the same word in different forms, achieved by varying the case, adding affixes, etc.
logical fallacy - fallacy	In logic and rhetoric, a fallacy is incorrect reasoning in argumentation resulting in a misconception
epigram	A terse, sage, or witty and often paradoxical saying
thriller	a play hugely dependent on plot surprises and twists
romanticism	Nineteenth-century literary and dramatic movement which developed as a reaction to the strictures of neoclassicism
volta	In literature, the volta, also referred to as the turn, is the shift or point of dramatic change in a poem
il faut voir.	(French) We'll (have to wait and) see.
allegory	A symbolic narrative in which the surface details imply a secondary meaning
pæan	A joyous song or hymn of praise, tribute, thanksgiving, or triumph.
sketch	A very short humorous scene intended for the entertainment of the audience
onkos	In Hellenistic Greece, the high headdress of a mask.
anthology	Term used for a collection of short stories, other pieces of prose or poems chosen from various books and authors.
impressionism	Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement that began as a loose association of Paris-based artists whose independent exhibitions brought them to prominence in the 1870s and 1880s
sepulchre	A place of burial, usually a tomb.
barbaro	"barbarous"
proscenium arch	a frame around the stage which separates the actors and the set from the audience
lyric	above and stanza, below.
larghetto	somewhat slowly; not as slow as largo
iglesia evangélica	(Spanish f.) Evangelical Church
belphegor of machiavelli	Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527) wrote Belphegor, a satire on marriage in which a demon comes to earth to prove that women damn men to hell.
h.o.r.s.e.	See main article: H.O.R.S.E..
cantabile	"singingly."
mien	Air or bearing especially as expressive of attitude or personality; demeanor.
convention	a common way of doing something, such as a poetic form, or a common topic like the "carpe diem" or "ubi sunt" themes, or making lists (see catalogue verse), or a regularly-used figure of speech.
rebuy	An amount of chips purchased after the buy-in
chorodidaskalos	In ancient Greek theater, the person who trained and rehearsed the chorus.
bacchic	Greek and Latin metrical foot consisting of short, long, and long syllables / ~ ' ' /.
poem	defined by Samuel Johnson in his great dictionary (1755) as "The work of a poet; a metrical composition."
short buy	In no-limit poker, to buy into a game for considerably less money than the stated maximum buyin, or less than other players at the table have in play.
moderato	"moderate," often combined with other terms, for example, "allegro moderato".
pen	acronym for the association, Poets, Playwrights, Editors, Essayists and Novelists (1921-).
epode	Epode, in verse, is the third part of an ode, which followed the strophe and the antistrophe, and completed the movement.
soli	alone; i.e., executed by a single instrument or voice
picaresque novel	Novel of the adventures of men who are lovable but bad characters; usually episodic in structure, the events happening in different places.
convention	A characteristic of a literary genre (often unrealistic) that is understood and accepted by audiences because it has come, through usage and time, to be recognized as a familiar technique
opacity	The property of vellum or paper that determines the "show-through" of printing (or writing) from the back of the sheet
get away	To fold a good hand against a supposedly superior hand
amoroso	loving
episkenion	In Hellenistic Greece, the second story of the skene or scene house.
alliteration	the repetition of the first letter in several words used to give writing a poetic sound; example: The cat was slinking along in its slim, sleek manner.
gradas	In the Spanish golden age, benches placed along the side walls of the patio or pit area in a corral.
aside	a brief comment by an actor, heard by the audience, but not the other characters on stage
tercet	A tercet is composed of three lines of poetry, forming a stanza or a complete poem
three-quarter left	performer turns to a position halfway between left profile and full back
assonance	Assonance is the refrain of vowel sounds to create internal rhyming within phrases or sentences, and together with alliteration and consonance serves as one of the building blocks of verse
climax	the turning point of plot in fiction or drama
royal flush	A straight flush of the top five cards of any suit
junk	A hand with little expected value.
mime	In ancient Greece and Rome, a form of theatrical entertainment which consisted of short dramatic sketches characterized by jesting and buffoonery.
self-irony	Form of irony in which the writer makes fun of himself and proves that he has a good sense of humour.
top kicker	In community card poker games, top kicker is the best possible kicker to some given hand
fop	See Fool.
license of occupation	A permit to use CROWN LAND, granted by the COLONIAL governments of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick before Confederation
parabasis	In Greek Old Comedy, a scene in which the chorus directly addressed the audience members and made fun of them.
welsh rabbit	Melted and often seasoned cheese poured over toast or crackers.
il est nécessaire	(French) It's necessary
total theatre	A performance that includes all or most of the theatrical elements – music, dance, song, spectacle, special effects.
edition	The printing of a book with changes from time to time.
big bet	The larger of two bet amounts in a fixed limit game
colonial	Referring to the colonies such as the colonies of British North America before Canada was created by Confederation (Upper and Lower Canada, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland, etc.)
mesto	mournful, sad
epistrophe	successive phrases, lines, or clauses that repeat the same word or words at their ends.
split two pair	In community card poker, a two pair hand, with each pair made of one of your hole cards, and one community card.
paradelle	A paradelle is a modern poetic form which was invented by United States Poet Laureate Billy Collins as a parody of the villanelle.
fresco	"freshly"
byronic hero	The Byronic hero is an idealised but flawed character exemplified in the life and writings of Lord Byron, characterised by his ex-lover Lady Caroline Lamb (who said it before becoming Byron's lover) as being "mad, bad, and dangerous to know"
triolet	an eight-line stanza having just two rhymes and repeating the first line as the fourth and seventh lines, and the second line as the eighth
semitone	The smallest pitch difference between notes (in most Western music), (e.g., F–F#).
psalms	Psalms (from the Greek: Psalmoi, ψαλμοί; Hebrew: Tehillim, תהילים) is a book of the Hebrew Bible, containing 150 pieces
valorization	In literary criticism, the privileging of one key aspect of a literary text or one particular process as the focus of literary analysis
minnesang	Minnesang was the tradition of lyric and song writing in Germany which flourished in the 12th century and continued into the 14th century
doloroso	sorrowfully, plaintively
hexameter	A line consisting of six metrical feet
bard	epic
understatement	Understatement is a form of speech which contains an expression of less strength than what would be expected
amplification	rhetorical figures of speech that repeat and vary the expression of a thought.
loges	In French neoclassical theater, boxes.
act	(verb) To perform in a play
clothing imagery	Dt
cambiare	"change" – Any change, such as to a new instrument.
emendation - improve	Improve means to make something better.
immer langsam	(German) slowly throughout
renaissance	There are two common uses of the word.
phronesis	Phronēsis (Greek: φρόνησις) in Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics is the virtue of practical thought, usually translated "practical wisdom", sometimes as "prudence".
ashtophet	Most likely refers to "Ashtoreth, the Phoenician and Egyptian goddess of love and fertility and "Tophet", a version of hell associated in the Old Testament with the Egyptian worship of Moloch.
teneramente	tenderly
countdown	The act of counting the cards that remain in the stub after all cards have been dealt, done by a dealer to ensure that a complete deck is being used.
compound word	A combination of two or more words that function as a single unit of meaning, such as barefoot
dialogue	the façade of heard language that reveals the subtextual struggles going on between characters.
header	An element of a Production Script occupying the same line as the page number, which is on the right and .5" from the top
ellipsis	below.
set	Three of a kind, esp
suited	Having the same suit
quasi	"as if," "almost."
complete hand	See made hand.
litotes	From the Greek litos meaning small, the rhetorical use of understatement (diminishing) to imply the opposite
post dead	To post a bet amount equal to the small and the big blind combined (the amount of the large blind playing as a live blind, and the amount of the small blind as dead money)
magico	magically
figurative language	using metaphors and other words to mean more than their literal meaning
alienation	An aspect of Bertolt Brecht's theory of epic theater: the concept that audiences' emotional involvement should be minimized so that they will instead be involved intellectually with the political or social message.
metaphysical poets	The metaphysical poets were a loose group of British lyric poets of the 17th century, who shared an interest in metaphysical concerns and a common way of investigating them, and whose work was characterised by inventiveness of metaphor (these involved comparisons being known as metaphysical conceits)
immobiliste	(French m./f.) (a person) who opposes progress or reform, an obscurantist
basso continuo	a bass part played continuously throughout a piece to give harmonic structure
tribrach	Greek and Latin metrical foot consisting of short, short, and short syllables / ~ ~ ~ /.
page count	the number of eighths of a page of script content that takes place in one setting, used to calculate the amount of time it will take to shoot a script.
enclosing method	Another term for framing method.
burns stanza	The Burns stanza is a verse form named after the Scottish poet Robert Burns
ultima thule	The farthest and northernmost part of the habitable ancient world
come sopra	as above; i.e., like the previous tempo (usually)
dogma	Something held as an established opinion
expedient	Suitable for achieving a particular purpose in a given circumstance.
didactic literature	All kinds of literature which are intended for teaching the reader a (moral) lesson; by reading a story the reader is supposed to learn something for his life.
volante	"flying"
sotto voce	soft tones, literally "under voice" used as a direction instructing the singer or instrumentalist to proceed in a more understated or more subtle fashion.
iglesia adventista	(Spanish f.) Adventist Church
ennui	Boredom, a feeling of weariness and dissatisfaction.
literal	A literal passage, story, or text is one intended only (or primarily) as a factual account of a real historical event rather than a metaphorical expression, an allegorical expression of a larger symbolic truth, or a hypothetical example
proscenium	An arch that frames a box set and holds the curtain, thus creating a sort of invisible boundary through which the audience views the on-stage action of a play.
conflagration	A large disastrous fire.
scenery	The physical constructions that provide the specific acting environment for a play and that often indicate, by representation, the locale where a scene is set; the physical setting for a scene or play.
im stile einer ...	(German) in the style of ...
hypocorism	A hypocorism (from Greek ὑποκορίζεσθαι hypokorizesthai, "to use child-talk") is a shorter form of a word or given name, for example, when used in more intimate situations as a nickname or term of endearment.
runner-runner	A hand made by hitting two consecutive cards on the turn and river
heroic couplet	See Couplet.
clichž	An idea or expression that has become tired and trite from overuse, its freshness and clarity having worn off
novel	In its broadest sense, a novel is any extended fictional prose narrative focusing on a few primary characters but often involving scores of secondary characters
register of copyrights	The US government office that registers intellectual property (e.g
episode	An episode is a part of a dramatic work such as a serial television or radio program
early modern english	Modern English covers the time-frame from about 1450 or so up to the present day
decorum	Neoclassical rule, developed in the Italian Renaissance, that dramatic characters must behave in set ways based on their social class and background.
etymology	The origin or history of words
aesthetic movement	a literary belief that art is its own justification and purpose, advocated in England by Walter Pater and practised by Edgar Allan Poe, Algernon Charles Swinburne, Oscar Wilde, and others.
idoru kashu	(Japanese ) pop stars
represent	To represent a hand is to play as if you hold it (whether you actually hold it or are bluffing).
waka	A Japanese genre of poetry closely related to the tanka, consisting of alternate five- and seven-syllable lines
overstatement	see Hyperbole.
utopia	Form of literature whose setting is an imaginary world, political state or ideal society
postmodern	A wide-ranging term describing certain post-World War II artistic works, characterized by nonlinearity, self-referentiality if not self-parody, and multiple/simultaneous sensory impressions.
expansion	The narrating time
sick verse	mordant, black-humoured or horrific works such as Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven," Robert Browning's "`Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came'," and Robert Service's "The Cremation of Sam McGee." This term was popularized by George Macbeth's anthology Penguin Book of Sick Verse (1963).
exact rhyme	see above.
hudibrastic poetry	iambic tetrameter couplets like those in Samuel Butler's Hudibras.
objective correlative	T
assai	very
accompagnato	accompanied; i.e., with the accompaniment following the soloist, who may speed up or slow down at will
antitype	A figure, event, or symbol in the New Testament thought to be prefigured by a different figure, event, or symbol in the Old Testament
estimator	an accountant or production manager who estimates the cost of making a movie from a screenplay.
epithalamion	From the Greek word for a bridal chamber, a lyric poem to be sung on the wedding night.
im unklaren sein	(German) to be in the dark
revival	The remounting of a play production after its initial closing, usually by the same theatre company and/or employing many or most of the same artists
poker face	A blank expression that does not reveal anything about the cards being held
realism	A movement in literature to represent life as it really is
pathos	Pathos (Greek: πάθος, for "suffering" or "experience;" adjectival form: 'pathetic' from παθητικός) represents an appeal to the audience's emotions
ign.	abbrevation for ignotus (Latin: unknown)
improviser	(French) to improvise
iesus hominum salvator	(Latin) Jesus, Saviour of mankind, abbreviated to I.H.S.
paradox	In literature, the paradox is an anomalous juxtaposition of incongruous ideas for the sake of striking exposition or unexpected insight
piano	marked p, a directive to play or sing softly
mussulmans	Muslims
metaphor	Metaphor is the concept of understanding one thing in terms of another
ikko	a highly decorated goblet shaped Japanese drum
proskenion	A raised stage constructed before the skene in classical Greek drama
stretto	tight, narrow; i.e., faster or hastening ahead; also, a passage in a fugue in which the contrapuntal texture is denser, with close overlapping entries of the subject in different voices; by extension, similar closely imitative passages in other compositions
onnagata	In Japanese kabuki, women's roles played by male actors.
humorism	Humorism, or humoralism, is a discredited theory of the makeup and workings of the human body adopted by Greek and Roman physicians and philosophers
tan	In Peking opera, a female role.
ambiguity	The possibility of more than one meaning, for example the ending of The Five Students by Thomas Hardy.
fieramente	proudly
chronicle	An account of historical events in chronological order usually written by contemporaries
devoto	"religiously"
aposiopesis	an interruption of an expresion without a subsequent restarting
grandioso	"grandly"
timing	selecting the right moment to say a line or do an action for maximum effectiveness
walk	A walk is the situation where all players fold to the big blind.
sospirando	sighing
street theater	Generic term for groups that perform in the open and attempt to relate to the needs of a specific community or neighborhood; also, their presentations.
helusion	Paradise
illusionner	(French) to delude
prodigious	Enormous, unusually large, causing amazement or wonder.
segno	sign, usually Dal Segno (see above) "from the sign", indicating a return to the point marked by
nourjahad	A reference to "The History of Nourjahad", written in 1767 by Frances Sheridan.
colla parte	with the soloist
symbol	An object or action in a literary work that means more than itself, that stands for something beyond itself.
style	A writer´s characteristic use of language which includes choice of words, rhythm of the language, imagery, tone, sentence structure
mythic element	a story element that seems taken from myth (such as the comeuppance of a bad character in a classic cautionary tale or the theme of sacrifice in tragic love stories).
refrain	A phrase that recurs in a poem, usually at the end of a verse.
ideal	(English, German n., Spanish m
erudition	Learning; extensive knowledge acquired chiefly from books.
heptameter	A poetic line of seven iambic feet used widely in England during the sixteenth century before it was replaced by the pentameter
anti-climax	A very sudden reduction of interest or importance in a literary work, meant to have a stylistic effect on the reader or spectator.
pace	the intensity, rhythm or speed (or lack thereof) of a story’s plot action.
im zeitmaß	(German) in time, a tempo
bravura	boldness; as in con bravura, boldly
heptameter	Heptameter is one or more lines of verse containing seven metrical feet (usually fourteen or twenty-one syllables).
castile	Crown of Castile, the historical Kingdom formed in 1230 from the union of the Kingdom of Castile and Kingdom of León.
oxymoron	A condensed form of paradox in which two contradictory words are used together, as in "sweet sorrow" or "original copy." See also Paradox.
property	Any intellectual property in any form (including a play or screenplay) that might form the basis of a movie
action card	In Texas hold 'em or other community card games, a card appearing on the board that causes significant betting action because it helps two or more players
dolce	"sweetly"
verse paragraph	Verse paragraphs are stanzas with no regular number of lines or groups of lines that make up units of sense
imene tuki	a form of unaccompanied vocal music known for a uniquely Polynesian drop in pitch at the end of the phrases, as well as staccato rhythmic outbursts of nonsensical syllables (tuki)
burlesque	a work caricaturing another serious work
bombast	hyperbolic or wildly exaggerating speech, so-called after a kind of cotton stuffing.
anticlimax	crisis
quire	A collection of individual leaves sewn together, usually containing between four and twelve leaves per quire
chronological order	Presenting the action according to the temporal order of events as they are likely to have happened.
impasto	(Italian m.) the application of thick layers of opaque pigment
pamphlet	Originally a treatise on a topical political or social subject which its author found interesting
rhyme	alliteration, or combinations of these elements
outside speaker	The "speaker" of a poem or story presented in third-person point of view, i.e., the imaginary voice that speaks of other characters in the third person (as he / she / they) without ever revealing the speaker's own identity or relationship to the narrative.
turn	a short play with an odd twist or a starring focus
av	Av is the eleventh month of the ecclesiastical year and the fifth month of the civil year in the Hebrew calendar
lento	"slowly"
immer	(German) ever, always, continuously, still (continuing)
fine	"the end," often in phrases like al fine ("to the end").
soave	"smoothly."
passionato	"passionately"
passionato	passionately
black humour	The method of making fun about unpleasant situations, dangerous people and the like
diorama	a scenic representation in which sculptured figures and miniatures are displayed against a painted background; the effect suggests a realistic panorama.
imbarcarsi	(Italian) to go on board
upstage	The part of the stage farthest from the audience, so named because when stages were raked (slanted), an actor walking away from the audience was literally walking up
homily	propaganda, Victorian.
monometer	In poetry, a monometer is a line of verse with just one metrical foot, exemplified by this portion of Robert Herrick's "Upon His Departure Hence":
propitious	Benevolent, being of good omen.
lusingando	coaxingly
il fait jour	(French) it is (day)light
idyll	A composition in verse or prose presenting an idealized story of happy innocence
synecdoche	See metaphor.
rara avis in terris	Latin for "A rare bird upon the earth".
il est évident.	(French) It's clear
idiom/idiomatic expression	A phrase whose meaning cannot be understood from the literal meaning of the words in it
presto	"very quickly."
fortepiano	1
pastoral literature	Pieces of literature in which the natural world of country life is portrayed to be idyllic and ideal.
brocade	A rich silk fabric with raised patterns in gold and silver.
arietta	a short aria
alienate	To sell, give away, or otherwise dispose of land, or other property, permanently
inference	Inference is the act of drawing a conclusion by deductive reasoning from given facts
improvisato	'improvised', found in the titles of Dmitri Kabalevsky's Op.21 No
rit.	slowing down; decelerating; opposite of accelerando (see in this list)
shite	The principal character (the "doer") in n¯o.
end-stopped rhymes	above.
alan smithee	A fictional name taken by a writer or director who doesn't want their real name credited on a film.
modesto	"modest"
illustrare	(Italian) to make clear, to illustrate
battle	Battle shares with Bocking the distinction of having its incumbent entitled Dean. This arises from the special status these churches had, but which has been removed.
pantaloons	Close-fitting trousers usually having straps passing under the instep and worn especially in the 19th century.
molossus	and poetry written in bacchic feet is said to be written in bachic meter
common tenure	Over many years, the terms of service of clergy have been discussed in the light both of what some have regarded as the anomalous freehold that has attached to clerical appointments and of current general employment laws (which by and large have not applied to the clergy. The result is enshrined in the Ecclesiastical Offices (Terms of Service) measure 2009 and will be known as "common tenure". Regulations under this measure are currently being drafted.
broadway	The major commercial theatre district in New York, bordered by Broadway, 8th Avenue, 42nd Street, and 52nd Street.
il est naturel	(French) It's natural
haikai	Another term for haikai renga or renku
light	A hand that is not likely to be best
lamentando	lamenting, mournfully
igloo	(Eskimo) a small dome-shaped hut built of compressed snow
improvisierte vorstellung	(German f.) ad lib performance, improvisation
con brio	with spirit, with vigour
im durchschitt	(German) on average
plot	The structure and relationship of actions and events in a work of fiction
obtuse	1
cranmer	A towering figure in the history of the Church of England. He lived (1489-1556) at the time of the Reformation and was Archbishop
thunderstricken	Astonished
throw distance	the distance from the lighting instrument to th eperson or thing it is lighting
negative freeroll	See main article: negative freeroll.
resolution	the outcome of a screenplay in terms of its plot set-up and development.
pound's ideogrammic method	The Ideogrammic Method was a technique expounded by Ezra Pound which allowed poetry to deal with abstract content through concrete images
pole-and-chariot system	Giacomo Torelli's mechanized means of changing sets made up of flat wings.
hell mouth	In medieval art the hell mouth was a stylized painting in which the entry to hell resembles a gaping demon's mouth
impetuosità	(Italian f.) impetuosity
fineness	The fineness of a precious metal refers to the ratio of the primary metal to any additives or impurities
auleum	In Roman theater, a front curtain which was raised and lowered on telescoping poles.
choric figure	Any character in any type of narrative literature that serves the same purpose as a chorus in drama by remaining detached from the main action and commenting upon or explaining this action to the audience
imago clipeata	(Latin, literally 'framed portrait') the images of heroes on Roman shields
arts of the toilet	Originally, "toilet" was the act of dressing and grooming oneself
impers.	abbreviation of 'impersonal' (of a verb, used especially with it as a subject (for example, it is snowing); of a pronoun, synonymous with 'indefinite')
un poco	a little
slang	elision, and grammatical errors designed to convey a relaxed tone.
alarum	An old spelling of "alarm"
diction	one of the six Aristotelian elements of the drama; it deals with the language of a play and the manner in which characters speak; as an acting term it refers to the clarity with which an actor speaks.
imperioso	(Italian) imperious, pompous, lofty, haughty
imitatio periodica	(Latin) incidental or formal periodic imitation
imponierend	(German) imposing in style, haughtily
tubercles	small, abnormal discrete lumps in the substance of an organ or in the skin; especially the specific lesions of tuberculosis.
mock epic	satire, and spoof.
anapest	A metrical foot of two weak stresses followed by a strong stress
house	The audience portion of the theatre building.
halachah	The Torah
mark	A person at a poker table that is the focus of attention
chivalric romance	Another term for
dimmer	In lighting, the electrical device (technically known as a potentiometer) that regulates the current passing through the bulb filaments and, thereby, the amount of light emitted from the lighting instruments.
evidence	Facts that prove a statement or a CLAIM
roundel	roundelay, villanelle.
image musicale	(French f.) musical imagery
one-chip rule	A call of a previous bet using a chip of higher denomination than necessary is considered a call unless it is verbally announced as a raise.
lugubre	"lugubrious"
molto	very
ich kann nicht anders	(German) I can do no other (a reference to Martin Luther's speech to the Diet of Worms, 1521)
crisis	the turning point of plot (closely related to climax which seems to complete its action)
interlude	A play within a play
anticlimax	crisis, and denouement; do not confuse with
agon	"Action," in Greek; the root word for "agony." Agon refers to the major struggles and interactions of Greek tragedies.
foot	The metrical unit of verse comprising a number of stressed and unstressed syllables
fabliau	a bawdy medieval verse narrative, originally French but adapted by Geoffrey Chaucer's in "The Miller's Tale," "The Reeve's Tale," "The Merchant's Tale," and others of The Canterbury Tales.
bottom end	The lowest of several possible straights, especially in a community card game
half-hour monologue	a solo performance of approximately a half-hour's duration
epic	A long narrative poem with an exalted style and heroic theme.
upswing	A period during which a player wins more (or loses less) than expected
narration	The way of telling a story.
subito	suddenly
idyllisch	(German) idyllic
cathedral	The mother church of a diocese
reading	A "performance" of a play in which the actors are script-in-hand
graveyard school	18th-century poets such as Thomas Gray, Robert Blair, and Edward Young who penned gloomy poems on death.
il apparaître que	(French) it appears that
ribands	Ribbons used as decorations.
scriptorium	An area set aside in a monastery for monks to work as scribes and copy books.
misdeal	A deal which is ruined for some reason and must be redealt.
rhymed prose	Rhymed prose is a literary form and literary genre, written in unmetrical rhymes
sound effects	Sounds such as thunder, telephone ringing or water created artificially.
home game	A game played at a private venue (usually the home of one of the players), as opposed to a casino or public cardroom.
enfatico	emphatically
chiasmus	A rhetorical figure with two syntactically parallel constructions, one of which has the word order reversed
bottom dealing	Trick or cheating deal where a card or cards are dealt from the bottom of the deck rather than the top
drop	A flat piece of scenery hung from the fly gallery, which can "drop" into place by a flying system.
imprenta	(Spanish f.) press
symbolism	The use of a person, place, item, etc…that represents an abstract idea
thematic thread	a metaphoric element, literary or cinematic device used within a film to weave an underlying message or theme throughout the story.
verbal irony	Irony comes about through a reversal of the literal meaning of words
tainted outs	Cards that improve a hand so that it is better than the other current hands, but simultaneously improve other hands even more
syllable	Each pronounced part of a word is a syllable
setting	Where the story takes place.
cultural symbol	below.
arena stage	A stage surrounded by the audience; also known as "theatre-in-the-round." Arena is a latin term meaning "sand," and it originally referred to the dirt circle in the midst of an amphitheatre.
waylaid	Ambushed
immedesimarsi con	(Italian) to empathise with
last to act	A player is last to act if all players between the player and the button have folded.
hikimaku	The traditional striped curtain of the kabuki theatre.
metonymy	above
rising action	A set of conflicts and crises that constitute the part of a play's or story's plot leading up to the climax
denotation	the literal, dictionary definition of a word
movie	a dramatic performance that is recorded as a moving image, whether on film or videotape.
tempo	"time" – The speed of a piece of music.
interpretation	an analysis of a work to determine its meaning
exordium	In Western classical rhetoric, the exordium was the introductory portion of an oration
limericks	and sonnets, which have set numbers of syllables, lines, and traditional subject-matter
image	an expression that describes a literal sensation, whether of hearing, seeing, touching, tasting, and feeling.
marketing director	the project manager in charge of determining how best to promote and distribute a movie to the public.
tweak	A minor change made in a scene or portion of a screenplay or a stageplay.
chorus	a group (usually 12Ð15) of singer-dancers in Greek drama participating in or commenting on the action of the play; in other ages (e.g
figure of speech	see imagery
leggiero	"lightly", "delicately"
click raise	Making the minimum raise
affrettando	"hurrying," pressing onwards.
chamber play	a theatrical work for intimate staging
idakka	see edakka
archaism	using obsolete or archaic words when current alternatives are available.
acrostic	A poem in which the first or last letters of each line vertically form a word, phrase, or sentence
figurative language	Using images such as comparisons (similes), metaphors or symbols that must require a lot of "translation work" on the reader´s part in order to be understood.
magnifico	magnificent
artistic director	A theater company's chief artistic officer and usually the last stop before a play is selected for production.
loose sentence	A loose sentence is a type of sentence in which the main idea (independent clause) comes first, followed by dependent grammatical units such as phrases and clauses
amidah	"[Prayer recited] standing", the central element in every statutory service, consisting of a series of blessings.
genii	A magic spirit believed to take human form and serve the person who calls it
rubbing the vibrating object	glass armonica, musical saw, etc.
norman	A native or inhabitant of Normandy
experimental novel	Experimental literature refers to written works - often novels or magazines - that place great emphasis on innovations regarding technique and style.
blocking bet	An abnormally small bet made by a player out of position intended to block a larger bet by an opponent.
nemo me impune lacessit	"No one provokes me with impunity"
metaphors	similes, and personification.
sul ponticello	on the bridge; i.e., in string playing, an indication to bow (or sometimes to pluck) very near to the bridge, producing a characteristic glassy sound, which emphasizes the higher harmonics at the expense of the fundamental; the opposite of sul tasto
paroxysms	Convulsions or fits
sides	A single actor's own lines and cues
personification	The endowment of inanimate objects or abstract concepts with animate or living qualities
feeder	In a casino setting, a second or third table playing the same game as a "main" table, and from which players move to the main game as players there leave
im auftrag	(German) on behalf of
caesura	A pause within a line of verse dictated by speech rhythm rather than meter.
expostulation	reasoning earnestly with a person for purposes of talking them out of something.
action poetry	verse written for performance by several voices.
situation comedy	Also known as a "sitcom," a normally 30-minute (in the United States) comedic television show revolving around funny situations the main characters repeatedly fall into.
felicity	Happiness
chapter	Just like a drama consists of acts and scenes, a novel may be subdivided into chapters to deal with things / events which belong together
thyromata	In Hellenistic Greece, large openings into the second story of the skene.
prolepsise	Prolepsis may refer to:
impuesto	(Spanish) imposed
primal scene	In psychoanalysis, the primal scene is the initial witnessing by a child of a sex act, usually between the parents, that traumatizes the psychosexual development of that child
road allowance	Land retained by the Crown for use as a road when it grants a piece of public land to a private owner
periphrasis	using a wordy phrase to describe something for which one term exists.
satire	A play or other literary work that ridicules social follies, beliefs, religions, or human vices, almost always in a lighthearted vein
chu-nori	("riding the sky") flying effects in the Kabuki theater.
pentameter	five feet of verse line
bathos	Bathos comes from the Greek for deep (as in bathyscape, bathymetric) and in the arts refers to an abrupt descent from the exalted to the banal, either in style or content.
verbal irony	See Irony.
il più piano possibile	(Italian) as soft as possible
alienation effect	A technique, developed by German playwright Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956), by which the actor deliberately presents rather than represents his or her character and "illustrates" the character without trying to embody the role fully, as naturalistic acting technique demands
thespian	Synonym for "actor"; the term is derived from Thespis, who is said to have been the first actor in ancient Greek theater.
impasse	(French) a situation from which there is no escape, an insoluble difficulty
agitato	agitated
bankable	A person who can get a project financed solely by having their name is attached.
drao	a Greek word meaning "to act" or "to do;" drama derives from this term.
litterateur	A professional writer.
pièce bien faite	See well-made play.
kabuki	One of the national theatres of Japan
satyr play	A burlesque play submitted by Athenian playwrights along with their tragic trilogies
persepolis	The ancient capital of the Persian empire
voce	voice
norman	An inhabitant of Normandy, a region along the northern coast of France
bouts-rimés	Bouts-Rimés, literally (from the French) "rhymed-ends", is the name given to a kind of poetic game defined by Addison, in the Spectator, as
grinder	A player who earns a living by making small profits over a long period of consistent, conservative play
improvisadamente	(Spanish) suddenly
contract	A formal legal agreement that binds those who participate in it to certain things
metrical foot	See discussion uner meter or click here for a handout in PDF format.
alla breve	two minim (half-note) beats to a bar, rather than four crotchet (quarter-note) beats.
campanella	Tommaso Campanella (1568-1639), a Dominican theologian, philosopher and poet.
canonical	Books which are considered part of the Bible are referred to as ‘canonical' in Hebrew or Greek as distinct from other similar ancient writings styled ‘apocryphcal', e.g
old english	Also known as Anglo-Saxon, Old English is the ancestor of Middle English and Modern English
sanhedrin	The court which, in temple times, administered criminal law and certain other matters
kicker	See main article: kicker.
monostich	A monostich is a poem which consists of a single line.
trepanning	A form of surgery in which a hole is drilled or scraped into the skull, while leaving the membrane around the brain intact
onomatopoeia	An onomatopoeia or onomatopœia (Greek ὀνοματοποιία; ὄνομα for "name" and ποιέω for "I make", adjectival form: "onomatopoeic" or "onomatopoetic") is a word that imitates or suggests the source of the sound that it describes
appassionato	passionately
morceau	Morsel
gallery	The elevated seating areas at the back and sides of a theater.
elegy	A poem or song which is a lament, usually for someone who has died.
rainbow	Three or four cards of different suits, especially said of a flop.
hillocks	Small hills.
innuendo	An innuendo is a baseless invention of thoughts or ideas
palaeography	The study of the evolution, development, and styles of handwriting
improvisation	A scene performed with little or no rehearsal.
psychological realism	The sense that characters in fictional narratives have realistic "interiority" or complex emotional and intellectual depth, including perhaps subconscious urges and fears they are not aware of
scene	A dramatic sequence that takes place within a single locale (or setting) on stage
entremeses	In the Spanish golden age, interludes during the intermissions of comedias; these could be comic sketches, songs, and dances.
bizarre comedy	a play strikingly out of the ordinary treating trivial material superficially or amusingly or showing serious and profound material in a light, familiar, or satirical manner
set	Scenery, taken as a whole, for a scene or an entire production.
romanticism	the late 18th-century, early 19th-century period of Wordsworth, Coleridge, Keats, Shelley, and Byron.
insistendo	insistently, deliberate
chip dumping	A strategy whereby one player deliberately loses chips to another player
calando	falling away, or lowering; i.e., getting slower and quieter; ritardando along with diminuendo
quaff	to drink deeply
impetuosamente	(Italian) impetuously
purple passage	lines that stand out from a longer poem because of their vivid diction or figures of speech, and perhaps because of the agitated flush that rises in the face of someone trying to recite it.
internal audience	An imaginary listener(s) or audience to whom a character speaks in a poem or story
masculine ending	Masculine ending is term used in prosody, the study of verse form
denotation	The dictionary definition of a word.
polysyndeton	Using many conjunctions to achieve an overwhelming effect in a sentence
hymn	A religious song consisting of one or more repeating rhythmical stanzas
ceremony	an action performed formally and meant to sanction a political, social, or religious concept; it usually lacks the deeper significance of a ritual
supererogation	The act of performing more than is required by duty, obligation, or need.
ijachi	(Nigeria) an Igede iron spear identified with warrior musical groups
conundrums	Intricate and difficult problems
setting	The time and place of a play or screenplay.
figure of speech	one of many kinds of word-play, focusing either on sound and word-order (schemes) or on semantics (tropes)
burletta	Eighteenth-century English dramatic form resembling comic opera and defined by the lord chamberlain as a play with no more than three acts, each of which had to include at least five songs.
director	the theatrical artist most responsible for coordinating the work of the actors, designers, and technicians as they interpret the work of the playwright.
petrarchan sonnet	see Sonnet.
anacrucis	one or two unstressed syllables at the beginning of a line that are unnecessary to the metre.
comment	Non-fictional text form: a writer or speaker treats a topic and tries to convince his / her reader or listener by giving away his / her own opinion.
metamorphosis	A change of a character by development; it may also mean a change of form.
palliative	Reducing the violence of a disease; easing symptoms without curing the underlying disease.
analogy	in Rhetoric
illustrato	(Italian) illustrated, supplemented with notes
phrenologist	A person who studies the conformation of the skull based on the belief that it is indicative of mental faculties and character.
apron	Stage space in front of the curtain line or proscenium; also called the forestage.
visual	having to do with that which can be seen (vs
free verse	rhythmical but non-metrical, non-rhyming lines
setting	The physical and social context in which the action of a story occurs
iambic	an unstressed/stressed combination of syllables in a metrical foot
nut hand	The nut hand is the best possible hand in a given situation
nihility	Nonexistence; nothingness
a piacere	at pleasure; i.e., the performer need not follow the rhythm strictly
allargando	"broadening," "getting a little slower."
emblem	An emblem is a pictorial image, abstract or representational, that epitomizes a concept — e.g., a moral truth, or an allegory — or that represents a person, such as a king or saint.
script writing software	Computer software designed specifically to format and aid in the writing of screenplays and teleplays.
impazienza	(Italian f.) impatience
metrical substitution	A way of varying poetic meter by taking a single foot of the normal meter and replacing it with a foot of different meter
prefix	A word part added to the beginning of a root or base word to create a new meaning (i.e., regain, incomplete)
rubaiyat	An Arabic term meaning a quatrain, or four-line stanza
tz'u	A Chinese genre of poetry invented during the T'ang period
irony	The contrast between what is said and what is meant or the contrast between what appears to be and what actually is
onnagata	"Women-type" roles in kabuki, which, like all the roles, are played by men.
strepitoso	noisy
cast	the actors who portray the characters in a performance of dramatic literature.
swammerdamm	Johann Jacob Swammerdamm, wrote "Historia Insectorum generalis" (1669), which was later translated into English as "The Book of Nature" or, "The History of Insects" (1758).
texture	How well coordinated the community cards are to one another
literary ballad - ballad	Literary or lyrical ballads grew out of an increasing interest in the ballad form among social elites and intellectuals, particularly in the Romantic movement from the later 18th century
diegesis	Plato's concept of narration, as opposed to mimesis (imitation or representation).
artesian wells	Wells in which the water is under pressure and flows to the surface naturally
fly gallery	The operating area for flying scenery, where fly ropes are tied off (on a pinrail) or where ropes in a counterweight system are clamped in a fixed position.
quatrain	or four-line stanza
im übrigen	(German) besides, apart from
blocking	the movement and positioning of actors on the stage.
kitty	A pool of money built by collecting small amounts from certain pots, often used to buy refreshments, cards, and so on
spenserian stanza	A nine-line stanza rhyming in an
pherecratean	a Classical Greek and Latin metrical pattern consisting of an iamb or a trochee, a dactyl, and a trochee or a spondee.
joker	A 53rd card used mostly in draw games
thule	Thule, pronounced "thoo-lee", was the northernmost part of the ancient world, usually an island, and often Iceland
kill button	In a kill game a button that shows which player has the kill action
paralipsis	a figure of thought where less information is supplied than appears to be called for by the circumstances.
energico	energetic, strong
presto	very quickly
iglesia ortodoxa rusa	(Spanish f.) Russian Orthodox Church
cycle plays	In medieval England, a series of mystery plays that, performed in sequence, relate the story of religion, from the Creation of the universe to Adam and Eve to the Crucifixion to Doomsday
bunraku	Japanese puppet theater
heriot	the loan of fine armor and weaponry
post	To make the required small or big blind bet in Texas hold 'em or other games played with blinds rather than antes
alliteration	In language, alliteration refers to the repetition of a particular sound in the first syllables of a series of words and/or phrases
im unterbewußtsein	(German) subconsciously
unit setting	Single setting, developed by Edward Gordon Craig, that can be made to represent various locales by moving basic elements and adding properties.
burlesque	An imitation of a literary style, or of human action, that aims to ridicule by incongruity of style and subject
castellated	Having battlements and high walls like a castle.
round character	a fully developed character with the complexities of real person
fold equity	The portion of the pot one expects to win, on average, by a bet that induces your opponents to fold, rather than seeing the showdown
master scene script	A script formatted without scene numbering (the usual format for a spec screenplay).
hyperbole	the trope of exaggeration or overstatement
rising rhyme	Another term for masculine rhyme in which the final foot ends in a stressed syllable
rattle idiophone	shaking the vibrating object
empathy	Audience members' identification with dramatic characters and their consequent shared feelings with the plights and fortunes of those characters
miniseries	A long-form movie of three hours or more shown on successive nights or weeks on U.S
left	On stage, the actors' left, assuming they are facing the audience
imperfect consonances	or 'imperfect concords', intervals such as the major and minor thirds and sixths, whose ratios are less simple than those of the fifth and fourth
rosh hashanah	"Head of the year"
meaning	In linguistics, meaning is what is expressed by the writer or speaker, and what is conveyed to the reader or listener
rabbit hunt	After a hand is complete, to reveal cards that would have been dealt later in the hand had it continued
repente	"suddenly."
miscellanies - anthology	An anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler
tempo giusto	in strict time
geza	The stage right, semi-enclosed musicians' box in kabuki theatre
freezeout	The most common form of tournament
haiku	A Japanese verse form dating from the thirteenth century which consists of seventeen syllables divided into lines or groups of five, seven, and five
radio play	a script for the mind's eye via radio (and sometimes stage)
full ring	A full ring game is a cash game with more than six players involved, typically nine to eleven
wings	In a proscenium theatre, the vertical pieces of scenery to the left and right of the stage, usually parallel with the footlights.
rhyme scheme	often used in verse drama and for poetry.
imprimere	(Latin) print
reciprocal action	dramatic action that entails a subtextual struggle for control or mastery between two or more characters in a scene.
development	The process of preparing a script for production.
stress	a syllable uttered in a higher pitch than others
non-fiction novel	The non-fiction novel or faction is a literary genre which, broadly speaking, depicts real events narrated with techniques of fiction
proceleus maticus	a Classical Greek and Latin foot having four short syllables.
stanza	"a verse of a song".
courier 12 pitch	The main font in use in the U.S
smooth call	See "flat call".
trivium	In medieval universities, the trivium comprised the three subjects that were taught first: grammar, logic, and rhetoric
aposentos	In the Spanish golden age, the boxes in a corral.
draughts	British name for the game of checkers.
alliteration	Repetition of the same or similar sounds (usually consonants) at the beginning of words
crew	the staff members of a film production
lyric	A poem expressing personal emotion, or the words of a song.
fresco	freshly
magnifico	"magnificent"
iglesia hispana	(Spanish f.) Spanish Church (often used to distinguish the Catholic Church in Spain particularly during the period when Spain was rule by the Visigoths which ended by the defeat of the Visgoths at the Battle of Medina Sidonia in 711 CE)
caesura	A pause in a line of a poem
progymnasmata	Progymnasmata (Greek "fore-exercises", Latin praeexercitamina) are rhetorical exercises gradually leading the student to familiarity with the elements of rhetoric, in preparation for their own practice speeches (gymnasmata, "exercises") and ultimately their own orations.
palinode	A palinode or palinody is an ode in which the writer retracts a view or sentiment expressed in an earlier poem
epizenxis	repetition of a word several times without connectives.
n¯o	Also spelled noh
blocking	Arrangement of actors' movements onstage with respect to each other and the stage space.
billet	A chunky piece of wood (as for firewood)
isolation	See main article: isolation.
narrative poem	a poem that tells a story
burlesque	Literally, a parody or mockery, from an Italian amusement form
alliterative verse	A traditional form of Anglo-Saxon and Old Norse poetry in which each line has at least four stressed syllables, and those stresses fall on syllables in which three or four words alliterate (repeat the same consonant sound)
rhetorical question	the poet asks a question without expecting to learn anything from the response, or to pose any difficulty for the reader, the answer being something that the poet already implies and the reader infers.
dale's classification of rhymes	An Introduction To Rhyme (ISBN 1-85725-124-5) is a book by Peter Dale which was published by Agenda/Bellew in 1998
attacca	(at the end of a movement): a direction to begin (attack) the next movement immediately, without a gap or pause.
mid point scene	a plot point that seems to divide the second act of a story in half, usually serving to emphasize or articulate the larger theme or message of the story.
candelabrum	A candlestick with multiple branches allowing it to hold a number of candles
open	To bet first
whimsical comedy	a humorous play with oddly abnormal elements
character name	the name of the character speaking, appearing just above the dialogue line, in all caps and centered within the dialogue margins.
ignorantia juris non excusat	(Latin, literally 'ignorance of the law is no excuse') if committing an offence a guilty party cannot use as a defence the fact that they did so without knowledge that they were breaking the law
improviso	(Portuguese) improvise
simile	A stated comparison of two things that have some quality in common using the words like or as
elegy	A poem of mourning for someone who is dead: a meditative poem.
end-stopped	a verse line ending at a grammatical boundary or break, such as a dash, a closing parenthesis, or punctuation such as a colon, a semi-colon, or a period
symbolist drama	seek its truth in symbols, myths, and dreams
periphrasis	Something in literature which could be expressed in simple words is written in a complicated or awkward way.
argument	In logic, an argument is a set of one or more meaningful declarative sentences (or "propositions") known as the premises along with another meaningful declarative sentence (or "proposition") known as the conclusion
impunidad	(Spanish f.) impunity
coperti	on a drum, muted with a cloth.
hip pocket	A casual relationship with an established agent in lieu of a signed, formal agreement of representation.
imputar	(Spanish) to attribute, to charge (the accused)
d.s.	Dal Segno (see above)
asyndeton	The artistic elimination of conjunctions in a sentence to create a particular effect
morass	Marsh, swamp
theatron	In ancient Greek theater, the seating area, carved into a hillside.
flourishing	below.
improvise	improvvisare (Italian), improvisieren (German), improviser (French), to compose or perform (music, verse, etc.) extempore
anaphora	Very often used device in speeches or ballads
convocations	Before the advent of the General Synod, the clergy were provided with the means of influencing church policy through the Convocations of Canterbury and York. The members of these bodies were the bishops (all the diocesan bishops together with representative suffragans elected by their colleagues) and clergy elected by their colleagues in the deaneries. The convocations still exist but meet only rarely. Technically, the General Synod consists of the two convocations with the House of Laity.
epiphany	Christian thinkers used this term to signify a manifestation of God's presence in the world
gidayu	The traditional style of chanting in kabuki and bunraku theatre
misterioso	mysteriously
litterateur - intellectual	An intellectual is a person who uses intelligence (thought and reason) and critical or analytical reasoning in either a professional or a personal capacity.
dialect	A type of informational diction
adagissimo	"very slow."
sanguine	Confident and optimistic.It also means "bloodred" or consisting of or relating to blood
comitatus	(Latin: "companionship" or "band"): The term describes the tribal structure of the Anglo-Saxons and other Germanic tribes in which groups of men would swear fealty to a hlaford (lord) in exchange for food, mead, and heriot, the loan of fine armor and weaponry
subplot	a secondary plot line that enhances a main plot and intersects with it at a crucial point in the climax.
back story	Experiences of a main character taking place prior to the main action, which contribute to character motivations and reactions.
imporre con la forza	(Italian) to force feed
stand pat	In draw poker, playing the original hand using no draws, either as a bluff or in the belief it is the best hand.
double-entendre	Word or phrase in comedy that has a double meaning, the second meaning often being sexual.
imprimante	(French f.) printer
improvisación	(Spanish f.) improvisation, impromptu
beat	the smallest motivational unit of a playscript; it may be only a phrase or sentence in which a character manifests a particular need that must be fulfilled (see also unit).
idiophon	(German n.) idiophone
pattern poetry	verse that creates the shape of its subject typographically on the page (and thus also called "shape poetry")
parian	Of or relating to the island of Paros noted for its marble used extensively for sculpture in ancient times.
impune	(Spanish) unpunished
one-act play	A play that takes place in a single location and unfolds as one continuous action
first folio	A set of Shakespeare's plays published in 1623
poetry	A variable literary
impuls	(German m.) impulse
straight flush	See main article: straight flush.
il est indispensable	(French) It's essential
imitatio canonica	(Latin) canonic imitation
english sonnet	Another term for a Shakespearean sonnet
fly	(verb) To raise a piece of scenery (or an actor) out of sight by a system of ropes and/or wires
identificarti con	(Italian) to identify yourself with
ensemble playing	Acting which stresses the total artistic unity of a performance rather than the individual performances of specific actors.
im ungewissen lassen	(German) to leave in the dark
offstage	Behind the stage; place where the audience cannot see any of the characters or actions.
flush	A hand comprising five cards of the same suit
causal prediction	an audience’s unconscious forecasting of what will happen in a standard plot based on certain known causes and effects (e.g., boy meets girl, boy loses girl, causal prediction=boy gets girl).
ma non troppo	"but not too much."
un poco	"a little."
meter	above
shot	What the camera sees
adagio	at ease; i.e., slow
borneo	Borneo (including the Kalimantan provinces of Indonesia, Sabah and Sarawak of Malaysia, and Brunei) is the third largest island in the world
a tempo	in time; i.e., the performer should return to the main tempo of the piece (after an accelerando or ritardando, etc.); also may be found in combination with other terms such as a tempo giusto (in strict time) or a tempo di menuetto (at the speed of a minuet)
admonition	cautionary advice about something imminent, especially imminent danger.
live bet	A bet posted by a player under conditions that give him the option to raise even if no other player raises first; typically because it was posted as a blind or straddle, or to enter a new game.
sheng	In xiqu, the male roles and the actors who play them.
reversal	Sudden switch or turnaround of circumstances or knowledge which leads to a result contrary to expectations
pathya vat	The Pathya Vat is a Cambodian verse form, consisting of four lines, where lines two and three rhyme
legitimate theater	The term "legitimate theater" dates back to the Licensing Act of 1737, which restricted "serious" theatre performances to the two patent theatres licensed to perform "spoken drama" after the English Restoration in 1662
aestheticism	A literary movement in the nineteenth century of those who believed in art for arts sake in opposition to the utilitarian doctrine that everything must be morally or practically useful
syllogism	A syllogism (Greek: συλλογισμός – syllogismos – "conclusion," "inference") or logical appeal is a kind of logical argument in which one proposition (the conclusion) is inferred from two others (the premises) of a certain form, i.e
impulsion	(French f.) impulse
macaronic verse	poems that consist of expressions in more than one language
choirmaster	These days one must think also of choirmistress. Where a choir exists, its leader is clearly a key figure in the life and worship of the church. Ideally the choirmaster will have a deep personal Christian faith, a good musical training and a sympathy with a wide range of musical taste. He will need to know the hymn book used in his church from cover to cover, so that, working with the incumbent, he can bring out a rich variety of hymns relevant to the Sunday themes and make sure none are overused.
lethargic	sluggish, indifferent
farce	a funny play in which plot and broad action dominate
soliloquy	Speech in which a character who is alone onstage utters inner thoughts.
string bet	A call with one motion and a later raise with another, or a reach for more chips without stating the intended amount
muse	The Muses (Ancient Greek αἱ μοῦσαι, hai moũsai: perhaps from the o-grade of the Proto-Indo-European root *men- "think") in Greek mythology, poetry, and literature are the goddesses who inspire the creation of literature and the arts
contact	The term used for the time in history when North American native people first met with non-natives from other parts of the world
play	Sometimes known as a stageplay, it's a production which is meant to be performed on stage in front of a live audience.
fouled hand	A hand that is ruled unplayable because of an irregularity, such as being found with too many or too few cards, having been mixed with cards of other players or the muck, having fallen off the table, etc
mg	see main gauche
free meter	Not to be confused with free verse, free meter refers to a type of Welsh poetry in which the meters do not correspond to the "strict meters" established in the 1400s
meter	dipody, and syzygy.
folk tale	Stories passed by word of mouth from generation to generation
ms	see mano sinistra
epilogue	A final section of a work which serves to conclude the whole.
behemoth	Something of monstrous size or power
symbolism	In drama, a movement of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century which sought to replace realistic representation of life with the expression of inner truth
impossible n'est pas français.	(French) There is no such word as "can't."
living newspaper	Living Newspaper is a term for a theatrical form presenting factual information on current events to a popular audience
pitch	To verbally describe a property to a potential buyer in the hope it will be bought.
colloquialism	Opposed to poetic language, colloquial style means the use of the language of everyday life both in speech and writing.
treadmill	moving belts on a stage floor on which scenery or actors may give the illusion of moving in full view of the audience
pot odds	See main article: pot odds.
ellipsis	indication of an omission of words in a quote
tremendo	"frightening"
oxidation	The chemical reaction in which a material combines with oxygen to form an oxide
passion play	a stage presentation of the life and crucifixion of Christ
periaktoi	In ancient Greek theater, a three-sided scenic piece which could be revolved to show the audience three different scenes.
illusionniste	(French m./f.) conjuror, illusionist
diction	A choice of words to express an idea accurately
river	The river or "river card" is the final card dealt in a poker hand, to be followed by a final round of betting and, if necessary, a showdown
auditory imagery	Descriptive language that evokes noise, music, or other sounds
trims	the heights of flying scenery and masking
brick	A "blank", though more often used in the derogatory sense of a card that is undesirable rather than merely inconsequential, such as a card of high rank or one that makes a pair in a low-hand game
contract system	System under which performers are hired for a specific period of time and paid a set salary.
published play format	The format typically found in an Acting Edition, meant to save space, in which the character names are on the left and stage directions occur on the same lines as dialogue.
protagonist	the main character in a story or drama
sfx	Abbreviation for Sound Effects.
pasquinaded	Publicly made fun of, lampooned
ducat	Literally, a coin issued by a duchy
atellan farce	Form of Roman theater: improvised comedic pieces dealing with exaggerated family situations or satirizing historical or mythological figures.
immer vorwärts	(German) always forward (as in 'pressing forward')
restoration	In England, the period following the restoration of the monarchy in 1660
perspective	Illusion of depth in painting; introduced into scene design during the Italian Renaissance.
de beranger	"His heart is a lute strung tight; As soon as one touches it, it resounds."from "Le Refus" (1831) by Pierre-Jean de Beranger, a French poet and song writer.
ching	a character role in Chinese opera, usually distingished by a painted face.
im alter von	(German) at the age of
greenroom	A room near the stage where actors may sit comfortably before and after the show or during scenes in which they do not appear
affrettando	hurrying, pressing onwards
tie-off	to fasten a set of lines to a pin rail or other stationary object
epilogue	Speech addressed to the audience after the conclusion of a play and spoken by one of the actors.
shorthanded	A poker game that is played with around six players or fewer, as opposed to a full ring game, which is usually nine or ten players
il est	(French) it is
imprimé	(French) printed dress-fabric (usually of linen or cotton), printed form
effulgence	Brilliance, radiant splendor.
bias	A general tendency or leaning in one direction; a partiality toward one view over another
imprimatura	(Italian) coloured wash laid over a panel or canvas, either before or after the preliminary drawing is made
poetic license	The freedom of a poet or other literary writer to depart from the norms of common discourse, literal reality, or historical truth in order to create a special effect in or for the reader
scythe	A farming implement composed of a long curving blade fastened at an angle to a long handle.The Grim Reaper, the personification of death, is usually pictured as a cloaked skeleton holding a scythe.
scordatura	an alternate tuning used for the open strings of a string instrument.
deciso	"decisively"
choka	Japanese form with alternating lines of five and seven syllables, ending with a couplet of seven-syllable lines.
shakespearean sonnet	See discussion under sonnet.
irony	When the opposite of what you expect happens, or when you say the opposite of what you mean, usually for humorous effect (as opposed to sarcasm).
musical	A play in which songs and music are an integral part of the dramatic structure.
colonialism	below.
script reader	(See above as Reader.)
innamorato	In commedia dell'arte, the stock male lover.
mediation	Settling a CLAIM or political dispute by NEGOTIATION, which is managed by a neutral outsider, the mediator
theatre of cruelty	A notion of theatre developed by the French theorist Antonin Artaud (1896-1948)
underdog	An underdog or dog is a player with a smaller chance to win than another specified player
ballad opera	Eighteenth-century English form which burlesqued opera: there was no recitative, songs were set to popular tunes, and characters were drawn from the lower classes
il est improbable	(French) It's improbable
percussion idiophones	striking the vibrating object with a mallet, hammer, stick or other non-vibrating object
diction	The choice of words on the author´s part.
dramatic monologue	A poem in which a poetic speaker addresses either the reader or an internal listener at length
raise	See main article: raise.
verse	A verse is formally a single line in a metrical composition, e.g
vivacissimo	"very lively"
irony	Words implying meaning opposite to their normal meaning.
shakespearean sonnet - sonnet	* Sicilian octave
sybils	Women regarded as oracles or prophets by the ancient Greeks and Romans.
downstage	Front of the stage toward the audience.
scherzando	"playfully."
pit	Floor of the house in a traditional proscenium-arch theater
colla voce	with the voice
impulsividad	(Spanish f.) impulsiveness
rapido	fast
col pugno	with the fist; i.e., bang the piano with the fist
pricking	A series of vertically aligned holes down each side of the parchment
petrarchan sonnet	The oldest form of the sonnet is the Italian or Petrarchan Sonnet (named for its greatest practitionerPetrarch)
consideration	Money or valuables given by one person to another under the terms of a CONTRACT
dramatic monologue	a poem representing itself as a speech made by one person to a silent listener, usually not the reader
eponymous author	The eponymous author of a literary work, often a work that is meant to be prophetic or homiletic, is not really the author
downstage	The front part of a stage
fetid	Having a heavy offensive smell.
ardor	Extreme energy or vigor
alexandrine	A line of iambic hexameter (i.e
decorum	Neoclassic belief that characters were required to behave according to expectations based on their social status, sex, age, etc.; sometimes referred to as beinseance ("good sense").
antihero	A protagonist who has the opposite of most of the traditional attributes of a hero
synaeresis	When two vowels appear side-by-side within a single word, and the poet blurs them together into a single syllable to make his meter fit
chorus	In Greek tragedies (especially those of Aeschylus and Sophocles), a group of people who serve mainly as commentators on the characters and events
velocissimo	as quickly as possible; usually applied to a cadenza-like passage or run
table stakes	See main article: table stakes.
static character	A static character is a simplified character who does not change or alter his or her personality over the course of a narrative
il était temps!	(French) About time! In the nick of time!
in altissimo	in the highest; i.e., play or sing an octave higher
easement	A right to use land for a particular and limited purpose
machiavelli	Niccolò Machiavelli (1469–1527) was a Florentine statesman and political philosopher.
homoeopathists	Those who practice Homeopathy
anachronism	Placing an event, person, item, or verbal expression in the wrong historical period
aristeia	An aristeia or aristia (Ancient Greek: ἀριστεία, IPA: [aristéːa], "excellence"; English: /à¦rÉ¨ËstiË.É/) is a scene in the dramatic conventions of such works as the Iliad in which a hero in battle has his finest moments (aristos = best)
pay off	To call a bet when you are most likely drawing dead because the pot odds justify the call.
encore	"once more" (direction to play section again) (Fre.)
tragedian	an actor who plays tragic roles
close reading	Reading a piece of literature carefully, bit by bit, in order to analyze the significance of every individual word, image, and artistic ornament.
capriccioso	capriciously, unpredictable, volatile
broadside	A broadside is the side of a ship; the battery of cannon on one side of a warship; or their simultaneous (or near simultaneous) fire in naval warfare.
il fine	(Italian) the end
juggernaut	Juggernaut is a term used in the English language to describe a literal or metaphorical force regarded as unstoppable.
proskenion	In Hellenistic Greece, the bottom level of the skene, or stage house.
iambic pentameter	See discussion under meter.
fieramente	"proudly"
acciaccatura	"crushing" – A very fast grace note that is "crushed" against the note that follows and takes up no value in the measure.
mano sinistra	[played with the] left hand (abbreviation: MS).
doloroso	"painfully"
entrails	Internal parts, usually the organs of a human body.
button	A TV writing term referring to a witty line that "tops off" a scene.
ignotus	(Latin) (a person) unknown (used in catalogues of works of art where the authorship of a work is unknown)
amatory	Of, relating to, or expressing sexual love.
textuality	Textuality is a concept in linguistics and literary theory that refers to the attributes that distinguish the text (a technical term indicating any communicative content under analysis) as an object of study in those fields
denotation	The literal sense of a word or its strict dictionary definition, as opposed to connotation which refers to the attitudes, emotions and values which may be usually evoked by the word, or which may be evoked by it in a specific context.
ii-v-i	in jazz, one of the most common progressions, which is more properly ii-V7-i (for example, in the key of C, Dmin7-»C7-»Fmaj7)
sandbag	See Slow play (poker).
curtal sonnet	see Sonnet.
concrete poetry	the form of a poem may reflect the theme, topic, or idea of the words in the actual shape of the text on a piece of paper
canon	Set of literary works believed to be universally accepted as important and historically significant
im stil der janitscharen-musik	(German) alla turca (Italian), à la turque (French), nach türkischer Art (German), in the Turkish style
unities	The unities of time, place, and action as principles of dramatic composition have been hotly debated since Aristotles Poetics
impetus	(Latin) the force with which a body moves, motive power, moving force, a stimulus, an incentive
border	A piece of flat scenery, often black velour but sometimes a flat, which is placed horizontally above the set, usually to mask the lighting instruments
im schnitt darstellen	(German) to profile
con	"with," in very many musical directions, for example con allegrezza ("with liveliness"), con amore ("with tenderness").
envoy	Also spelled, envoi, the word envoy refers to a postscript added to the end of a prose writing or a short verse stanza (often using different meter and rhyme) attached to the conclusion of a poem
juice	Money collected by the house
bad quarto	In the jargon of Shakespearean scholars, a "bad quarto" is a copy of the play that a disloyal actor would recreate from memory and then submit for publication in a rival publishing house without the consent of the author
impropre	(French) incorrect
risoluto	"Resolutely" – played in a bold manner.
language interpretation	Language interpretation is the facilitating of oral or sign-language communication, either simultaneously or consecutively, between users of different languages
sermon	A religious address to an audience, usually made in church.
gothic fiction	Gothic fiction (sometimes referred to as Gothic horror) is a genre of literature that combines elements of both horror and romance
partimen	The partimen, partiment, partia, or joc partit is a genre of Occitan lyric poetry composed between two troubadours, a subgenre of the tenso or cobla exchange in which one poet presents a dilemma in the form of a question and the two debate the answer, each taking up a different side
trope	Trope has two meanings: (1) a rhetorical device or figure of speech involving shifts in the meaning of words--click on the tropes link for examples, (2) a short dialogue inserted into the church mass during the early Middle Ages as a sort of mini-drama.
vouchsafed	To grant or furnish often in a gracious or condescending manner
wont	As a noun, a wont is a habitual way of doing something
mollified	Appeased
at rise description	A stage direction at the beginning of an act or a scene that describes what is on stage literally "at rise" of the curtain, or more commonly in contemporary theater, as the lights come up.
xiqu	Chinese for "tuneful theatre"; the general term for all varieties of traditional Chinese theatre, often called "Chinese Opera."
hyperquizzitistical	It appears that Poe made this word up.
libero	free, freely
gap hand	In Texas hold 'em, a gap hand is a starting hand with at least one rank separating the two cards
folklore	oral-formulaic
transferred epithet - hypallage	Hypallage (pronounced /haɪˈpælədʒiː/, from the Greek: ὑπαλλαγή, hypallagḗ, "interchange, exchange") is a literary device that is the reversal of the syntactic relation of two words (as in "her beauty's face").
bug	A limited wild card
impulso	(Italian m., Spanish m.) impulse
gesticulation	A motion of the body or limbs in speaking, or in representing action or passion, and enforcing arguments and sentiments.
rhetorical question	A question which expects no answer because the answer is implicitly given in the question itself.
forestage	See Apron.
psychological gesture	According to the twentieth-century Russian acting theorist Mikhail Chekhov, a characteristic movement or activity which would sum up a character's motives and preoccupations.
naiad	In Greek mythology, the Naiads were a type of nymph who presided over fountains, wells, springs, streams, and brooks.
catch up	To successfully complete a draw, thus defeating a player who previously had a better hand
expository essay	an essay which shares, explains, suggests, or explores information, emotion, and ideas
apostrophe	Via Latin from the Greek apostrephein, meaning to turn away, a digression
satiric comedy	Any drama or comic poem involving humor as a means of satire.
ilahije	Muslim religious melodies, one of the ingredients of sevdalinka
trebled	As a verb, treble means to grow to three times the size, amount, or number.
variorum	A variorum is a work that collates all known variants of a text
cap	A limit on the number of raises allowed in a betting round
igil	two-stringed fiddle from Tuva with a carved wooden horses' head attached to the top of the neck
couplet	two lines of poetry that form a unit with rhythm or rhyme
gaze aerienne	Airy gauze
analogue	The term analogue is used in literary history in two related senses:
impulsivo	(Spanish) impulsive
take a call	to acknowledge the applause of the audience at the end of a performance by bowing or showing some other form of appreciation
dionysian	Passionate revelry, uninhibited pleasure-seeking; the opposite of Apollonian, according to Friedrich Nietzsche, who considered drama a merger of these two primary impulses in the Greek character.
bump	A troublesome element in a script that negatively deflects the reader's attention away from the story.
kill hand	A hand with different betting rules in a kill game
linguistics	The intensive and indeed scientific study of language and how it works
metonymy	Using a vaguely suggestive, physical object to embody a more general idea
mosqueteros	Literally, "mosquitos": in the Spanish golden age, the noisy groundlings in the corrales.
allegory	a play in which people, things, and happenings have another meaning
action	The moving pictures we see on screen
double-ace flush	Under unconventional rules, a flush with one or more wild cards in which they play as aces, even if an ace is already present.
improvvisazione	(Italian f.) improvisation
open the house	A direction to admit the audience
vers	Not to be confused with verse, below, a vers is a song in Old Provencal almost indistinguishable from the chanson, but vers is the older term.
sit and go	A poker tournament with no scheduled starting time that starts whenever the necessary players have put up their money
sestet	a six-line stanza, or the final six lines of a 14-line Italian or Petrarchan sonnet.
litigation	Going to court; for example, settling a CLAIM by submitting it to a court for a hearing and a final decision
brio	vigour; usually in con brio
oulipo	Oulipo (French pronunciation: [ulipo], short for French: Ouvroir de littérature potentielle; roughly translated: "workshop of potential literature") is a loose gathering of (mainly) French-speaking writers and mathematicians which seeks to create works using constrained writing techniques
bill	the list and order of acts in a vaudeville show; also, the order of acts in a theatrical presentation.
fine	the end, often in phrases like al fine (to the end)
dizain	a stanza or poem of ten lines.
jeremiad	A jeremiad is a long literary work, usually in prose, but sometimes in poetry, in which the author bitterly laments the state of society and its morals in a serious tone of sustained invective, and always contains a prophecy of society's imminent downfall.
decorated initial	In medieval manuscripts, this term refers to an introductory letter of a text division, embellished with some type of abstract design, i.e., a design not necessarily containing a picture (which would make it an inhabited initial) and not necessarily containing a scene from the story (which would make it an historiated initial)
tab	a vertical drape just inside the proscenium that masks performers in the wings; also a term meaning to pull a drape aside
in memoriam stanza	quatrain with the rhyme scheme abba (sometimes termed an envelope), written in iambic tetrameter, and named after Alfred lord Tennyson's poem of the same name.
implied intervals	intervals not expressed in a figured bass, but which are understood to be a component part of any chord
"fourth wall"	the invisible wall open to the audience in a box set (see also box set)
compelling movement	plot action imbued with the kind of forceful energy that pushes the plot forward, forcing the story line to move toward a climax and resolution.
apprentice	In Elizabethan England, a young performer in an acting company who was taught the art of acting through actual experience and who received room and board from a key member of the troupe.
religioso	religiously
ibidem	(Latin, identical in French, English) ebenda (German), ibídem (Spanish), in the same place, in the same book (to avoid repeating a reference)
adverse possession	A person who lives on someone else's land for some time, who does not abandon it, and who is never removed by the owner is "in adverse possession" of the land
kabuki	The most eclectic and theatrical of the major forms of Japanese theater
agitato	"agitated."
autobiography	An autobiography (from the Greek, αὐτός-autos self + βίος-bios life + γράφειν-graphein to write) is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.
iambus	(Latin) a metrical foot consisting of a short and a long syllable, with the accent on the long, giambo (Italian m.), Jambus (German m.), iambe (French m.), yambo (Spanish m.)
moiety	One of two equal parts
im ersten zeitmass	(German) tempo primo, at the original speed
broken chord	a chord in which the notes are not all played at once, but in some more or less consistent sequence
espressivo	"expressively"
omaggio	"celebration"
closet drama	a play not intended for performance; such plays are usually read within a circle of acquaintances
onset	The initial consonant (i.e., the onset of bag is b and the onset of swim is sw)
explication de texte	Explication de Texte is a French formalist method of literary analysis that allows for limited reader response, similar to close reading in the English-speaking literary tradition
slice of life	Slice of life is a theatrical term that refers to a naturalistic representation of real life, sometimes used as an adjective, as in "a play with 'slice of life' dialogue." The term originated in 1890–95 as a translation from the French phrase tranche de vie, credited to the French playwright Jean Jullien (1854–1919).
narrante	narratingly
white version	a play originally written for white actors portraying Negroes, here given in a version for white actors portraying whites
impluvium	(Latin) the square water-cistern in the centre of the atrium of a Roman house
oxymoron	an expression impossible in fact but not necessarily self-contradictory, such as John Milton's description of Hell as "darkness visible" in Book I of Paradise Lost.
comic relief	A humorous scene or incident that alleviates tension in an otherwise serious work
acrostic	below.
illustré	(French) illustrated
personification	Personification is an ontological metaphor in which a thing or abstraction is represented as a person.
pausa	rest
leonine verse	Verse using internal rhyme in which the middle and end of each line rhyme
drawing live	Not drawing dead; that is, drawing to a hand that will win if successful.
going south	To sneak a portion of your chips from the table while the game is underway
conventional symbol	See Symbol.
purloined	To take something wrongfully and often by a breach of trust
arpeggio	literally, like a harp
marcia	a march; alla marcia means in the manner of a march
m-ratio	A measure of the health of a chip stack as a function of the cost to play each round
tragedy	classic tragedy follows the plight of a noble person who is flawed by a defect and whose actions cause him to break some moral law and suffer downfall and destruction
stringendo	with a pressing forward or acceleration of the tempo.
il est facile	(French) It's easy
impost	a projecting moulding supporting an arch
lexis	In linguistics, a lexis (from the Greek: λέξις "word") is the total word-stock or lexicon having items of lexical rather than grammatical, meaning
il est peu probable	(French) It's not likely
novel	A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose
asseveration	A strong and earnest statement or affirmation.
reverdie	a medieval song celebrating the coming of spring, such as "Sumer is icumen in" and "Lenten ys Come with Loue to Toune," modernized in poems such as the opening of T
negotiation	The settling of legal CLAIMS or political disputes by discussions between the parties concerned
internal rhyme	Rhyme which occurs within a line of a poem.
hexameter	A line consisting of six metrical
climax	The turning point of the action in the plot of a play or story
novel	Long piece of fictional prose with a large number of characters, plots, settings
in the money	To finish high enough in a poker tournament to win prize money
beat generation	The Beat Generation is a group of American post-WWII writers who came to prominence in the 1950s, as well as the cultural phenomena that they both documented and inspired
caoutchouc	Rubber, something made of or resembling rubber.
buffoons	Clowns, ludicrous figures.
pathetic fallacy	The pathetic fallacy or anthropomorphic fallacy is the treatment of inanimate objects as if they had human feelings, thought, or sensations
character	Any representation of an individual being presented in a dramatic or narrative work through extended dramatic or verbal representation
broadside ballads	poems printed on one side of a single sheet during the Renaissance period.
arco	"played with the bow," as opposed to pizzicato "plucked," in music for bowed instruments.
revisionism	In theater history, an approach based on the belief that history is usually told from the viewpoint of a social, political, or cultural elite; that it is therefore usually distorted; and that in consequence it needs to be rewritten.
più	more; see mosso for an example
dissonance	cacaphony, or harsh-sounding language.
fortissimo	as loudly as possible (see note at pianissimo, in this list)
comedy of manners	comic genre that satirizes the behaviors, fashions, and mores of a given social class or set
regionalism	In literature, regionalism or local color fictionality refers to fiction or poetry that focuses on specific features – including characters, dialects, customs, history, and topography – of a particular region.
renga	Japanese form comprising half-tanka written by different poets.
mare tenebrarum	"Sea of Darkness".
quality	the tone or characteristic nature of a story element
gesticulations	Expressive gestures made in showing strong feeling or in enforcing an argument.
red herring	a false lead, assumed outcome or obvious solution that a writer plants in a story to fool the audience from guessing the real outcome.
strepitoso	"noisy".
claque	People in the audience who are hired to applaud; the tradition of the claque began in Roman theater.
georgic poems	characterizing the life of the farmer.
put on	To put someone on a hand is to deduce what hand or range of hands they have based on their actions and your knowledge of their gameplay
aidenn	Arabic word for paradise or heaven.
plo	Pot limit Omaha
rhetorical question	A rhetorical question is a figure of speech in the form of a question posed for its persuasive effect without the expectation of a reply (e.g.: "Why me?") Rhetorical questions encourage the listener to think about what the (often obvious) answer to the question must be
fable	parable, and symbolism, below, or click here to download a PDF handout contrasting these terms.
tropological	Not to be confused with either typology or the rhetorical device of the trope, the term tropological refers to the interpretation of literature in which the interpreter focuses on the ethical lesson presented in the text, i.e., "the moral of the story." See more discussion under fourfold interpretation.
iambic pentameter	Iambic pentameter is a commonly used metrical line in traditional verse and verse drama
occasional poem	a poem written to describe or comment on a particular event or occasion
aureate language	polysyllabic Latinate poetic diction employed especially by the Scottish Chaucerians
active player	A player still involved in the pot
napoleons	French 20-franc gold coins.
short story	See unity of effect
il fait chaud	(French) it is warm, it is hot
platea	In medieval theater, an unlocalized playing area.
workshop	A developmental "production" of a play, with a significant amount of rehearsal, but with less fully realized production values (e.g
deconstructionism	An approach to literature which suggests that literary works do not yield fixed, single meanings, because language can never say exactly what we intend it to mean
slentando	becoming broader or slower (that is, becoming more largoor more lento)
pun	A play on words that relies on a word's having more than one meaning or sounding like another word
prototype	The original example of a literary form which through the ages has been copied and modified.
una	one, as for example in the following entries
foot	The rhythm within a line of poetry brought about by a unit of stressed and unstressed syllables: among the best known is the iambic foot (first syllable unstressed, second syllable stressed)
neoclassicism	The movement toward classical architecture, literature, drama, and design that took place during the
forestage	A modern term for apron, the small portion of the stage located in front of the proscenium.
villanelle	A villanelle is a poetic form which entered English-language poetry in the 19th century from the imitation of French models
style	the choice of words and sentence structure which makes each authors writing different
overbet	To make a bet that is more than the size of the pot in a no limit game.
belles-lettres	Belles-lettres or belles lettres is a term that is used to describe a category of writing
stanislavski method	Set of techniques for and theories about acting which promotes a realistic style stressing psychological gestures and emotional truth as opposed to conventional theatricality.
teleplay	a form of dramatic literature used as an instruction manual for the production of television shows.
sestet	Series of six lines of a particular rhyme scheme as in the sonnet.
aigrette	A feather-shaped piece of jewelry worn in the hair or on a hat
sojourn	A temporary stay.
reverse chronology	Reverse chronology is a method of story-telling whereby the plot is revealed in reverse order.
iglesia católica	(Spanish f.) Catholic Church
cicero	Marcus Tullius Cicero (106 BC–43 BC) was a statesman of Ancient Rome, and is generally considered the greatest Latin prose stylist.
framing method	Using the same features, wording, setting, situation, or topic at both the beginning and end of a literary work so as to "frame" it or "enclose it." This technique often provides a sense of cyclical completeness or closure.
parados	In classical Greek drama, the scene in which the chorus enters
im fluss	(German) in a state of flux (figurative)
martellato	hammered out
structuralism	Structuralism is an intellectual movement that developed in France in the 1950s and 1960s, in which human culture is analysed semiotically (i.e., as a system of signs).
n-plural	The plural form of a few modern English weak nouns derives from the n-stem declension or n-plural of Anglo-Saxon (Old English)
dramatic monologue	a serious solo piece, usually but not necessarily short
apron stage	The apron is any part of the stage that extends past the proscenium arch and into the audience or seating area
slapstick comedy	Low comedy in which humor depends almost entirely on physical actions and sight gags
heptameter	A line consisting of seven metrical feet
prose	Any material that is not written in a regular meter like poetry
climax	The point of highest action and suspense in a story.
synesthesia	a blending of different senses in describing something.
fag end	A poor or worn-out end
morendo	dying; i.e., dying away in dynamics, and perhaps also in tempo
magnetoesthetics	Poe made up this word
letter to the editor	Non-fictional text form in which a reader of a newspaper or magazine writes his personal opinion on some topic of general interest or on an article in that paper
epic theater	Twentieth-century form of presentation associated with the German dramatist Bertolt Brecht, its chief advocate and theorist
rashi	Rashi is a Hebrew acronym for Rabbi Shlomo Yitzhaqi or Rabbi Shlomo Yarchi (February 22, 1040 – July 13, 1105), a Jewish rabbi in France in the Middle Ages, famed as the author of the first comprehensive commentaries on the Talmud
carpetbag	a traveler's bag made of carpet and widely used in the U.S
formal analysis	Modern method of interpreting literature: analysing character, action, setting and other formal elements makes clear the central meaning of a piece of literature provided the book is well written.
iglesia reformada	(Spanish f.) Reformed Church
motive	The reason for a character´s actions, movements, words ...
onomatopoeia	a word which sounds like what it represents (e.g., the buzzing of a bee)
amphitheatre	In Rome, a large elliptical outdoor theatre, originally used for gladiatorial contests
masking	Scenery or draperies used to hide or cover.
unfeigned	Sincere, honest.
b.g.	Abbreviation for "background" (i.e
dactyl	A metrical foot of one strong stress and two weak.
pantheistical	Doctrine that equates God with the forces and laws of the universe
lento	slowly
pallid	Pale, lacking color.
dynamics	refers to the relative volumes in the execution of a piece of music
lethe	Forgetfulness
camera move	an action description in a screenplay that stipulates a specific move of the camera (such as “CAMERA PANS a crowded supermarket at rush hour.”)
top hats	round metal objects that are placed in the color frame holder of lighting instruments to cut down on stray light
variorum	A variorum edition is any published version of an author's work that contains notes and comments by a number of scholars and critics
comic opera	An outgrowth of the eighteenth-century ballad operas, in which new or original music is composed specially for the lyrics
exegesis	(1) In Roman times, the term exegesis applied to professional government interpretation of omens, dreams, and sacred laws, as Cuddon notes (315)
offsuit	Cards that are not of the same suit
deuce-to-seven	A method of evaluating low hands
homeric simile	Homeric simile, also called epic simile, is a detailed comparison in the form of a simile that is many lines in length
eschatological narrative	above.
modus operandi	example(s)
impronunziabile	(Italian) unpronounceable
elevator stage	Stage which allows the entire floor or sections of the floor to be raised and lowered auto matically.
refrain	A line or set of lines at the end of a stanza or section of a longer poem or song--these lines repeat at regular intervals in other stanzas or sections of the same work
pastourelle	The pastourelle is a typically Old French lyric form concerning the romance of a shepherdess
wit	Using language in a clever and funny way.
formal diction	See Diction.
burns stanza or meter	six-line stanza with the rhyme scheme aaabab (where a is a tetrameter line, and b is a dimeter line).
proscenium theatre	A rectangular-roomed theatre with the audience on one end and the stage on the other, with both areas separated by a proscenium arch
hanamichi	In kabuki theater, the bridge from behind the audience (toward the left side of the audience) on which actors can enter to the stage
counting	A technique of determining stylistic qualities of a piece of writing by counting the numbers of words in paragraphs or sentences, and determining the average number of modifiers, average word lengths, and so on.
dramatic monologue	A poetic form in which the character (not the author) speaks directly to the audience
upstairs	See raise.
realism	this subsequent literary movement, also emphasizes depicting life as accurately as possible without distortion.
huguenot	In the 16th and 17th centuries, the name of Huguenots came to apply to members of the Protestant Reformed Church of France
dolcissimo	very sweetly
cradle trick	A sub-category of the "
expressionism	Literary conviction that expression determines form and therefore dominates it, which means that any of the formal rules and elements of writing can be distorted to suit the needs of an author
consonance	The identity of consonants in two or more words.
adagietto	rather slow
idade média	(Portuguese) or Idade Medieval (Portuguese), Middle Ages, medioevo (Italian), Mittelalters (German), médiévale (French), medieval (Spanish)
bare-stage	a play requiring no scenery and no properties or minimum properties, sometimes called open-stage
broadway	A 10 through ace straight
antinovel	An antinovel is any experimental work of fiction that avoids the familiar conventions of the novel
appassionato	"passionately."
paeon	Greek and Latin metrical foot consisting of three short and one long syllables: the first paeon / ' ~ ~ ~ /, the second paeon / ~ ' ~ ~ /, the third paeon / ~ ~ ' ~ /, and the fourth paeon / ~ ~ ~ ' /.
found space	Space not originally intended for theater which is converted for productions
satyrs	Deities in Greek mythology having the torso of a man and the body of a horse or goat (2 legs)
patrician	Aristocrat
imitación	(Spanish f.) imitation
immer gestopft	(German) always stopped, always muted[addition to entry provided by Brian A
character	a person, animal, or spiritual entity that figures importantly in the telling of a story.
in modo di	"in the art of"
quantitative metre	lines whose rhythm depends on the duration or length of time a line takes to utter
immer noch unmerklich zurückhaltend	(German) always imperceptibly holding back
impudor	(Spanish m.) immodesty,shamelessness
dramatic monologue	In a dramatic monologue, the poet, like an actor in a play, speaks through the voice and personality of another person.
laid paper	Paper with a prominent pattern of ribbed lines in the finished sheet which are particularly visible when the sheet is held up to the light
setting	the time and place in which a story takes place
vociferated	To cry out loudly, shout.
beau ideal	A perfect embodiment of a concept.
abusio	A type of catachresis known as the "mixed metaphor." The term is often used in a derogatory manner
panegyric	a poem in great praise of someone or something.
equivocal	Uncertain
scare card	A card dealt face up (either to a player in a game such as stud or to the board in a community card game) that could create a strong hand for someone
weak ace	An ace with a low kicker (e.g
sempre	always
magic realism	Magic realism or magical realism is an aesthetic style or genre of fiction in which magical elements are blended into a realistic atmosphere in order to access a deeper understanding of reality
feature film	A movie made primarily for distribution in theaters.
renku	Renku (連句 "linked verses"?), the Japanese form of popular collaborative linked verse poetry formerly known as haikai no renga (俳諧の連歌), is an offshoot of the older Japanese poetic tradition of ushin renga, or orthodox collaborative linked verse
3rd person	"He, she, it, they" - the story is told by someone, usually not identified by name, who knows it
satire	Literature which mocks human weaknesses, social circumstances, and so on by using irony
futurism	Art movement begun in Italy about 1905 which idealized mechanization and machinery.
metonymy	Metonymy is a figure of speech used in rhetoric in which a thing or concept is not called by its own name, but by the name of something intimately associated with that thing or concept
teaser	a horizontal drape across the stage, designed to hide the first electric
tenerezza	tenderness
polar attitude	a character’s emotional attitude or approach to other characters, to his/her situation, to society, or to him or her self.
tripping	folding a piece of flying scenery as it goes out; generally done to save space
sostenuto	"sustainedly."
repertory	The plays a theatre company produces
outlaw	An individual determined by a council vote to be an outlaw at a
polysyndeton	The use of a considerable number of conjunctions very closely together (opposite: asyndeton
full house	Audience seating filled to capacity
end-stopped line	Line of a poem with a pause at the end
barbaro	barbarous (notably used in Allegro barbaro by Béla Bartók)
immer belebter	(German) ever more quickly, still more lively[corrected by Brian A
suffix	A word part that is added to the end of a root word (i.e., darkness)
haikai renga	Another term for renku
gingham	A clothing fabric usually of yarn-dyed cotton in plain weave.
flat	Single piece of scenery, usually of standard size, combined with similar units to create a set
apocrypha	In the context of fiction, apocrypha includes those fictional stories that do not belong within a fictional universe's canon, yet still have some authority relating to that fictional universe
superinduced	To introduce as an addition over or above something already existing.
id3 tag	information embedded in an MP3 file, such as artist, title, track, etc
exposition	A narrative device, often used at the beginning of a work, that provides necessary background information about the characters and their circumstances
con moto	with motion
chronological order	When a story is told in the order that the events actually happened.
geography	A kind of study that deals with the landforms, products, and people of particular regions or types of regions
imperioso	imperiously
wake up	To "wake up with a hand" means to discover a strong starting hand, often when there has already been action in front of the player.
giusto	strictly, exactly, e.g. tempo giusto in strict time
school drama	In the English Renaissance, plays written at the universities and presented at schools rather than to the general public.
cinematic language	a “language” of images (visual and aural) that tell story without the use of words.
isocolon	a line or lines that consist of clauses of equal length.
comic opera	In eighteenth-century France, an entertainment in which action was mimed by the performers and dialogue was often sung by the audience
ich danke!	(German) no thank you!
glutinous	Having the quality of glue; gummy
dipody	which refers more specifically to the metrical substitution of two normal feet, usually iambs or trochees, under a more powerful beat, so that a "galloping" or "rolling" rhythm results
simultaneity	the quality of having two or more things happening at once
university wits	University Wits were a group of late 16th century English playwrights who were educated at the universities (Oxford or Cambridge) and who became playwrights and popular secular writers
aside	and the soliloquy are conventions in Elizabethan tragedy
decresc.	same as diminuendo or dim. (see below)
jeopardy	a condition of possible physical or emotional danger or suffering of a character or characters that raises the stakes of a plot.
il est possible	(French) It's possible
rhetorical climax	below.)
melodrama	The term melodrama refers to a dramatic work which exaggerates plot and characters in order to appeal to the emotions
genre	a form or type of literature (e.g., fiction, poetry, drama, the essay)
im abzug	see Abzug
supporting character	a subplot character or minor character who helps to raise the stakes for the main protagonist, or who reflects the same problems or issues of the protagonist, while providing texture or dimensionality to the setting.
antihero	A
purse	The total prize pool in a poker tournament
structure	The elements of a literary piece are carefully and meaningfully arranged by the author
mystery play	a drama from the European Middle Ages portraying an event in the life of Jesus
resolution	The conclusion of a plot's conflicts and complications
text form	Text forms are for example poetry, drama, short story, novel, report, comment ...
oneiromancy	The belief that dreams could predict the future, or the act of predicting the future by analyzing dreams
chorus	(1) In ancient Greek drama, a group of performers who sang and danced, sometimes participating in the action but usually simply commenting on it
im tempo des scherzo	(German) in the tempo of the Scherzo
poetry	a form of speech or writing that harmonizes the music of its language with its subject
sonnet	below
live cards	In stud poker games, cards that will improve your hand that have not been seen among anyone's upcards, and are therefore presumably still available
hanger	When the bottom card of the deck sticks out beyond the others, an unwanted tell that the dealer is dealing from the bottom of the deck.
hole cam	A camera that displays a player's face-down cards ("hole cards") to television viewers
waka	A Japanese
regulus of cobalt	Pure Cobalt was regulus of cobalt (CoAsS)
giocoso	"gayly."
playlet	a short play
il tient que	(French) it depends on
intent	the subtextual objective of a character
epistolary novel	A piece of fiction told to the reader mainly through the presentation of letters (dt
bedight	To dress or decorate especially in splendid or impressive attire.
estinto	extinct, extinguished; i.e., as soft as possible, lifeless
interlaced rhyme	In long couplets, especially hexameter lines, sufficient room in the line allows a poet to use rhymes in the middle of the line as well as at the end of each line
log line	an extremely short description of the plot, characters, theme, and genre of a screenplay used to pitch or synopsize scripts during the development stage.
lazzi	In commedia dell'arte, comic pieces of business repeatedly used by characters.
accentual-syllabic verse	lines whose rhythm arises by the number and alternation of its stressed and unstressed syllables, organized into feet
head rhyme	Another term for alliteration--especially alliteration of consonants at the beginning of words, rather than alliteration of internal consonants within the bodies of words
epitrite	Greek and Latin metrical foot consisting of short, long, long, and long syllables / ~ ' ' ' / in any order.
brads	Brass fasteners used to bind a screenplay printed on three-hole paper, with Acco #5 solid brass brads generally accepted as having the highest quality.
euphony	Pleasing or sweet sound
pilgrimage	An act of spiritual devotion or penance in which an individual travels without material comforts to a distant holy place
caricature	A drawing or other figure or description in which the peculiarities of a person or thing are so exaggerated as to appear ridiculous; a parody.
live hand	A hand still eligible to win the pot; one with the correct number of cards that has not been mucked or otherwise invalidated.
falling action	Falling action follows the climax or turning point and leads to the dénouement.
f.g.	Abbreviation for "foreground" (i.e
medici	The Medici family was a powerful and influential Florentine family from the 13th to 17th century
border	Strip of drapery or painted canvas hung across the top of the stage from a batten to mask the area above the stage; also, a row of lights hung from a batten.
anagogical	In fourfold interpretation, the anagogical reading is the fourth type of interpretation in which one reads a religious writing in an eschatological manner, i.e., the interpreter sees the passage as a revelation concerning the last days, the end of time, or the afterlife.
church assembly	The predecessor of the General Synod and superseded because of its limited powers and the inadequate place it gave the laity in church government.
tristich	A Tristich is any strophe, stanza, or poem that consists of exactly three lines.
pathetic fallacy	an expression that endows inanimate things with human feelings.
laureate	In English, the word laureate has come to signify eminence or association with literary or military glory
showrunner	A writer/producer ultimately responsible for the production of a TV series, week to week.
tape the stage	the process of depicting the outlines of the set on the rehearsal room floor, using colored tape; generally done by the stage manager before the first rehearsal
flax	Flax fibres are amongst the oldest fibre crops in the world
ballad measure	Traditionally, ballad measure consists of a four-line stanza or a quatrain containing alternating four-stress and three-stress lines with an
coquetries	Flirtations.
mummer	Actor, one who goes merrymaking in disguise during festivals.
precipitato	precipitately
in medias res	In medias res or medias in res (into the middle of things) is a Latin phrase denoting the literary and artistic narrative technique wherein the relation of a story begins either at the mid-point or at the conclusion, rather than at the beginning (cf
audience	An audience is a group of people who participate in a show or encounter a work of art, literature (in which they are called the "reader"), theatre, music or academics in any medium
aquiline	Curving like an eagle's beak, or resembling an eagle.
morality play	Medieval drama designed to teach a lesson
hanukah	The eight-day festival of lights beginning on 25th Kislev (November - December) which commemorates the rededication of the Jerusalem temple in 165 BCE after its desecration by Antiochus IV Epiphanes, the Greek ruler of Syria.
neutral platform stage	Unlocalized stage which allows for easy shifts of locale through the use of properties, entrances, and exits
sonatine	a little sonata, used in some countries instead of sonatina
débat	a medieval poem in dialogue that takes the form of a debate on a topic
heavens	Also called shadows
i.e.	abbrevation for id est (Latin: that is to say, this is to say)
technician	a crew person who performs some kind of technical (as opposed to design) function (such as grips, gaffers, sound mixers, boom operators, script supervisors, etc.)
immer leiser	(German) softer and softer
off-off-broadway	Center for experimentation in New York theater that developed when off-Broadway became commercialized in the 1960s
dal segno al fine	from the sign to the end; i.e., return to a place in the music designated by the sign (see preceding entry) and continue to the end of the piece
parody	Dramatic material that makes fun of a dramatic genre or mode or of specific literary works; a form of theatre that is often highly entertaining but rarely has lasting value.
subscription poker	Subscription poker is a form of online poker wherein users pay a monthly fee to become eligible to play in real-money tournaments.
end-rhyme	Rhyme which occurs at the end of two or more lines of a poem.
elision	The omission of part of a word (oer, neer) to make a line conform to a metrical pattern.
telling name	An author may deliberately give his / her characters names which give away particular character traits.
immolation	to be killed as a sacrificial victim.
impersonal verb	a verb without a real subject
flashback	A method of narration in which present action is temporarily interrupted so that the reader can witness past events--usually in the form of a character's memories, dreams, narration, or even authorial commentary (such as saying, "But back when King Arthur had been a child
immer noch etwas vorwärts	(German) always still somewhat forward
crisis	that moment in a play at which the protagonist faces the greatest conflict; it is the turning point of the play and precipitates the climax.
upstage	A movement or area away from the audience.
dramatic reading	a staged reading of material other than a playscript
neologism	a newly-coined word, like Lewis Carroll's "Jabberwocky."
back end	Payment on a movie project when profits are realized.
setting	the place in which a scene happens (not to be confused with location or set)
feature story	Non-literary text form: kind of report but concentrating on a particular person
connotation	the personal definition or association triggered by a word
scintillating	brilliantly clever, stimulating, or witty
suited connectors	See main article: suited connectors.
il me le paiera!	(French) He'll pay for this!
end-stopped rhyme	In poetry, a line ending in a full pause, often indicated by appropriate punctuation such as a period or semicolon
trap	opening in the stage floor, normally covered, which can be used for special effects, such as having scenery or performers rise from below, or which permits the construction of a staircase which ostensibly leads to a lower floor or cellar
similes	imagery, hyperbole, and oxymora
dry board	The texure of the community cards
end stopped line	A poetic line in which the end of the line coincides with the end of the grammatical unit, usually the sentence.
gnomic verse	poems laced with proverbs, aphorisms, or maxims.
compression	When the narrating time is shorter than the acting time
gamebook	A gamebook (also sometimes referred to as choose your own adventure books or CYOA books, not to be confused with the series by that title) is a work of fiction that allows the reader to participate in the story by making choices that affect the course of the narrative, which branches down various paths through the use of numbered paragraphs or pages
lamentoso	"mournfully"
luminoso	"luminously"
alliteration	assonance, consonance, and rhyme.
tunica albuginea	The tough fibrous covering of the testicles or the dense, white fibrous tissue of the eye.
rhyme royal	Rhyme royal (or Rime royal) is a rhyming stanza form that was introduced into English poetry by Geoffrey Chaucer.
nom de plume	A "Pen Name", or a pseudonym adopted by an author for various reasons.
crying call	Calling when a player thinks he does not have the best hand.
sordino	see sordina, above
impresion	(Spanish f.) impression, edition
idiosyncrasy	A peculiarity of temperament
trochee	a metrical foot consisting of an accented syllable followed by an unaccented syllable
animato	"animated", "lively".
prevarication	To deviate from the truth.
apology	Apologetics (from Greek Î±ÏÎ¿Î»Î¿Î³Î¯Î±, "speaking in defense") is the discipline of defending a position (usually religious) through the systematic use of reason
folklore	Traditions, customs, and stories passes down within a culture
dyspeptic	indigestion or ill humor.
moira	Fate or the three fates in Greek mythology
callback	After the initial audition, the director or casting director will "call back" for additional - sometimes many - readings those actors who seem most promising
ghee	A clarified butter without any solid milk particles or water
soap opera	Daytime dramas so named because they were originally sponsored by the makers of laundry detergent in the early days of television.
imdyazn	professional musicians of the Berbers
prima volta	"the first time"; for example prima volta senza accompanimento ("the first time without accompaniment").
act/scene heading	Centered, all CAPS heading at the start of an act or scene
consonance	sometimes just a resemblance in sound between two words, or an initial or head rhyme like alliteration, but also refined to mean shared consonants, whether in sequence ("bud" and "bad") or reversed ("bud" and "dab").
plutonian	Relating to Pluto, the god of the underworld in Roman mythology.
il violino	(Italian m.) the violin
rapido	"fast."
full-length play	See opposite: one-act play.
sestet	Series of six lines of a particular rhyme scheme as in the sonnet
inimitable	Not capable of being imitated
metrical	Written in
meerschaum	A tobacco pipe
fourth wall	Sometimes referred to as the "third wall," depending upon how a stagebuilder numbers the sides of the stage, the fourth wall is an imaginary wall that separates the events on stage from the audience
theatre of alienation	See alienation effect, epic theatre.
azrael	The "Angel of Death" in Moslem and Jewish legend.Azrael is also the name of Gargamel's cat in the 1981 animated series, "The Smurfs".
hogshead	A large cask or barrel
imbongi	Zulu musician storytellers
idiophone type	modus operandi
iglesia anglicana	(Spanish f.) Anglican Church
commedia dell'arte	A form of largely improvised, masked street theatre that began in northern Italy in the late sixteenth century and still can be seen today
anglican communion	The worldwide group of churches in communion with one another and, in particular, with Canterbury
romance	science-fiction, fantasy, magic realism, mythology, surrealistic art, modernism and postmodernism.
veriest	A typical example
inspiration	What an author needs to allow a flow of good feelings or extraordinary thoughts which he can make use of in his writing.
cthonic	Related to the dead, the grave, the underworld, or the fertility of the earth
postmodernism	Theory that division of artworks into modernist categories, such as realism and departures from realism, is artificial
tertullian	Tertullian is a controversial figure in the history of Christianity
ballad	A song / poem that tells a story in verse in a very swift way
colophon	An inscription added to the end of a manuscript which may include the names of the scribe, the artist, the patron and the place and date of its completion.
crescendo	progressively louder
dimeter	A line containing only two metrical feet
paint	Any royal card
pathos	"Passion," in Greek; also "suffering." The word refers to the depths of feeling evoked by tragedy; it is at the root of our words "sympathy" and "empathy," which also describe the effect of drama on audience emotions.
choric speech	a speech spoken by a group; also, a speech which describes offstage action.
attached	Agreement by name actors and/or a director to be a part of the making of a movie.
severalty	Land held "in severalty" is land held by a single owner, as opposed to communal land held by a group of people
scene	(1) Stage setting
syllable	a vowel preceded by from zero to three consonants ("awl" ..
business	actions performed by actors, such as drinking, smoking, comic beatings, and the like.
arbitration	Binding adjudication by members of a Writers Guild of America committee regarding proper onscreen writer credit of a movie; arbitration is available only to WGA members or potential WGA members.
surcease	To put an end to; discontinue.
closed poetic form	Poetry written in a a specific or traditional pattern according to the required rhyme, meter, line length, line groupings, and number of lines within a
dramatic irony	Where the audience or reader is aware of something important, of which the characters in the story are not aware.
add-on	In a live game, to buy more chips before you have busted
documentation	accounting for and giving credit to the origin of a source
monomania	Excessive concentration on a single object or idea.
follow-spot	A swivel-mounted lighting instrument that can be pointed in any direction by an operator.
n¯o	The classical dance-drama of Japan
imitatio per augmentationem	(Latin) augmentation, one of the rhythmic proportions of imitation
personification	Non-human objects, animals, forces of nature, or abstract ideas are represented with human qualities as if they were human beings
fiction	Anything that has nothing to do with reality; based on the imagination of an author / authoress
im legendenton	(German) in the style of a legend
pentameter	When poetry consists of five feet in each line, it is written in pentameter
downstage	A movement or area toward the audience.
aqua regia	Aqua Regia is a mixture of hydrochloric acid and nitric acid
invocation of the muse	A prayer or address made to the one of the nine muses of Greco-Roman mythology, in which the poet asks for the inspiration, skill, knowledge, or appropriate mood to create a poem worthy of his subject-matter
lyric	A poem which expresses the poet´s thoughts and feelings.
chorus	episodia, and orchestra.
ghazal	an Eastern verse form consisting of successive couplets whose lines all end with the same refrain phrase (the qafia), just before which is placed the couplet's rhyming word (radif)
comic drama/comic-drama	a play blending light and serious elements
anacrusis	In poetry, anacrusis (Ancient Greek: ἀνάκρουσις "pushing back") is the lead-in syllables, collectively, that precede the first full measure.
crotchet	A highly individual and usually eccentric opinion or preference
ethnicities	The characteristics, language, and customs of a race, or country of people
universality	Universality may refer to:
m.o.s.	Without sound, so described because a German-born director wanting a scene with no sound told the crew to shoot "mit out sound."
selihot	Prayers and liturgical poems, seeking "divine forgiveness", recited during and leading up to the penitential season of 1-10th Tishri and culminating in the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur).
splash the pot	To throw one's chips in the pot in a disorderly fashion
antonym	A word that means the opposite of another word (i.e., happy/sad)
heavy-stress rhyme	Another term for a masculine ending in a rhyme.
ostinato	A short musical pattern that is repeated throughout an entire composition or portion of a composition.
anacreontic verse	imitations of the 6th-century B.C
truck	a dolly for moving heavy equipment
picaresque novel	The picaresque novel (Spanish: "picaresca", from "pícaro", for "rogue" or "rascal") is a popular sub-genre of prose fiction which is usually satirical and depicts, in realistic and often humorous detail, the adventures of a roguish hero of low social class who lives by his wits in a corrupt society
great vowel shift	the Bradshaw Shift is a suggested alteration to the order of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, one which differs radically from the manuscript tradition.
theme	The author's message about a topic within a text
turn	The turn or "turn card" or "fourth street" is the fourth of five cards dealt to a community card board, constituting one face-up community card that each of the players in the game can use to make up their final hand
imagism	Imagism was a movement in early 20th-century Anglo-American poetry that favored precision of imagery and clear, sharp language
mystery plays	Also called cycle plays
volition	The act of making a choice
secondary source	Literary scholars distinguish between
liberamente	freely
poi	then, indicating a subsequent instruction in a sequence; diminuendo poi subito fortissimo, for example: getting softer then suddenly very loud
mezzo forte	"half loudly" – Directs the musician to play moderately loud
dal segno al fine	from the double sign to the end; i.e., return to place in the music designated by the double sign (see D.S
irene	Poe wrote a poem called "Irene" in 1831
restoration drama	English drama after the restoration of the monarchy, from 1660 to 1700
dactyl	In poetry: one stressed syllable is followed by two unstressed syllables.
phantasmagoric	A constantly shifting complex succession of things seen or imagined
eschatological narrative	Eschatalogy in Christian theology is the study of the end of things, including the end of the world, life-after-death, and the Last Judgment
spondee	a metrical foot consisting of two accented syllables / ' ' /
envoy	the brief stanza that ends a poem such as the ballade or the sestina
rhyme	The use of words with matching sounds, usually at the end of each line, for example ‘Whenever Richard Cory went down town/We people on the pavement looked at him/He was a gentleman from sole to crown/Clean-favoured, and imperially slim.’ (Richard Cory by E A Robinson).
bankroll	1
iconoclastic	iconoclastico (Italian), bilderstürmerisch (German), iconoclaste (French), iconoclasta (Spanish)
buskin	A buskin is a knee- or calf-length boot made of leather or cloth which laces closed, but is open across the toes
iconostasis	(Latin, from Greek) a screen dividing the sanctuary from the nave of an Orthodox church, on which sacred pictures (ikons) are displayed
festivamente	cheerfully, celebratory
ruminating	To go over in the mind repeatedly and often casually or slowly
sallied	Leaped, burst forth.
box	The chip tray in front of a house dealer, and by extension, the house dealer's position at the table
senza	"without."
grue	slangy nickname for "gruesome" verse
wan	Dim, faint, pallid, suggesting poor health.
verbal irony - irony	Ironic statements (verbal irony) often convey a meaning exactly opposite from their literal meaning
recherche	Exquisite, pretentious, overblown.
vates	The earliest Latin writers used vates to denote "prophets" and soothsayers in general; the word fell into disuse in Latin until it was revived by Virgil
soave	smoothly, gently
laydown	A tough choice to fold a good hand in anticipation of superior opposition.
stationary staging	In the Middle Ages, a form of staging popular on the European continent
illustrative music	music that evokes a poem, scene, mood, idea or experience
folklore	Folk tales, customs and beliefs of a national or racial group.
dissimulation	Hiding under a false appearance.
business	The minute physical behavior of the actor, such as fiddling with a tie, sipping a drink, drumming the fingers, lighting a cigarette, and so forth
bene	well, as in, for example, ben marcato (meaning "well-marked")
loose	To play more - and thus weaker - hands than the average for the game or for the player normally
imperfektion	(German f.) imperfection (in mensural notation)
avarice	Greediness, excessive or insatiable desire for wealth or gain.
fly loft or flies	Space above the stage where scenery may be lifted out of sight by means of ropes and pulleys when it is not needed.
apotropaic	Designed to ward off evil influence or malevolent spirits by frightening these forces away
character	below.
rheum	A watery discharge from the mucous membranes especially of the eyes or nose.
processional staging	In the Middle Ages, a form of staging popular in England and Spain
iluminación	(Spanish f.) lighting (for example, lighting engineers in a theatre, etc.)
musicians' gallery	In English Renaissance theater, the third level of the tiring house, where the accompanying musicians were located.
controlling metaphor	See Metaphor.
boulevard theatre	Boulevard theatre is a theatrical aesthetic which emerged from the boulevards of Paris's old city.
simile	A common figure of speech that makes an explicit comparison between two things by using words such as like, as, than, appears, and seems: "A sip of Mrs
plot	The action or sequence of events in a story
iglesia bautista	(Spanish f.) Baptist Church
wheel	an alliterative rhyming quatrain with four-stress lines that follows the so-called bob, known together as a bob-and-wheel.
symbol	A symbol is a concrete object that stands for an abstract idea
symbol	an object or action that represents more than itself
episodia	The Greek word for episode
veloce	with velocity
openers	The cards held by a player in a game of "jackpots" entitling him to open the pot
race	See coin flip.
subtext	According to Konstantin Stanislavsky, the deeper and usually unexpressed "real" meanings of a character's spoken lines
ocular	Having something to do with the eyes.
glories	In the Italian Renaissance, flying machines used for special effects.
morendo	"dying away" in tone or tempo.
wga signatory	An agent, producer or production company that has signed an agreement to abide by established agreements with the Writers Guild of America.
benighted	lacking enlightenment or knowledge or culture; overtaken by the night.
stage design	It means the decoration of the stage, giving away place, time, and the atmosphere of the play.
nicholas klimm	Baron Ludwig Holberg (1684-1754) wrote a story about a voyage to the land of death and back.
poetic diction	a conventional subset of English vocabulary, phrasing, and grammatical usage judged appropriate for verse through its continuous usage by approved poets from the 18th century on and including effects like periphrasis and Latinate terminology
diction	The social position (the sociolect or idiolect) indicated by the choice of words for the poem.
fourfold meaning	Another term for fourfold interpretation, this word refers to the medieval idea that every passage in the Bible can be interpreted according to at least one of four possible levels of meaning
posato	settled
parados	the ode chanted by the chorus as they enter in Greek tragedy
alliteration	above, and alliterative verse, below.
fortissimo	as loudly as possible (see note at pianissimo)
shakespearean sonnet	see Sonnet.
monologue	A long unbroken speech in a play, often delivered directly to the audience (when it is more technically called a soliloquy).
hypokrite	Greek term for "actor."
cupola	A dome-shaped ornamental structure located on top of a larger roof or dome, often used as a lookout or to admit light and remove stale air.
innamorata	In commedia dell'arte, the stock female lover.
sodden	Dull or expressionless especially from continued indulgence in alcoholic beverages.
defense	Making a play that defends the player against a bluff by forcing the supposed bluffer to fold or invest further..
ektachrome film	Kodak Ektachrome film is a medium-speed colour-transparency film featuring very fine grain and high sharpness and thus perfectly suited for the reproduction of the fine details found in mediaeval manuscripts.
cotopaxi	A volcano in Ecuador, at 5,897 meters (19,347 feet), the second highest in the country, and one of the highest active volcanoes in the world
imagery	Words the author uses to put a picture in the reader's mind.
metaphysical conceit	See conceit.
ethnohistory	A technique or method of writing history, especially the history of a non-literate people for whom relatively few written records are available
leaf - bookbinding	Bookbinding is the process of physically assembling a book from a number of folded or unfolded sheets of paper or other material
refrain	A refrain (from Vulgar Latin refringere, "to repeat", and later from Old French refraindre) is the line or lines that are repeated in music or in verse; the "chorus" of a song
theatre of cruelty	1930 movement designed to disrupt the logic of the audience and free their subconscious minds so that they might experience the mysterious forces of existence characterized by magic and myth
roundelay	A term used as a generic label for fixed forms of poetry using limited rhymes--such as the rondeau, rondel, and roundel
il est heureux	(French) It's fortunate
irony	above.
sullivan's island	Sullivan's Island is located at 32°45'48" North, 79°50'16" West (32.763456, -79.837911)Edgar Allen Poe was stationed there in Fort Moultrie from 1827 to 1828
antispast	Greek and Latin metrical foot consisting of short, long, long, and short syllables (i.e., an iambus and a trochee) / ~ ' ' ~ /
lament	A lament or lamentation is a song, poem, or piece of music expressing grief, regret, or mourning.
scoop	In high-low split games, to win both the high and the low halves of the pot.
assonance	Repetition of the same vowel sounds in words which follow each other, especially when the vowel is stressed, for example ‘Smouldering through spouts of drifting smoke that shroud/The menacing scarred slope;’ (Attack by Siegfried Sassoon).
eupatrids	One of the hereditary aristocrats of ancient Athens.
ballad	haiku, and ode.)
prima donna	Italian for "first lady." the female star of an opera
dirge	a brief funeral hymn or song
theme	a prevailing idea in a work, but sometimes not explicitly stated, as in Ogden Nash's "Candy is dandy, / But liquor is quicker," which is about neither candy nor liquor.
ethos	Ethos is an English word based on a Greek word and denotes the guiding beliefs or ideals that characterize a community, a nation or an ideology
jove	In Roman mythology, Jupiter (sometimes shortened to Jove) held the same role as Zeus in the Greek pantheon
super	Abbreviation for "superimpose" meaning the laying one image on top of another, usually words over a filmed scene (i.e
understatement	See litotes and meiosis under tropes.
voltaire	François-Marie Arouet (1694–1778), better known by the pen name Voltaire, was a French Enlightenment writer, deist and philosopher
musical theater	Broad category which includes opera, operetta, musical comedy, and other musical plays (the term lyric theater is sometimes used to distinguish it from pure dance)
immobile	(Italian) motionless
lock up	To "lock up" a seat in a cash game means to place a poker chip, player's card, or other personal effect on the table in front of the seat, to signify that the seat is occupied even though the player may not be present.
fable	below.
bluff induce	To make an aggressive move with a good hand to give the impression it is a bluff, in order to draw a bluff from your opponent.
il dito grosso	(Italian) the thumb
folkloric motifs	Recurring patterns of imagery or narrative that appear in
stop and go	Stop and go or stop 'n' go is when a player bets into another player who has previously raised or otherwise shown aggression
vituperate	Berate, scold, to use harsh condemnatory language.
private theaters	In Elizabethan England, indoor theaters.
meter	or click here for a PDF handout contrasting dactyls and other types of feet.
scene	A dramatic sequence that takes place within a single locale (or
all in	Having bet all of your chips in the current hand
fourteener	cf
cataloging	Creating long lists for poetic or rhetorical effect
realism	Broadly speaking, the attempt to present onstage people and events corresponding to those observable in everyday life.
impressionismus	(German m.) impressionism
taffrail	The railing around a ship's stern.
cue	The last word of one speech that then becomes the "cue" for the following speech
evanescent	Something that vanishes like vapor, passing especially quickly into and out of existence.
mezuzah	The Hebrew word for doorpost, mezuzah, also came to mean the encased parchment scroll inscribed with Deuteronomy 6:4-9 and 11:13-21 that is affixed to the gate and right-hand doorposts of a Jewish home.
spondee	In
tag	A short scene at the end of a movie that usually provides some upbeat addition to the climax.
sight word	A word that is immediately recognized as a whole word and does not require word analysis for identification
bard	cynghanedd, monorhyme, and strict meter.
complaint	a lament or satiric attack on social evils, such as Chaucer's "Complaint to his Purse," the opening of the Wakefield Master's "Second Shepherd's Play," or Shakespeare's "A Lover's Complaint." Not to be confused with a poet's grumbling about weather or writing, such as Ezra Pound's "Ancient Music" or Chaucer's "The lyf so short, the craft so longe to lerne."
iglesia ortodoxa copta	(Spanish f.) Coptic Orthodox Church
brioso	vigorously (same as con brio)
negative capability	John Keats, in a letter of October 27, 1818, suggested that a poet, possessing the power to eliminate his own personality, can take on the qualities of something else and write most effectively about it.
simile	is an announced comparison introduced with the words like or as"
trepidation	Fear, apprehension.
unit set	A series of lowered or raised platforms on stage, often connected by various stairs and exits, which form the various locations for all of a play's scenes
piano-vocal score	a music score of an opera, or a vocal or choralcomposition with orchestra (like oratorio or cantata) where the vocal parts are written out in full but the accompaniment is reduced to two staves and adapted for playing on piano
revel	A wild party or celebration.
tutti	all; i.e., all together, usually used in an orchestral or choral score when the orchestra or all of the voices come in at the same time, also seen in Baroque-era music where two instruments share the same copy of music, after one instrument has broken off to play a more advanced form: they both play together again at the point marked tutti
farce melodrama	a funny play in which plot and broad action dominate, with extravagant theatricality, superficial characterization, and predominance of plot and physical action
spondee	below.
lehrstücke	"Learning pieces": short dramas written by Bertolt Brecht in the early 1930s.
caroline	literature of the reign of Charles I (1625-42), especially the by the Calvalier poets, who numbered Robert Herrick, Richard Lovelace, and John Suckling, among others.
immer noch mehr zurüchhaltend	(German) ever more holding back
chiromancy	The art of Palm Reading.
box set	A stage set consisting of hard scenic pieces representing the walls and ceiling of a room, with one wall left out for the audience to peer into
tetrameter	In poetry, a tetrameter is a line of four metrical feet
poco	a little, as in poco più allegro (a little faster)
compounding	infixation, epenthesis, proparalepsis, and prosthesis.
accent	There is a normal pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables associated with each word in a language
elision	syncope, and acephalous lines.
imponderabilia	(pseudo-Latin) factors the influence of which on some project it is not easy to evaluate in concrete terms
end rhyme - rhyme	A rhyme is a repetition of similar sounds in two or more words and is most often used in poetry and songs
dike-	Greek term for "the natural order of things."
irregularity	Any of a number of abnormal conditions in play, such as unexpectedly exposed cards, that may call for corrective action
anglican church	The Protestant Church in England that originated when King Henry VIII broke his ties to the Vatican in Rome (the Catholic Church).
scaena frons	In Roman theater, the ornate three-dimensional facade of the stage house.
identificarsi	(Italian) to identify with
monody	In poetry, the term monody has become specialized to refer to a poem in which one person laments another's death
lustrum	A period of five years
larghissimo	very slowly; slower than largo
beat sheet	An abbreviated description of the main events in a screenplay or story.
dimeter	two feet; sometimes termed dipody, a double foot, that is, one measure made up of two feet
ikariotikos	a traditional dance and accompanying song originating in the Greek island of Ikaria
tefilin	Known as phylacteries in English, these are small black boxes containing passages of scripture with black straps attached to them, worn by men at weekday morning prayer
slice-of-life	Pure naturalism: stage action that merely represents an ordinary and arbitrary "slice" of the daily activity of the people portrayed.
critical reading	though I arbitrarily prefer to reserve close reading as a reference for analyzing literature and critical reading as a reference for breaking down an essay's argument logically
hanamichi	In the kabuki theatre, a long narrow runway leading from the stage to a door at the back of the auditorium that is used for highly theatrical entrances and exits right through the audience.
flat character	Also called a static character, a flat character is a simplified character who does not change or alter his or her personality over the course of a narrative, or one without extensive personality and characterization
invention of hero	Hero (or Heron) of Alexandria (c.10–c.70) was a Greek engineer and geometer
semiotic literary criticism	Semiotic literary criticism, also called literary semiotics, is the approach to literary criticism informed by the theory of signs or semiotics
iamb	In poetry: one unstressed syllable is followed by a stressed syllable.
il più presto possible	(Italian) as quick as possible
new comedy	Hellenistic Greek and Roman comedies which deal with romantic and domestic situations.
amoroso	"loving".
scansion	The act of "scanning" a poem to determine its meter
minstrelsy	Type of nineteenth-century production featuring white performers made up in blackface.
accent pattern	the way in which certain words or syllables are stressed or said more loudly or emphatically
assonance	The repetition of internal vowel sounds in nearby words that do not end the same, for example, "asleep under a tree," or "each evening." Similar endings result in rhyme, as in "asleep in the deep." Assonance is a strong means of emphasizing important words in a line
divisi	(or div.) means literally "divided": in a part in which several musicians normally play exactly the same notes they are instead to split the playing of the written simultaneous notes among themselves
book	In a musical, the dialogue text, apart from the music and song lyrics.
play the board	In games such as Texas hold 'em, where 5 community cards are dealt, if your best hand is on the board and you go to the showdown you are said to "play the board".
metaphors	similes
iaml	abbreviation of 'International Association of Music Libraries'
maestoso	"in a stately fashion," "majestically."
sulphureous	An older spelling of "sulfurous"
sonore	sonorous
enclosing rhyme	Its rhyme scheme is abba cddc ...
bookholder	In Elizabethan theater, the prompter who gave actors their lines.
box	Small, private compartment for a group of spectators, built into the walls of a traditional proscenium-arch theater.
modern classic	A term used to designate a play of the past hundred years that has nonetheless passed the test of time and seems as if it will last into the century or centuries beyond, such as the major works of Anton Chekhov, George Bernard Shaw, and Samuel Beckett
formula	an often repeated phrase, sometimes half-a-line long and metrically distinctive.
director	the main orchestrator of the various creative activities that go into film production, the director collaborates with and guides designers, editors, cinematographers, technicians, and actors in their interpretation of the script within a single organic vision.
flyting	a poem of invective by two speakers trying to out-humiliate one another.
dead man's hand	See main article: Dead Man's Hand.
metaphor	Similar to a simile in that a metaphor compares two things
octameter	a verse containing eight feet
mezzo-soprano	a female singer with a range usually extending from the A below middle C to the F an eleventh above middle C
homophone/homonym	One of two or more words alike in pronunciation but different in meaning, derivation, or spelling (i.e., to, two, too)
plot	what happens, concretely, as though it were placed on a history time line.
fete	A lavish often outdoor entertainment, a large elaborate party.
diary	A written record of daily events, facts, and experiences, usually for private use only.
neologism	A made-up word that is not a part of normal, everyday vocabulary
bellicoso	"warlike," aggressive
immer noch drängend	(German) always pressing forward more
il est difficile	(French) It's difficult
expectorate	To spit; to eject from the throat or lungs by coughing or hawking and spitting.
simile	A comparison which uses the words ‘like’ or ‘as’, for example ‘And bent nails/ dance all over the surfacing/like maggots’ (Love Song: I and Thou by Alan Dugan).
exacerbate	To make more violent, bitter, or severe.
imago dei	(Latin, literally 'Image of God') the concept that human beings are created in God's image
beldame	An old woman.
translation	Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text
unruffled	Poised and serene especially in the face of setbacks or confusion
tragedy	an episode occurring after the last choral ode and ended by the ceremonial exit of all the actors.
hypotaxis	Hypotaxis is the grammatical arrangement of functionally similar but "unequal" constructs (hypo="beneath", taxis="arrangement"), i.e., constructs playing an unequal role in a sentence.
naga-uta	Japanese form of indeterminate length that alternates lines of five and seven syllables and ends with an additional seven-syllable line.
d.s. al coda	(or dal segno al coda) "from the sign to the coda": means to return to a place in the music designated by the "sign" (a marking resembling a letter S with a diagonal through it and a dot to either side) and continue until directed to move to the coda, a separate ending section
homeric age of greece	Another term for the
astrolabe	An instrument, developed by Muslim navigators in the twelfth century that allowed mariners to plot their latitude by determining the altitude of the sun and other celestial bodies
appetency	Appetite, having a fixed and strong desire.
tab curtain	a front curtain that is permanently secured at the top edge which is gathered by diagonal ropes when lifted
epistle	An epistle (pronounced /i'pis.l/; Greek ἐπιστολή, epistolē, 'letter') is a writing directed or sent to a person or group of people, usually an elegant and formal didactic letter
pleonasm	unnecessary verbiage, redundancy as in "It was a dark and lightless night."
puncheon	A large cask of varying capacity.
hair side	The side of a sheet or parchment or vellum that once carried the animal's hair
catharsis	An emotional discharge that brings about a moral or spiritual renewal or welcome relief from tension and anxiety
toke	In a brick and mortar casino, a toke is a "tip" given to the dealer by the winner of the pot
villain	A bad character whose evil actions and motives are very important to the plot of the story.
found object	In scene or costume design (and art in general), an item that is found rather than created and subsequently incorporated into the finished design.
maxim - saying	A saying is something that is said, notable in one respect or another, to be "a pithy expression of wisdom or truth."
idiofono a tastiera	(Italian m.) keyed idiophone
slang	Informal diction or the use of vocabulary considered inconsistent with the preferred formal wording common among the educated or elite in a culture
complaint	A poetic genre in which the poet complains, often about his beloved
illuminismo	(Italian m.) or Secolo dei Lumi (Italian m.), Enlightenment, Age of the Enlightenment
simonides	A greek poet from the 7th century B.C.
trysail	A small fore-and-aft sail hoisted abaft the foremast and mainmast in a storm to keep a ship's bow to the wind.
lontano	from a distance; distantly
vestige	A trace, mark, or visible sign left by something
phthisis	A progressively wasting or consumptive condition; especially pulmonary tuberculosis.
shutters	Two large flat wings that close off a perspective setting in back.
eye-rhyme	At the end of the lines in poetry there may be words which are spelt alike but pronounced differently, like in Wordsworth´s Composed upon Westminster Bridge
iglesia pentecostal	(Spanish f.) Pentecostal Church
molossus	Greek and Latin metrical foot consisting of long, long, and long syllables / ' ' ' /.
ten-minute drama	a serious play under ten minutes in playing time
il tempo crescendo	(Italian) increasing, or accelerating the tempo
establishing shot	A cinematic shot that establishes a certain location or area.
virgule - slash	The slash is a sign, "/", used as a punctuation mark and for various other purposes
imagery	the use of figurative language to paint a vivid picture
trope	a semantic figure of speech or of thought that varies the meaning of a word or passage
ingenue	The young, pretty, and innocent girl role in certain plays; also used to denote an actress capable of playing such roles.
lacrimoso	tearfully; i.e., sadly
era	A period in history.
boudoir	A woman's dressing room, bedroom, or private sitting room.
register	A typical language used in specific fields: scientific books, literary books, social dramas, or advertisements have their special registers from which words are taken
travesty	a parody of a more serious work
consequently crank	The condition of a ship that has not been loaded properly and leans to one side or can be tipped over easily.
shill	See main article: shill
avator	An old spelling of "avatar", an incarnation in human form
analogy	A comparison is made between two things in order to stress their similarities.
impudencia	(Spanish f.) impudence
apophasis	Denying one's intention to talk or write about a subject, but making the denial in such a way
i fiamminghi	(Italian) in the early renaissance, the name by which Flemish musicians, composers, singers and players, were known in Northern Italy
allusion	An allusion refers to something without explaining it in detail, the reader is expected to understand the importance of the allusion.
multimedia	Writing and filmmaking encompassing more than one medium at a time which, script-wise, usually refers to CD-ROM games or Internet-based programming.
alcaics	a four-line Classical stanza named after Alcaeus, a Greek poet, with a predominantly dactylic metre, imitated by Alfred lord Tennyson's poem, "Milton."
comedy	the genre of dramatic literature treating trivial material superficially or amusingly or showing serious and profound material in a light, familiar, or satirical manner
improvisieren	(German) to improvise
decode	To pronounce a word by applying knowledge of letter/sound correspondences and phonetic generalizations
suavity	Being smooth though often superficially gracious and sophisticated.
im bau	(German) under construction
reduplication	An act or instance of doubling or reiterating.
batten	A length of pipe or a pole suspended from above the stage on which scenery or lighting instruments are hung.
epistle	a verse epistle imitates the form of a personal letter, addressed to someone in particular, often very personal and occasional, and sometimes dated, with a location affixed
polysyndeton	a figure of speech where successive clauses or phrases are linked by one or more conjunctions.
dramatic irony	A reader or spectator may anticipate the tragic outcome for a character because of the rendering of the situation (difference between reality and appearance), but the character himself does not perceive his real situation
choric figure	above.
black theatre	In America, theatre that is generally by, with, and about African Americans.
center	The center of the performance space, used for placement of the actors and the set.
incalzando	getting faster and louder
filliping	Flicking, striking or tapping with a quick motion.
set-up	the premise or given circumstances laid out at the beginning of a story, just before the catalyst propels the story into its development and resolution.
aphorism	one writer's citation of another, known author's truism or pithy remark.
occupatio	a figure of rhetoric where a writer explains that he or she will not have time or space to say something but then goes on to say that thing anyway, possibly at length.
allusion	A brief or implicit reference to something outside the text.
antithesis	contrasting or combining two terms, phrases, or clauses with opposed or antithetical meanings.
loco	[in] place; i.e., perform the notes at the pitch written (generally used to cancel an 8va direction)
omaggio	homage, celebration
tableau	A "frozen moment" onstage, with the actors immobile, usually employed at the end of a scene, as the curtain falls or the lights dim.
consonance	A special type of
visual poetry	See concrete poetry.
one-line description	a very brief one-sentence description of what happens in a scene.
abecedarius	An abecedarius is an acrostic in which the first letter of every word, strophe or verse follows the order of the alphabet
traveler	a horizontally drawn curtain
guild	A medieval organization that combined the qualities of a union, a vocational school, a trading corporation, and product regulations committee for the
freytag's pyramid	A diagram of dramatic structure, one which shows complication and emotional tension rising like one side of a pyramid toward its apex, which represents the
declare	To verbally indicate an action or intention
pentameter	five feet; sometimes termed pentapody, a five-part foot, one measure made up of five feet
onomatopoeia	the use of words that imitate or suggest a sound; example: hiss, buzz
redaction	In the study of literature, redaction is a form of editing in which multiple source texts are combined (redacted) and subjected to minor alteration to make them into a single work
indie	A production company independent of major film studio financing.
rall.	Broadening of the tempo (often not discernable from ritardando); progressively slower
mano sinistra	[played with the] left hand (abbreviation: MS or m.s.)
verse	usually rhymed and of the same number of feet.
il est étrange	(French) It's strange
kigo	A traditional "season-word" in Japanese
inference	A logical guess based on text evidence I made an inference about the child's height when I saw his tall parents.
surrealism	Movement attacking formalism in the arts which developed in Europe after World War I
chip declare	A method of declaring intent to play high or low in a split-pot game with declaration
doggerel	bad verse, characterized by clichés, incomprehensibility, and an irregular metre.
dint	By force of; because of
denouement	A French word meaning "unknotting" or "unwinding," denouement refers to the outcome or result of a complex situation or sequence of events, an aftermath or resolution that usually occurs near the final stages of the plot
immer stärker werdend	(German) continually growing louder, crescendo
quarter	To win a quarter of a pot, usually by tying the low or high hand of a high-low split game
doffed	To remove an article of clothing from the body
prologue	(1) In original Greek tragedy, the prologue was either the action or a set of introductory speeches before the first entry (parados) of the chorus
ib.	abbrevation for ibidem (Latin: in the same place, in the same book)
character	A person, animal, or an imaginary being in a narrative
eco	the Italian word for "echo"; an effect in which a group of notes is repeated, usually more softly, and perhaps at a different octave, to create an echo effect
trochaic meter	Poetry in which each foot consists primarily of trochees (poetic feet consisting of a heavy stress followed by a light stress)
procrustean	Marked by arbitrary often ruthless disregard of individual differences or special circumstances.
melancolico	melancholic
fermata	finished, closed; i.e., a rest or note is to be held for a duration that is at the discretion of the performer or conductor (sometimes called bird's eye)
il est convenable.	(French) It's proper
serioso	"seriously"
exposition	the revelation of previous action to a story (or earlier action in a script) that must be imbued with present dramatic action and an intimation of a future development.
im fluß	(German) in a state of flux (figurative)
multi-way pot	A pot where several players compete for it
alliteration	Also called initial rhyme, alliteration is a rhyme-pattern produced inside the poetic line by repeating sounds at the beginning of words
paraphrase	A restatement of a text in a reader's own words
chiton	The full-length gown worn by Greek tragic actors.
impressionism	A term usually applied in painting when painters were interested in the transitory effects of light and shade and the short-lived impressions they experienced
a cappella	in the manner of chapel music, without instrumental accompaniment.
nitre	Also spelled "niter"
pot-limit	See main article: pot limit.
a page	A revised page that extends beyond the original page, going onto a second page
deictic	words that point to particulars, as names and pronouns do for individual places and persons (such as Edwin Arlington Robinson's "Miniver Cheevy" and "Richard Cory"), and demonstrative-adjective-noun combinations (such as Benjamin Franklin King's "Here's that ten dollars that I owe" in "If I Should Die To-night") do for things.
marcato	marked; i.e., accentuatedly, execute every note as if it were to be accented
no-limit	Rules designating players are allowed to wager any or all of their chips in a single bet
dramatic	Plays, scenes, and events that are high in conflict and believability and that would command attention if staged in the theatre.
im falle	(German) in case
cripple	In some community card games, to cripple the deck means to have a hand that is virtually impossible for anyone else to catch up to
catalexis	A catalectic line omits the final unaccented syllable or syllables of the meter.
ben	"well" (as in ben marcato = well marked).
régisseur	Continental term for theater director; it often denotes a dictatorial director.
lacrimoso	"sadly" (literally "tearfully")
crossed rhyme	In long couplets, especially hexameter lines, sufficient room in the line allows a poet to use rhymes in the middle of the line as well as at the end of each line
imene metua	a form of unaccompanied vocal music known for a uniquely Polynesian drop in pitch at the end of the phrases, as well as staccato rhythmic outbursts of nonsensical syllables (tuki)
grave	slowly and seriously
pinakes	In ancient Greek theater, painted flats.
arena theater	theater configuration in which the audience sits on all sides of the stage; sometimes referred to as "theater in the round."
con brio	"with spirit."
cockney school of poetry	a mocking name for London romantic poets such as John Keats and Leigh Hunt (from a scathing review in Blackwood's Magazine in October 1817).
scraped idiophone	scraping the vibrating object with a stick or other non-vibrating object
elision	omission of a consonant (e.g., "ere" for "ever") or a vowel (e.g., "tother" for "the other"), usually to achieve a metrical effect.
fairy tale	A narrative in prose about the fortunes and, very often more so, misfortunes of a hero / heroine, who having experienced various superhuman adventures, lives happily ever after
continuous rhyme	Its rhyme scheme is aa bb cc dd ...
lamentando	"complaining"
meno	less; see meno mosso, for example, under mosso
dolente	"sorrowfully"
hero call	Calling when a player has a relatively weak hand but suspects his opponent may be bluffing.
versification	Literally, the making of verse, the term is often used as another name for
archbishops’ council	Coming into being in 1999, this body was established in order to give greater coherence and coordination to the central organisation of the church. The two archbishops
malinconico	melancholy
straddle bet	See main article: straddle bets.
pagan	A follower of a polytheistic religion, as in ancient Rome
octave	An octave is the first part of an Italian or Petrarchan sonnet; an octave is a set of eight lines that rhyme according to the pattern ABBAABBA
in turn	A player, or an action, is said to be in turn if that player is expected to act next under the rules
assistant director	a film crew member whose job it is to manage the set protocols and keep the film shoot on schedule.
wore motley	To wear the costume of a "motley fool" or a court jester
reader-response criticism	Reader-response criticism is a school of literary theory that focuses on the reader (or "audience") and his or her experience of a literary work, in contrast to other schools and theories that focus attention primarily on the author or the content and form of the work.
favorite	A hand which when matched against another in a showdown has an advantage odds-wise over the other
archbishops’ council	Coming into being in 1999, this body was established in order to give greater coherence and coordination to the central organisation of the church. The two archbishops are its joint chairmen; ex officio members are the chairmen of the two convocations, the chairman and vice-chairman of the House of Laity of the General Synod and a Church Estates Commissioner. Two members each are elected from the House of Bishops, the House of Clergy and the House of Laity of the General Synod. Six members are nominated by the archbishops. Under the terms of the National Institutions Measure 1998 its objects are "to coordinate, promote, aid and further the work and mission of the Church of England".
stretto	faster.
probe bet	A bet after the flop by a player who did not take the lead in betting before the flop (and when the player that did take the lead in betting before the flop declined to act)
brioso or con brio	"vigorously."
metapoetry	metafiction, and metadrama.
invocation to the muse	A prayer or address made to the one of the nine muses of Greco-Roman mythology, in which the poet asks for the inspiration, skill, knowledge, or appropriate mood to create a poem worthy of his subject-matter
md	see mano destra.
dry pot	A side pot with no money created when a player goes all in and is called by more than one opponent, but not raised
chivalry	trial by ordeal, and feudalism
comedy of manners	Form of comic drama that became popular in the latter half of the seventeenth century in France and among English playwrights during the Restoration
pardoner	An individual licensed by the medieval church to sell papal indulgences (i.e., "pardons"), official documents excusing the recipient from certain acts of penitence and alleviating the sinner's punishment while in
synaesthesia	above.
indian advancement act	A federal law, first passed in 1884 and merged with the Indian Act in 1906 that allowed "wider municipal privileges and powers" to certain BAND COUNCILS who, in the Department's opinion, were ready for them
allusion	a reference to another literary / artistic/ historic, work, author, character, or event (frequently biblical or mythological)
unities	three.
sostenuto	sustained, lengthened
internal rhyme	A poetic device in which a word in the middle of a line rhymes with a word at the end of the same metrical line
downcard	A card that is dealt face-down.
free verse	poetry that has no regular rhythm or meter
imbarco	(Italian m.) embarkation, landing-stage
tone	the attitude expressed by the writer toward the subject
imagery	Words and phrases that appeal to the five senses
impassioned	filled with passion, ardent, appassionato (Italian), con abbandono (Italian), leidenschaftlich (German), avec passion (French)
gloss	A gloss (from Latin: glossa, from Greek: γλῶσσα glóssa "tongue") is a brief notation of the meaning of a word or wording in a text
elegy	In classical Greco-Roman literature, "elegy" refers to any poem written in elegiac meter (alternating hexameter and pentameter lines)
imc	abbreviation of 'International Music Council'
dead hand	A player's hand that is not entitled to participate in the deal for some reason, such as having been fouled by touching another player's cards, being found to contain the wrong number of cards, being dealt to a player who did not make the appropriate forced bets, etc.
synopsis	A two to three page, double-spaced description of a screenplay.
atsu-mori play	"warrior play" in Noh drama in which a military man disguises himself as a priest to repent a life of violence.
dirty stack	A stack of chips apparently of a single denomination, but with one or more chips of another
deal twice	In a cash game, when two players are involved in a large pot and one is all-in, they might agree to deal the remaining cards twice
producer	In American usage, the person responsible for the business side of a production, including raising money
religioso	"religiously"
evinced	Displayed clearly; revealed.
infurianto	"furiously"
black mountain poets	Charles Olson, Robert Creeley, and Robert Duncan, all associated with Black Mountain College, North Carolina, and all promoting a non-traditional poetics.
immer mit dämpfer	(German) always muted
flashback	in which the past events are experienced as a memory, and anastrophe, in which the entire story is cut into chronological pieces and experienced in a seemingly random or inverted pattern.)
total theater	In Asia, a synthesis or complete integration of all elements—acting, mime, music, dance, and text
vittorioso	victoriously
doggerel	Loosely styled and irregular in measure especially for burlesque or comic effect
trochaic rhyme	Another word for double rhyme in which the final rhyming word consists of a heavy stress followed by a light stress.
mezza voce	half voice; i.e., with subdued or moderated volume
angry young men	Group of antiestablishment English playwrights of the 1950s who dealt with the dissolving British empire, class conflict, and political disillusionment.
farce	Highly comic, lighthearted, gleefully contrived drama, usually involving stock situations (such as mistaken identity or discovered lovers' trysts), punctuated with broad physical stunts and pratfalls.
baroque	Baroque (pronounced /bəˈroʊk/ bə-rohk in American English or /bəˈrɒk/ in British English) is an artistic style prevalent from the late 16th century to the early 18th century in Europe
situational irony	Another term for
improvisator	(German m.) one who improvises
documentary fiction	An intermingling of fact and fiction in literature
forced bet	See main article: forced bets.
imitative stops	organ stops that are designed to sound as close as possible to their orchestral namesake
sentimentality	A pejorative term used to describe the effort by an author to induce emotional responses in the reader that exceed what the situation warrants
domiciliary	Provided or taking place in the home
beam-ends	Fallen over
impúdico	(Spanish) immodest, shameless
assai	"very."
humour	Humour or humor (see spelling differences) is the tendency of particular cognitive experiences to provoke laughter and provide amusement
ms	see mano sinistra.
analects	Lunyu (English: Analects) (simplified Chinese: 论语; traditional Chinese: 論語; pinyin: Lún Yǔ), also known as the Analects of Confucius, are considered a record of the words and acts of the central Chinese thinker and philosopher Confucius and his disciples, as well as the discussions they held.
similes	imagery
emaciation	in a very thin state, wasted away.
rhythm	tempo or beat
gainsayed	contradicted, opposed, declared to be untrue or invalid.
immer fern und ferner	(German) still distant and more distant
habiliment	Clothing
bridge order	Poker is neutral about suits
sagacious	Having or showing keen discernment, sound judgment, and farsightedness
scop	the name for an Old English poet-singer.
lights fade	A common stage direction to end a scene or an act.
epithalamion	lyric poem in praise of Hymen (the Greek god of marriage) or of a particular wedding, such as Edmund Spenser's "Epithalamion."
imitación libre	(Spanish f.) free imitation
heroic age of greece	Also known as the Homeric Age, this is the period of time between 1200-800 BCE
idiofon	(German n.) idiophone
tenor	The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register
moving panorama	In the nineteenth century, a setting painted on a cloth which was unrolled by spools to create an illusion of movement and changing locales.
death poem	A death poem (絶命詩) is a poem written near the time of one's own death
sempre	"always."
besotted	Very drunk
bis	"again," "twice."
iambic	See discussion under meter.
continuous action	Included in the scene heading when moving from one scene to the next, as the action continues.
impressionismo	(Spanish m.) impressionism
back in	To enter a pot by checking and then calling someone else's open on the first betting round
avant-garde	Term applied to plays of an experimental or unorthodox nature which attempt to go beyond standard usage in form, content, or both.
tetrameter	four feet, a measure made up of four feet
folklore	below)
costumbristas	popular entertainments in Latin America that reflect the manners, dress, music, and dance of the common people.
paradis	"Heavens": in French neoclassical theater, the third tier of galleries along the side walls.
mendez ferdinando	Fernão Mendes Pinto was a Portuguese explorer and writer born in 1509
bailetes	dance musicals in the Spanish-language theater.
imitative sound	See discussion under onomatopoeia.
symbolical play	a play emphasizing allusions and allegory
imprimeur	(French m.) printer
setting	Time, place, and social circumstances of a plot.
split	See main article: split and high-low split.
schooner-rigged smack	An English Fishing Smack was a wooden sailing vessel with two masts, and usually around 60 feet in length
terminus ad quem	The latest possible date that a literary work could have been written, a potential ending point for dating a manuscript or text
kothornus	In Hellenistic Greek theater, the platform boot worn by actors.
box set	a stage set composed of flats or connected walls enclosing three sides of the stage, with an invisible fourth wall open to the audience
refrain	one or more lines repeated before or after the stanzas of a poem.
a due	Intended as a duet; for two voices or instruments; together; two instruments are to play in unison, after divisi or a solo passage for one of the instruments
delicato	delicately
frame story	(also called a FRAME NARRATIVE) The result of inserting one or more small stories within the body of a larger story that encompasses the smaller ones
il est douteux	(French) It's doubtful
trim chain	short pieces of chain used to fasten a batten to a scenic piece used to keep the piece in trim
unity	the way in which the components of a story relate to each other and to the story as a whole so that it makes overall emotional or thematic sense.
iambe	(French m.) iambus, giambo (Italian m.), Jambus (German m.), yambo (Spanish m.)
il nous les casse!	(French) He's a pain in the neck! (colloquial)
setting	the environment in which the work takes place
green light	A project OKed for production.
metaphor	A figure of speech in which a word or phrase literally denoting one kind of object or idea is used in place of another to suggest a likeness or analogy between them; for example, "All the world's a stage".
tetrameter	the rhythm of a verse line with four stresses.
top two	A split two pair, matching the highest-ranking two flop cards.
rakeback	Rebate/repayment to a player of a portion of the rake paid by that player, normally from a non-cardroom, third-party source such as an affiliate
nat.	natural; i.e., discontinue a special effect, such as col legno, sul tasto, sul ponticello, or playing in harmonics
conflict	The struggle within the plot between opposing forces
one-ended straight draw	Four out of five cards needed for a straight that can only be completed with one specific rank of card, in cases where the needed card rank is either higher or lower than the cards already held as part of the sequence; as opposed to an inside straight draw or an open-ended straight draw
gemmary	Pertaining to gems or jewels.
hovering accent	Another term for spondee
il est utile	(French) It's useful
ka`arat kesef	Literally meaning "silver dish" (see Numbers 7, 49 etc), title of an ethical poem by Joseph Ha-ezobi (Provence, 13th century)
elegiac stanza	a quatrain with the rhyme scheme abab written in iambic pentameter
hemistich	A hemistich is a half-line of verse, followed and preceded by a caesura, that makes up a single overall prosodic or verse unit
understatement	see "Litotes."
cassock	A garment resembling a long frock coat worn by the clergy of certain churches when officiating, and by others as the usually outer garment.
sonnet	14 lines divided into eight lines (octave) and six lines (sestet)
cultural symbol	contextual symbol
hereditary chief	In certain Canadian bands this refers to leaders chosen by traditional means, often in opposition to the BAND COUNCILS recognized by the federal government and the Indian Act
martellato	hammered out.
yiddish	Yiddish is a non-territorial Germanic language spoken throughout the world and written with the Hebrew alphabet
capo	beginning.
apothegm	A short, pithy, and instructive saying.
iimp	acronym for International Index to Music Periodicals
estates satire	A medieval
icheche	Igede shakers made from woven straw and leather that are filled with pebbles
technical director	the person who figures out how the set will be built and then oversees construction; sometimes in charge of lighting as well
environmental theater	A type of theater production in which the total theater environment—the stage space and the audience arrangement—is emphasized
ignes fatui	"Foolish Light"
hebrides	The Hebrides comprise a wide-spread and diverse group of islands off the west coast of Scotland
prescription	A way of gaining rights by exercising them: for example, by occupying land for a long time under certain conditions
ides	the 13th or the 15th of the month, depending on the month, in Roman dating
tons burthen	The cargo capacity of the ship.
back door pilot	A two-hour TV movie that is a setup for a TV series if ratings warrant further production.
choreography	the arrangement and movement of performers onstage; though the term cutomarily applies to dancers, it is also used to denote the orchestrated movement of actors, especially in stage combat.
story of initiation	See initiation
inductive/deductive reasoning	inductive reasoning moves from observation of specific circumstances and makes a general conclusion; deductive reasoning takes a general truth and applies it to specific circumstances
sonnet	14 lines divided into three quatrains (four line groups) and a rhyming couplet
iglesia católica romana	(Spanish f.) Roman Catholic Church
seder	Literally meaning ‘order', Seder refers to the order of the ritual meal and explication, conducted on the first two nights of Passover, the festival recalling the Jews' exodus from Egypt.
bloodletting	Bloodletting (in modern medicine referred to as phlebotomy) was a popular medical practice from antiquity up to the late 19th century, involving the withdrawal of often considerable quantities of blood from a patient in the hopeful belief that this would cure or prevent a great many illnesses and diseases
pastoral	following Theocritus (3rd cent
voluminously	Having or marked by great volume or bulk
adonic	a Classical Greek and Latin metre, a dimeter with a dactyl and a spondee / ~ ' ' / ' ' / such as are found at the close of sapphics.
catch	To receive needed cards on a draw
bisbigliando	whispering; i.e., a special tremolo effect on the harp where a chord or note is rapidly repeated at a low volume
catachresis	A misuse of words, i.e
figure of speech	A
epithalamiom	Epithalamium (Latin form of Greek ἐπιθαλάμιον epithalamion from ἐπί epi "upon," and θάλαμος thalamos nuptial chamber) refers to a form of poem that is written specifically for the bride on the way to her marital chamber
sarcophagus	Coffin, particularly ones from ancient Egypt.
stereotomy	Stonecutting
antonymy	semantic contrasts.
adhesion	A legal undertaking by which someone accepts the terms of an existing agreement, such as an Indian TREATY
senza sordino	"without mute."
forced-move	In a casino where more than one table is playing the same game with the same betting structure, one of the tables may be designated the "main" table, and will be kept full by requiring a player to move from one of the feeder tables to fill any vacancies
tribrach	A tribrach is a metrical foot used in formal poetry and Greek and Latin verse
url	Uniform Resource Locator is the address of a website
jingju	"Capital theatre" in Chinese; the Beijing (or Peking) Opera, the most famous form of xiqu.
cold deck	A deck that has been intentionally rigged ('stacked') such that some player or players cannot win.
bruscamente	brusquely
mezza voce	"with subdued or moderated volume," literally "half voice."
shaped poetry	See concrete poetry.
scansion	Scansion is the act of determining and (usually) graphically representing the metrical character of a line of verse.
elegy	Originally in Greece a funeral ovation written in couplets of hexameter followed by a pentameter, the word elegy was later applied by Ovid to describe love poems such as his Amores
gothic novel	Eighteenth century story of mystery and horror set in lonely places (dt
eros	Greek god of love, where the word "erotic" comes from
rondeau	a mainly octosyllabic poem consisting of between ten and fifteen lines, having only two rhymes and with the opening words used twice as an unrhyming refrain at the end of the second and third stanzas
up the ante	Increase the stake
stanza	a verse of a song
broken rhyme	see rhyme.
hyperbole	Overstatement or exaggeration for the sake of emphasis, as when the little boy says Hey Dad theres thousands of cats in our yard! As literary devices, hyperbole, and its opposite understatement (litotes), are much used in comedy and satire.
trope	A written text, usually in dialogue form, incorporated into the Christian church service
development hell	The dreaded creative death malaise that occurs when the development process lasts too long.
scruples	Mental reservation; an ethical consideration or principle that inhibits action.
continental seating	Auditorium arrangement in which audience members enter and exit at the ends of rows; there is no center aisle.
completion	To raise a small bet up to the amount of what would be a normal-sized bet
il caro sassone	(Italian, literally 'the great Saxon') a sobriquet associated with two composers, both born in Saxony, George Frideric Handel (1685-1759) and one of the greatest eighteenth-century composers of opera seria, Johann Adolf Hasse (1699-1783)
georgian	when characterizing poetry, work written in the reigns of the four Georges (1714-1830) or in the reign of George V (1910-36).
verse	as a mass noun, poetry in general (but in a non-judgmental sense); and, as a regular noun, a line of poetry.
illustration	Artwork, photography, or other pictures
iconoclastic controversy	a movement in the Eastern Roman Empire, headed by the emperor, that denied the holiness of religious images
accelerando	accelerating; gradually increasing the tempo
enjambment	A line which ends before grammatical and semantic unity has been achieved and where the sense therefore carries on to the next line without a pause.
tetrameter	A line consisting of four metrical feet
rhyme	A rhyme is a repetition of similar sounds in two or more words and is most often used in poetry and songs
distributor	the entity or company who distributes a completed film to exhibitors
morality play	The drama of the 15th century in which different values acted on the stage, quarreling and fighting with each other such as Avarice, Righteousness, Vice, and Modesty and so on.
subject	What a story or play is about; to be distinguished from plot and theme
pizzicato	"plucked," in music for bowed strings; as opposed to arco, which means "played with the bow", and which is inserted to cancel a pizzicato direction.
scansion	The act of "scanning" a poem to determine its
pastorale	in a pastoral style, peaceful and simple
foot	A basic unit of meter consisting of a set number of strong stresses and light stresses
bugaboo	An imaginary object of fear
antediluvians	People living before the great flood described in the Bible.
crown	The Crown is concerned with the Church of England in three ways (at least!). The monarch is the Supreme Head of that church; the Crown is involved in the appointment of bishops and other senior clergy; and a number of parishes have the Crown as patron. The function relating to appointments is largely in the hands of the Prime Minister's Secretary for appointments, who is also involved in the Crown's patronage. The broader position is spelled out in Article 37
lamentoso	lamenting, mournfully
turning point	an action point that is a reaction to an obstacle in the way of a protagonist’s objective; turning points raise the stakes, move the action in a different direction or to a different playing area, and force the protagonist to take a new or different tack.
diphthong	A vowel sound produced by two adjacent vowels in the same syllable whose sounds blend together (i.e., oy, ow)
improvvisare	(Italian) to improvise, to perform or sing extemporaneously
impunity	Freedom from any punishment, loss, or consequences.
il est juste.	(French) It's right
imperial quarto	see 'quarto'
ennuye	Bored, weary in spirits, emotionally exhausted.
free verse	Poetry without standardized rhyme, meter, or structure
rising action	that point in the plot when conflict and our emotional involvement intensifies
unit set	A set that, by the moving on or off of a few simple pieces and perhaps with a change of lights, can represent all the scenes from a play
l'istesso	see lo stesso, below
himation	The gownlike basic costume of the Greek tragic actor.
verisimilitude	Verisimilitude, with the meaning ˝of being true or real˝ is a likeness or resemblance of the truth, reality or a fact's probability
ground plan	A schematic drawing of the stage setting, as seen from above, indicating the location of stage-scenery pieces and furniture on (and sometimes above) the floor
imprudente	(Spanish) imprudent
pruning poem	A pruning poem is a poem that uses rhymes that are prunings of each other.
eroico	heroically
allegro	"lively," or "fast."
hokku	In Japanese poetry, the term hokku literally means "starting verse." A hokku was the first starting link of a much longer chain of verses known as renga or linked verse
dada	Movement in twentieth-century art between World War I and World War II which was based on deliberate presentation of the irrational and on attacks against traditional artistic values.
interludes	In medieval England, short dramatic pieces, usually presented between courses of a banquet.
center pot	The main pot in a table stakes game where one or more players are all in.
second pair	In community card poker games, a pair of cards of the second-top rank on the board
pyrrhic	a metrical foot consisting of two unaccented syllables.
impetuoso	"impetuously."
nothing	When a player only has the possibility of a high card and no other hand that will win.
talmud	The Talmud (‘learning') is a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, customs and history
illuminator von handschriften	(German m.) illuminator, limner (of a manuscript)
tempo di marcia	march tempo
imperium	(Latin) supreme power, sovereignty
dolce	sweetly
auxesis	Another term for rhetorical climax
apologue	An apologue (from the Greek "Î±ÏÎ¿Î»Î¿Î³Î¿Ï," a "statement" or "account") is a brief fable or allegorical story with pointed or exaggerated details, meant to serve as a pleasant vehicle for a moral doctrine or to convey a useful lesson without stating it explicitly
first position	The playing position to the direct left of the blinds in Texas hold 'em or Omaha hold 'em, also known as "under the gun"
ilimba	Tanzanian Gogo thumb piano, a lamellaphone with forty metal blades, one of the largest on the continent
poor theater	Term coined by Jerzy Grotowski to describe his ideal of theater stripped to its barest essentials
couplet	Two lines--the second line immediately following the first--of the same metrical length that end in a rhyme to form a complete unit
penuriousness	Stinginess, given to or marked by extreme frugality.
in pace requiescat	"Rest in Peace".
bad beat	Losing with what is, or appears to be, a considerably stronger hand
slack	unstressed syllable.
stream of consciousness technique	The unlimited flow of inner thoughts and experiences in a character
sul ponticello	in string playing, an indication to bow very near to the bridge, producing a characteristic glassy sound, which emphasizes the higher harmonics at the expense of the fundamental.
epic simile	A formal and sustained
snuff-box	A small container for holding snuff, a preparation of pulverized tobacco to be inhaled through the nostrils, chewed, or placed against the gums.
epizeuxis	In linguistics, an epizeuxis is the repetition of words in immediate succession, for vehemence or emphasis.
sterling silver	Sterling silver is an alloy of silver containing 92.5% pure silver and 7.5% other metals, usually copper
illation	the act of inferring or drawing conclusions, a conclusion drawn, a deduction
meiosis	Understatement, the opposite of exaggeration: "I was somewhat worried when the psychopath ran toward me with a chainsaw." (i.e., I was terrified)
dramaturgy	The science of drama; the art of play construction; sometimes used to refer to play structure itself.
step outline	a plot outline used by writers to help organize and visualize their story before writing it; a step outline consists of scene headings followed by brief one-line descriptions in sequential order.
set	structures on the stage which represent the setting of the play
orbit	A full rotation of the blinds at a table
match the pot	To put in an amount equal to all the chips in the pot.
apron	The part of the stage located in front of the proscenium; the forwardmost portion of the stage
asphaltum	A dark bituminous substance that is found in natural beds and is also obtained as a residue in petroleum refining and that consists chiefly of hydrocarbons
speaker	The voice used by an author to tell a story or speak a poem
head rhyme	which is a bit of a misnomer since it doesn't actually involve rhyme in a technical sense
improperia	a series of antiphons and responses sung on the morning of Good Friday in place of the usual daily Mass of the Roman rite
a bene placido	up to the performer
cranmer	A towering figure in the history of the Church of England. He lived (1489-1556) at the time of the Reformation and was Archbishop of Canterbury 1532 – 1536. He had enormous influence on the shape of the reformed Church of England and its liturgy. He was martyred for his faith.
storytelling	human communication that springs from a fundamental desire in people to tell each other what happened through the most expressive and immediate means possible; in dramatic storytelling, the recreation of events and people are portrayed through present action visual and oral performance.
luminoso	luminously
giusto	strictly, exactly.
espirando	"gasping", dying away
lachadive islands	Now spelled "Laccadive", a group of islands and coral reefs in the Arabian Sea off the southwest coast of India.
elegy	a sad poem expressing sadness for someone who has died
constructivism	Following World War I, a movement in scene design in which sets were created to provide greater opportunities for physical action
comitatus	(Latin: "companionship" or "band"): The term describes the tribal structure of the
sonnet	or click here to download a PDF handout.
ballad	bard
character	round character, and characterization.
metaphor	above.
transcendentalism	Religious New England movement between 1840 and 1860
sul tasto	on the fingerboard; i.e., in string playing, an indication to bow (or sometimes to pluck) over the fingerboard; the opposite of sul ponticello
producer	The person or entity financially responsible for a stage or film production.
etiological narrative	below.
analepsis	Flashback (also called analepsis, plural analepses) is an interjected scene that takes the narrative back in time from the current point the story has reached
set	wherever camera is in place for a shot that is being set up for shooting (or being shot) at a location or studio.
caloric	Heat; A supposed form of matter formerly held responsible for the phenomena of heat and combustion
septenary	Another term for heptameter--a line consisting of seven metrical feet.
humour	The use of comic elements intended to amuse the reader or spectator.
expressionism	Expressionism was a cultural movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Germany at the start of the 20th century
fable	A fictitious moral tale or legend of ancient origin.
connotation	An idea or feeling associated with a word in addition to its literal meaning
halcyon	Halcyon was a bird, now believed to have been the kingfisher
posato	"settled"
deconstructionism	In theater history, an approach based on the concept that a text has no stable reference
sevens rule	A rule in many A-5 lowball games that requires a player with a seven-low or better after the draw to bet, rather than check or check-raise
ma	"but."
anglo-catholic	The name given to loyal members of the Church of England who look primarily to tradition as the source of authority. They tend to espouse a Roman Catholic view of doctrine, particularly of Scripture, the Eucharist and the priesthood. The majority are inimical towards the ordination of women to the priesthood.
globe	One of the theatres in London where Shakespeare performed
rehearsal	The gathering of actors and director to put a play into production; the period in which the director stages the play and the actors develop and repeat their dialogue and actions; etymologically, a "reharrowing," or repeated digging into
overcall	To call a bet after others have called, esp
rhythm	Refers to the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables.
near rhyme	Another term for inexact rhyme or slant rhyme.
brillante	brilliantly, with sparkle
the business	Show business in general; more specifically, Hollywood moviemaking and television business.
middle english	The version of English spoken after the Norman Conquest from 1066 but before 1450 or so
idyllique	(French) idyllic
archetype	something in the world, and described in literature, that, according to the psychologist Karl Jung, manifests a dominant theme in the collective unconscious of human beings
epithet	Expression
setting	The time and place of a literary work that establish its context
hand-for-hand	See main article: hand-for-hand.
pall	A heavy cloth draped over a coffin; an overspreading element that produces an effect of gloom
type	An earlier figure, event, or symbol in the Old Testament thought to prefigure a coming antitype (corresponding figure, event, or symbol) in the New Testament
samisen	The three-stringed banjolike instrument used in kabuki and bunraku.
groove system	System in which there were tracks on the stage floor and above the stage which allowed for the smooth movement of flat wings on and off the stage; usually there were a series of grooves at each stage position
circumlocution	speaking around a point rather than getting to it, such as S
moresque	Having the characteristics of Moorish art or architecture.
imprimé	(French) printed
ma	but
amabile	"amiable", "pleasant".
in altissimo	play an octave higher.
mosso	moved, moving; used with a preceding più or meno (see in this list), for faster or slower respectively
trip	to lift the bottom of a drop or flown scenery with another set of lines in theatres where there isn't enough fly space to lift the unit vertically to its entire length
interrupt	When one character cuts off another character's dialogue, sometimes marked with an ..
regency novel	Regency novels are either:
parlante	like speech, enunciated
dithyramb	In ancient Greece, a choral song describing the adventures of a god or heroic figure.
contraction	The shortening of a written or spoken word or expression by omission of one or more letters or sounds, such as can't
penny ante	Frivolous, low stakes, or "for fun" only; A game where no significant stake is likely to change hands.
meter	A recognizable though varying pattern of stressed syllables alternating with syllables of less stress
im bett	(German) in bed
malinconico	"melancholy"
spine	In the Stanislavski method, the dominant desire or motivation of a character; usually thought of as an action and expressed as a verb.
gothic	above, and Gothic novel, below.
toenail	to nail obliquely through the end of one board into a second board
im sprechchorrufen	(German) chant
hook	A term borrowed from songwriting that describes that thing that catches the public's attention and keeps them interested in the flow of a story.
eye rhyme	Eye rhyme, also called visual rhyme and sight rhyme, is a similarity in spelling between words that are pronounced differently and hence, not an auditory rhyme
backstage	The offstage area hidden from the audience that is used for scenery storage, for actors preparing to make entrances, and for stage technicians running the show
securely bound script	Typically, a stageplay contest's request that a script be more firmly bound than brads will do
lead	The player who makes the last bet or raise in a round of betting is said to have the lead at the start of the next round
druidical	Like one of an ancient Celtic priesthood appearing as a magician or wizard.
scenery	In drama, the overall decoration of the stage comprising the props
stage	An area set aside or deliberately constructed as a place for actors, dancers, musicians, or singers to perform
history	History is one of the three main genres in Western theatre, alongside tragedy and comedy
hand	See main article: hand.
montage	A cinematic device used to show a series of scenes, all related and building to some conclusion.
victorianism	Victorianism is the name given to the attitudes, art, and culture of the later two-thirds of the 19th century
sarcasm	See Irony.
ideh	(Nigeria) large seeds attached to a grass band
inner stage	Area at the rear of the stage which can be cut off from the rest by means of curtains or scenery and revealed for special scenes.
ictm	abbreviation of 'International Council for Traditional Music'
idiom	A special way of expressing an idea, characteristic of the language at that particular time.
stockinet	A soft elastic usually cotton fabric used especially for bandages and infants' wear.
treatment	A scene by scene description of a screenplay, minus all or most of the dialogue.
small blind	See main article: blinds.
diacritic	An accent or change to a normal alphabetical letter to differentiate its pronunciation
areítos	pre-Columbian ritual dramas using song, dance, mime, and the spoken word that were performed in Cuba, Puerto Rico, and other parts of the Caribbean; they represent some of the first performances recorded by Europeans in the New World.
curate	The name most used for clergy when newly ordained to a parish. In fact, they are technically assistant curates, for the incumbent is the curate, acting as he does, on behalf of the bishop, who is responsible for the cure of souls in his diocese.
dramatic action	the subtextual undercurrents and reciprocal actions that occur beneath the dialogue and physical actions of a screenplay.
rime couée	tail rhyme, a stanza in which a usually closing short line rhymes with a previous short line and is separated from it by longer lines.
relax	The process of loosening a manuscript's sewing and removing solidified glue from the spine so that the leaves can open flat, preferably at 180° to each other, to facilitate distortion-free photography without damaging the manuscript.
im dunkeln	(German) in the dark
apollonian	That which is beautiful, wise, and serene, in the theories of Friedrich Nietzsche, who believed drama sprang from the junction of Apollonian and Dionysian forces in Greek culture.
autobiography	An account of someone´s life in prose written by himself or herself.
motif	A recurring object, concept, or structure in a work of literature.
patio	In the Spanish golden age, the pit area for the audience.
viewpoint - narrative mode	The narrative mode (also known as the mode of narration) is the set of methods the author of a literary, theatrical, cinematic, or musical story uses to convey the plot to the audience.
mead hall	A structure built by an Anglo-Saxon lord (hlaford or
simoom	A hot dry violent dust-laden wind from Asian and African deserts
ducal	Of or relating to a Duke.
anthropomorphism	a figure of speech where the poet characterizes an abstract thing or object as if it were a person
quatrain	a four line stanza
imayoo	(Japanese) a medieval genre of popular song
maison	French for House or building.
houri	One of the beautiful maidens that in Muslim belief live with the blessed in paradise
exposition	Imparting of information that is necessary for an understanding of the story but will not be covered by the action onstage: events or knowledge from the past, or occurring outside the play, which must be introduced if the audience is to understand the characters or the plot
scansion	analysis of the kind and number of metrical feet in a poem
con dolore	with sadness
farthingale	A series of hoops worn especially in the 16th century beneath a skirt to expand it at the hipline.
hand prop	A prop that can be easily handled
aragoto	the "rough" or masculine style of Kabuki performance, usually adopted in samurai and other military roles.
move in	In a no-limit game, to "move in" or to "go all in" means to bet one's entire stake on the hand in play
tornada	a three-line envoy that include the rhymes of all preceding stanzas.
reraise	Raise after one has been raised
il est important	(French) It's important
peregrinations	Travels on foot, long walks.
hasidism	The revivalist movement founded by Israel Baal Shemtov in 18th century Podolia (south-eastern Poland), later extending to the whole of eastern Europe and beyond
obeisance	A gesture of respect, like kneeling or bowing before a king.
pulpitum	In Roman theater, a raised platform stage.
buy the pot	Making a bet when no one else is betting so as to force the other players to fold, thus winning the pot uncontested
immagine con ragazza	(Italian f.) pin-up (poster)
andantino	slightly faster than andante (but earlier it sometimes used to mean slightly slower than andante)
narrative	A collection of events that tells a story, which may be true or not, placed in a particular order and recounted through either telling or writing.
troppo	"too much" – Usually seen as "non troppo," meaning "moderately" or, when combined with other terms, "not too much," such as "Allegro non troppo."
proof	A test print to check the accuracy of the colour reproduction
immer dasselbe getragene zeitmass	(German) still the same solemn tempo
balance	Playing very different hands in the same way, with the aim of making it more difficult for an opponent to gain useful information about the cards a player has, even though on a value basis one would play them differently.
literary office	Usually headed by the literary manager and often staffed with interns and in-house or freelance readers
scimitar	A saber having a curved blade with the edge on the convex side and used chiefly by Arabs and Turks.
characterization	the development of characters in fiction, drama, or poetry
ante off	In tournament play, to force an absent player to continue paying antes, blinds, bring-ins, or other forced bets so that the contest remains fair to the other players
märchen	A technical German word used in folklore scholarship to refer to fairy tales
couplet	a pair of successive rhyming lines, usually of the same length, termed "closed" when they form a bounded grammatical unit like a sentence, and termed "heroic" in 17th- and 18th-century verse when serious in subject, five-foot iambic in form, and holding a complete thought.
im lebhaftesten tempo	(German) in a very animated tempo
furioso	furiously
idiom	An expression in the usage of a language that is peculiar to itself either grammatically or in having a meaning that cannot be derived from the conjoined meanings of its elements.
piacevole	"pleasant."
symbolic character	Symbolic characters are characters whose primary literary function is symbolic, even though the character may retain normal or realistic qualities
septet	a seven-line stanza
xenia	The Greek term for the
off-broadway	Movement developed in the late 1940s as a reaction to Broadway commercialism; its primary goal was to provide an outlet for experimental and innovative works, unhindered by commercial considerations
bellini	Born in Sicily, Vincenzo Bellini was an Italian opera composer
denouement	The final outcome of a complex sequence of events.
perspective	A reference to an author's beliefs and attitudes
manuscript	an author´s often hand-written original piece of writing.
chrysalis	A pupa of a butterfly
con slancio	"with enthusiasm."
imp.	abbreviation of impressit (Latin: printed by, after which is written the printer's name), impresserunt (Latin: printed by, after which is written the printer's name), impressé (French: printed by, after which is written the printer's name)
travesty	- Travesti, transgendered men in South America - Travesti (theatre), about men and women playing the opposite sex in Western opera, ballet and theatre
open ending	The reader asks himself "So what?" and has to think about probable endings to a seemingly unfinished story
inflectional ending	The change of form that words undergo to mark distinctions such as number and tense (i.e., ing, s, es)
happenings	Form of theatrical event which was developed out of experimentation by certain American abstract artists in the 1960s
trilogy	A group of three literary works that together compose a larger narrative
boulevard theaters	In eighteenth-century France, theaters located on Boulevard du Temple in Paris, catering to popular tastes.
vivacissimo	very lively
circumlocution	The use of an unnecessarily large number of words to express an idea.
cretic	Greek and Latin metrical foot consisting of long, short, and long syllables.
objective	Stanislavski's term for that which is urgently desired and sought by a character, the desired goal which propels a character to action.
climax	See Plot.
writers guild of america	Also known as "the WGA." The main union for screenwriters in the United States, with chapters in Los Angeles (WGAw) and New York (WGAe).
offset lithography	A printing process that involves the transfer of the image from a metal plate to a rubber-covered cylinder, which is then offset (transferred) by pressure onto the paper
antithesis	The opposite of (i.e., Good is the antithesis of evil.)
rimes	Part of a syllable that contains the vowel and all that follows it (i.e., the rime of bag is ag and the rime of swim is im)
impaziente	(Italian) impatient, hurried
solenne	solemn
up	When used with a card rank to describe a poker hand, refers to two pair with the named card being the higher pair
risoluto	resolutely
il est sûr.	(French) It's sure
denotation	The dictionary meaning of a word
hypertext	Online highlighted or underlined text that take a user to another website which has related information
style	The distinctive and unique manner in which a writer arranges words to achieve particular effects
theatre poems	separate poetic selections woven into a program
phonemes	A minimal sound unit of speech, such as single letters
impedimenta	(Latin pl.) encumbrances (for example, when travelling, baggages, parcels, etc.)
gentile	"gently"
vivace	very lively, up-tempo
stage directions	descriptions (in the text of the play) of the set, the props, voice and movements of the actors, and the lighting
poem	Piece of imaginative writing in lines with a regular rhythm, usually with a rhyme scheme, less so in modern poetry
plucked idiophone	plucking a flexible tongue
carathis	A character in "The History of the Caliph Vathek", a Gothic novel written by William Thomas Beckford
corpus christi play	A religious play performed outdoors in the medieval period that enacts an event from the Bible, such as the story of Adam and Eve, Noah's flood, the crucifixion, and so on
supercilious	Proud, coolly and patronizingly haughty.
decamped	Departed suddenly or secretly.
chorus	Term derives from Greek tragedy
chiuso	"closed" – calls for a horn to be muted by hand.
ieta	a small 7-stringed bow harp of the Baka forest people from southeast Cameroon
mock-heroic	treating something trivial with high seriousness, as in John Philips' The Splendid Shilling.
hyperbole	A statement where truth is exaggerated for effect
blank verse	Verse in iambic pentameter without rhyme scheme, often used in verse drama in the sixteenth century (Marlowe and Shakespeare) and later used for poetry (Milton, Wordsworths The Prelude, Browning).
altar	See Lord's Table.
four of a kind	A hand containing four cards of equal rank
stress	In linguistics, the emphasis, length and loudness that mark one syllable as more pronounced than another
take stage	director's request that an actor move into a more prominent position on stage; also that the actor needs to expend more energy in the scene
motif	below.
il est à souhaiter	(French) It's to be hoped
north light	In the northern hemisphere light emanating from the north is considered to have a diffused and even quality.
il peut faire mieux.	(French) He can do better.
multiple setting	Form of stage setting, common in the Middle Ages, in which several locations are represented at the same time; also called simultaneous setting
intemperance	Habitual or excessive consumption of alcohol
nit	A player who is unwilling to take risks and plays only premium hands in the top range
fable	A brief tale that teaches lessons about human nature
antonym	In lexical semantics, opposites are words that lie in an inherently incompatible binary relationship as in the opposite pairs male : female, long : short, up : down, and precede : follow
myth	a story that has been told and re-told for centuries and which seems rooted in universal human experiences that people want to re-experience in new forms again and again (your textbook describes myths as stories that are “more than true”).
disapprobation	Condemnation
cosmic irony	Another term for situational irony--especially situational irony connected to a fatalistic or pessimistic view of life
poetic license	the freedom to depart from correctness and grammaticality sometimes extended to poets by generous readers who believed that the poets knew better but needed such effects to be true to their subject.
raccoon	A poor player
call the clock	A method of discouraging players from taking an excessively long time to act
triad	A triad in simplest terms is defined as a "group of three".
troppo	too much; usually seen as non troppo, meaning moderately or, when combined with other terms, not too much, such as allegro [ma] non troppo (fast but not too fast)
custom	A technical term referring to an actually or nominally "traditional" Indian practice, as opposed to one set out by Canadian law
piyyut	Derived from the Greek word poietes (poet), piyyutim are liturgical hymns, composed from late antiquity onwards, to highlight items in the statutory liturgy for festivals and other special occasions.
sentimentalism	Showing too great interest in intense feelings.
cut	See main article: cut.
position	See main article: position.
uta	Another term for the Japanese genre of poetry also called a waka or tanka
tone	An author's attitude toward a subject
scene heading	A short description of the location and time of day of a scene, also known as a "slugline." For example: EXT
lyric poetry	characterized by the expression of the poets innermost feelings, thoughts, and imagination
prima volta	the first time; for example prima volta senza accompagnamento (the first time without accompaniment)
three pair	In a seven card game, such as seven-card stud or Texas hold 'em, it is possible for a player to have 3 pairs, although a player can only play two of them as part of a standard 5-card poker hand
surprise ending	The ending of a literary piece reveals a twist in the plot that is completely unexpected for the reader and comes therefore surprisingly.
dim.	dwindling; i.e., with gradually decreasing volume (same asdecrescendo)
pricking	A series of vertically aligned holes down each side of the parchment sheet between which the scribe ruled horizontal lines to aid his writing
cambiare	to change; i.e., any change, such as to a new instrument
sottie	In the Middle Ages, a short, satirical French farce.
free verse	Poetry based on the natural rhythms of phrases and normal pauses rather than the artificial constraints of metrical feet
stigma of print	The stigma of print is the concept that an informal social convention restricted the literary works of aristocrats in the Elizabethan and Tudor age to private and courtly audiences — as opposed to commercial endeavors — at the risk of social disgrace if violated, and which obliged the author to profess an abhorrence of the press and to restrict his works from publication
illuminare con uno spot	(Italian) to spotlight
slow play	See main article: slow play.
con sordino	"with the mute."
skeltonic verse	short, roughhewn lines in variable-length stanzas reusing a small number of rhymes, popularized by John Skelton.
impudente	(Spanish) impudent
hiatus	In phonology, hiatus or diaeresis refers to two vowel sounds occurring in adjacent syllables, with no intervening consonant
leonine verse	masculine ending, perfect rhyme, rhyme royal, slant rhyme, tail-rhyme, and triple rhyme.
lullaby	A lullaby is a soothing song, usually sung to young children before they go to sleep, with the intention of speeding that process
dal segno al coda	same as D.S
improve	To achieve a better hand than one currently holds by adding or exchanging cards as provided in the rules of the game being played
rake	See main article: rake
rhine	A river in Europe, flowing from Switzerland to the Netherlands, bordering Austria and Germany.
cliché	An expression or idea that has been used so often that everybody takes it for granted; near prejudice.
pectoral muscles	Any of the muscles which connect the ventral walls of the chest with the bones of the upper arm and shoulder.
renaissance	Raphael Holinshed, Edward Hall, and other chroniclers influenced Shakespeare
metaphor	an implied comparison of two apparently dissimilar things
cameos	Gems carved in relief
aube	A dawn-song or aubade, but specifically one sung by a friend watching over a pair of lovers until dawn to prevent any interruption to their love-making or to cover up the noise of the love-making
irato	"angrily"
norman invasion	Not to be confused with D-Day during World War II, medieval historians use this title for a much earlier invasion in 1066
dramatic irony	The situation when the audience knows something the characters don't, as in Shakespeare's Macbeth, when King Duncan remarks on his inability to judge character - while warmly greeting the man (Macbeth) we already know plans to assassinate him.
posteriori	Reasoning from observed facts.
carpe diem	Literally, the phrase is Latin for "seize the day," from carpere (to pluck, harvest, or grab) and the accusative form of die (day)
gvs	The abbreviation that linguists and scholars of English use to refer to the Great Vowel Shift
il seguente	(Italian) the following, the next
epitaph	A poem that sums up someones life, sometimes in praise (panegyric), sometimes in satire.
allargando	broadening, becoming a little slower
iglesia luterana	(Spanish f.) Lutheran Church
proverb	A proverb (from Latin: proverbium) is a simple and concrete saying popularly known and repeated, which expresses a truth, based on common sense or the practical experience of humanity
deciso	decisively
lost-wax casting	The origins of the lost-wax casting process are shrouded in antiquity, but it has been used for thousands of years to produce objects in metal which could not be produced any other way, due to the complexity of their form
chip	A small disk used in place of money
onomatopeia	an instance where the sound of a word directly imitates its meaning (for example, "choo-choo," "hiss"), sometimes termed echoism.
gentile	gently
zelosamente	zeal, zealous, zealously
satellite	A tournament in which the prize is a free entrance to another (larger) tournament.
plot action	the physical actions and story points that propel a story through to a climax and resolution.
idyllic	blissfully peaceful and happy, of or like an idyll
singlet	a one-syllable foot.
roman à clef	Roman à clef or roman à clé (French for novel with a key, is the term used for a novel describing real life, behind a façade of fiction
facile	easily, without fuss
slang	Level of language which is lower than colloquialism; it is the language of the gutter, the street, the market place
telestich	spelling out a word, a phrase, or name vertically in sequence down the last letters of verse lines in a poem
dead money	See main article: dead money.
il est clair.	(French) It's clear
black box	A flexible theater space named for its appearance.
omniscient narrator	He knows everything about the characters, their motives, their feelings (unlimited point of view); usually he also jumps in time and space, i.e
il più	(Italian m.) the most
staking	Staking is the act of one person putting up cash for a poker player to play with in hopes that the player wins
lag	A "loose aggressive" style of play in which a player plays a lot of starting hands and makes many small raises in hopes of out-playing his opponents.
beat	(1) the pronounced rhythm of music; (2) one single stroke of a rhythmicaccent
double-draw	Any of several Draw poker games in which the draw phase and subsequent betting round are repeated twice.
big blind special	A hand won by the big blind playing very weak pocket cards because there was no raise pre-flop.
tautology	a statement redundant in itself, such as "The stars, O astral bodies!"
soft-play	To intentionally go easy on a player (e.g
melancolico	"melancholic"
ubi sunt	Ubi sunt (literally "where are...") is a phrase taken from the Latin Ubi sunt qui ante nos fuerunt?, meaning "Where are those who were before us?"
danegeld	The practice of paying extortion money to
ring game	See main article: ring game.
carpe diem	The Latin phrase meaning "seize the day." This is a very common literary theme, especially in lyric poetry, which emphasizes that life is short, time is fleeting, and that one should make the most of present pleasures
ad libitum	In accordance with desire.
resolution	The sorting out or unraveling of a plot at the end of a play, novel, or story
glyconic	a Greek and Roman metre that consists of a spondee, a choriamb, and an iamb / ' ' / ' ~ ~ ' / ~ ' / .
rubato	flexibility of tempo, within a musical phrase, for expressive effect.
episteme	Episteme, as distinguished from techne, is etymologically derived from the Greek word ἐπιστήμη for knowledge or science, which comes from the verb ἐπίσταμαι, "to know".
unities	Term referring to the rule that a play should occur within one day (unity of time), in one place (unity of place), and with no action irrelevant to the plot (unity of action)
sanft	"gently" (Ger.)
antimasque	grotesque parodies of masques, usually involving monstrous figures.
rhythm	is the beat or pattern of stressed and unstressed lines. We will try to identify patterns this year. For example, read the following lines out loud. The pattern is shown under the words
hovering stress	A metrical accent that could be placed equally well on either of two adjacent syllables so that it seems to hover between them.
archetypal criticism	The analysis of a piece of literature through the examination of archetypes and archetypal patterns in Jungian psychology
climax	The climax (from the Greek word "κλῖμαξ" (klimax) meaning "staircase" and "ladder") or turning point of a narrative work is its point of highest tension or drama or when the action starts in which the solution is given.
middle pair	In a community card game, making a pair with neither the highest nor lowest card of the community cards
ottava rima	an Italian stanza of eight 11-syllable lines, with the rhyme scheme abababcc, introduced by Sir Thomas Wyatt and by W
spasmodic school	P
tract	A tract is a literary work, and in current usage, usually religious in nature
idem quod	(Latin) the same as
ievina	Latvian accordion
street	A street is another term for a dealt card or betting round, e.g
mystery play	Mystery plays and Miracle plays (which are two different things) are among the earliest formally developed plays in medieval Europe
tre corde	(tc; sometimes inaccurately tre corda) literally "three strings"; an instruction to release the soft pedal (in piano music)
parterre	In French neoclassical theater, the pit where audience members stood.
imitatio invertibilis	(Latin) invertible imitation, imitation in double counterpoint
moto	"Motion." Usually seen as "con moto," meaning "with motion" or "quickly."
derision	The use of ridicule or scorn to show contempt."...By pouring their derision upon anything we did And exposing every weakness however carefully hidden by the kids." -Pink Floyd
legend	A story in which fact and fiction are intermingling, handed down orally from one generation to the next, about a hero / heroine, e.g
xerxes	The king of Persia (486-465), invaded Greece by bridging Hellespont
storm and stress	An antineoclassical movement in eighteenth-century Germany which was a forerunner of romanticism.
o.s.	Abbreviation for Off Screen, denoting that the speaker is not resident within the scene.
bouts rimés	a French name, meaning "rhymed ends," for a popular 18th-century game where poems had to be built around previously selected rhymes
arête	[Excellence and virtue.] The Greek term
k'unshan play	a highly stylized one-act play from the Ming Dynasty, 1368-1644
cognate	A word related to one in another language, such as theater (English) and theatre (French)
quiescence	Inactivity, repose, tranquility.
outside straight draw	See main article: outside straight draw
sanctimonious	having a "holier-than-thou" attitude; excessively or hypocritically pious.
bretons	romance, and courtly love.
scene	Action taking place in one location and in a distinct time that (hopefully) moves the story to the next element of the story.
victorian	verse written in the reign of Victoria, from 1837 to 1903.
ourang-outang	The modern spelling is orangutan
pass	A rejection of a property by a potential producer or an agent.
rhyme	alliteration
acrid	Sharp and harsh or unpleasantly pungent in taste or odor.
igba	short Nigerian peg-tuned drum with the head made out of antelope skin
super satellite	A multi-table poker tournament in which the prize is a free entrance to a satellite tournament or a tournament in which all the top finishers gain entrance to a larger tournament.
identificare con	(Italian) to identify with
zohar	The Zohar ("splendour, radiance") is considered the most important product of Kabbalah
egregious	Obviously bad
movie of the week	Also known as an "MOW," a movie made primarily for broadcast on a television or cable network.
image plane	the plane at right angles to the optical axis at the image point
theater of the absurd	Term first used by Martin Esslin to describe the works of certain playwrights of the 1950s and 1960s who expressed a similar point of view regarding the absurdity of the human condition
option	The securing of the rights to a screenplay for a given length of time.
bocca chiusa	with closed mouth
trade books	Books published for a general readership rather than specifically for the classroom
espr.	expressively
miniature	The word miniature, derived from the Latin minium, for red lead, refers to a picture in an ancient or medieval manuscript; the simple decoration of the early codices having been miniated or delineated with that pigment.
gustoso	"gusto";
trouvère	Trouvère (is the Northern French (langue d'oïl) form of the word trobador (as spelled in the langue d'oc)
trimeter	three feet; sometimes termed tripody, a triple foot, one measure made up of three feet
pot-committed	More often in the context of a no limit game; the situation where you can no longer fold because the size of the pot is so large compared to the size of your stack.
free card	A card dealt to one's hand (or to the board of community cards) after a betting round in which no player opened
visual effect	a special visual technique used to enhance storytelling (such as computer animation, slow motion, or time-lapse photography).
dystopia	See utopia
occiput	The back part of the head or skull.
gather	Gather, gatherer, or gathering may refer to:
il m'incombe de	(French) It falls to me to
gallery	In traditional proscenium-arch theaters, the undivided seating area cut into the walls of the building.
foredoomed	A fancy way to say "doomed".
intermission	A break between acts or scenes of the play to allow for set changes, and for the audience to go to the bathroom, stretch and buy concessions.
bank	Also called the house, the person responsible for distributing chips, keeping track of the buy-ins, and paying winners at the end of the game.
arioso	"airy"
trimeter	In poetry, a trimeter is a metre of three metrical feet per line—example:
golden age of greece	The period around 400-499 BCE, when Athens was at its height of prestige, wealth, and military power
tormentor	flats or drapes at the sides of the proscenium arch that may be used to alter the with of the stage opening
image	A concrete representation of a sense impression, a feeling, or an idea
rondel	roundelay, villanelle.
flop	The dealing of the first three face-up cards to the board, or to those three cards themselves
film festival	A festival of short and/or feature-length films shown over the course of between a few days to a few weeks
hendecasyllable	The hendecasyllable is a verse of eleven syllables, used in Ancient Greek and Latin quantitative verse as well as in medieval and modern European poetry.
blues	oral black American folk or popular melancholic songs of the early twentieth century.
imitative	see 'imitation'
cancel	A bibliographical term referring to a leaf which is substituted for one removed by the printers because of an error
impeto	(Italian m.) impetus, impetuosity, vehemence
asteismus	A sub-category of puns
ich grolle nicht	(German) I bear no grudge, I do not complain
antistrophe	See discussion under
royal cards	Royal card are also known as face cards or picture cards
wolno	A Polish word meaning "loose" or "slowly"
theatricalism	Style of production and playwriting which emphasizes theatricality for its own sake
improvisatie	(Dutch) improvisation
travesty	a work that deflates something that is treated by another work with high seriousness.
rheumatism	Any of various conditions characterized by inflammation or pain in muscles, joints, or fibrous tissue; rheumatoid arthritis.
virtuoso	One skilled in the fine arts, in antiquities, and the like; a collector or ardent admirer of curiosities, etc
rail	The rail is the sideline at a poker table—the (often imaginary) rail separating spectators from the field of play
precipitato	"precipitately."
il est normal	(French) It's normal
tenuto	held; i.e., touch on a note slightly longer than usual, but without generally altering the note's value
eschew	To avoid or shun, especially on moral or practical grounds.
roundelay	a lyric poems with a refrain.
cadaverously	Like a cadaver or a corpse.
foolscap	A size of paper formerly standard in Great Britain, measuring 17.2 cm x 21.6 cm, or simply a piece of writing paper.
syntax	the ordering of words in a sentence
death watches	Deathwatch beetles
limerick	a fixed verse form appearing first in The History of Sixteen Wonderful Old Women (1820), popularized by Edward Lear, and rhyming aabba, where a-lines have five feet and the b-lines three feet, and where the first and last lines end with the same word (a practice dropped in the 20th century)
il est faux	(French) It's false
affettuoso	"tenderly".
perdendosi	dying away
catch perfect	To catch the only two possible cards that will complete a hand and win the pot, usually those leading to a straight flush
comedy of the absurd	Comedy of Humors, and Comedy of Manners.
lyric poem	a short poem that has a deeply personal theme
improvvisata	(Italian) an agreeable surprise
blocking	The specific staging of a play's movements, ordinarily by the director
shakespearian sonnet	The most popular form in English is the English or Shakespearian Sonnet
o.c.	Abbreviation for Off Camera, denoting that the speaker is resident within the scene but not seen by the camera.
tagelied	The Tagelied (dawn song) is a particular form of mediaeval German language lyric, taken and adapted from the Provençal troubadour tradition (in which it was known as the alba) by the German Minnesinger
sharpers	Swindlers, cheating gamblers.
impureza	(Spanish f.) impurity
da capo	from beginning.
stanza	a section of a poem with lines grouped together
iglesia episcopal	(Spanish f.) Episcopal Church
coloratura	"coloration" – Elaborate ornamentation of a vocal line.
antepenultima	the second last word of a line, or the second last syllable of a word.
paraphrase	Paraphrase is restatement of a text or passages, using other words
strategy	A systematic plan, consciously adapted and monitored, to improve one's performance in learning
laconic	Using or involving the use of a minimum of words; concise to the point of seeming rude or mysterious.
idillio	(Italian m.) idyll, an ecologue, a short poem in a pastoral style
archipelago	A group of islands.
dithyramb	A Greek religious rite in which a chorus of fifty men, dressed in goatskins, chanted and danced; the precursor, according to Aristotle, of Greek tragedy.
closet drama	A play that is written to be read rather than performed onstage
exact rhyme	Exact rhyme or perfect rhyme is rhyming two words in which both the consonant sounds and vowel sounds match to create a rhyme
drama	scrim.
prologue	(1) In original Greek tragedy, the prologue was either the action or a set of introductory speeches before the first entry (
tenuto	"held" – an instruction to touch on a note slightly longer than usual, but without generally altering the note's value.
poetic diction	See Diction.
diderot's paradox	the ability of an actor to exhibit extreme emotion while maintaining an inner control that allows for the successful artistic creation of the emotion; named for the eighteenth-century French philosopher and playwright, Denis Diderot.
nobile	"in a noble fashion".
maqama	Picaresque Arabic stories in rhymed prose
short stack	A stack of chips that is relatively small for the stakes being played
liturgical drama	Dramatic material that was written into the official Catholic Church liturgy and staged as part of regular church services in the medieval period, mainly in the tenth through twelfth centuries.
euphony	a pleasing harmony of sounds.
motif	In narrative, a motif (pronunciation) (help·info) is any recurring element that has symbolic significance in a story
fuoco	"fire"; "con fuoco" means "with fire."
allegory	an extended metaphor
fortnight	Two weeks.
cyclorama	Large curved drop used to mask the rear and sides of the stage; painted a neutral color or blue to represent sky or open space
imam	(Arabic) a Moslem priest, a title given to the Caliph and certain other Moslem leaders
flat	A wooden frame covered in fabric or a hard surface and then painted, often to resemble a wall or portion of a wall
envoy	below.
flebile	mournfully
scènes à faire	Scène à faire (French for "scene to be made" or "scene that must be done"; plural: scènes à faire) is a scene in a book or film which is almost obligatory for a genre of its type
hendecasyllabic	a Classical Greek and Latin metrical line consisting of eleven syllables, a spondee or trochee, a choriamb, and two iambs, the second of which has an additional syllable at the end / ' ' / ' ~ ~ ' / ~ ' / ~ ' /.
allegory	a play in which symbolic fictional characters portray truths or generalizations about human existence; medieval morality plays were allegories, as is Dickens's famous story A Christmas Carol.
sacra rappresentazioni	"Sacred representations": in the late Middle Ages and early Renaissance, Italian religious dramas in medieval style, based on biblical stories and lives of saints.
lusingando	"coaxingly"
incubus	A nightmare
sunder	To sever
shark	A professional player
im bedarfsfalle	(German) in case of need
provincialists	A native or inhabitant of a province.
epigraph	a quotation, taken from another literary work, that is placed at the start of a poem under the title
spurious	False
tag line	final line of a scene or act, or the exit line of a major character
trestle	the framework used to support a platform
im alter	(German) in old age
immer mit sord.	(German) always muted
bounty	An aspect of some poker tournaments that rewards players for eliminating other players with a cash prize for each player they eliminate, separate from the tournament payout structure
sell	In spread limit poker, to sell a hand is to bet less than the maximum with a strong hand, in the hope that more of your opponents will call the bet.
anthology	An anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler
tetralogy	Four plays performed together in sequence
connotation	The linguistic term used for the associations which may be usually evoked by the word, or which may be evoked by a specific context, as opposed to the literal sense of a word or its strict dictionary definition which is called its denotation.
episodic drama	Dramatic structure—extremely popular in the English Renaissance and the Spanish golden age—in which the dramatic action begins early in the story
lyric	short poem in which the poet, the poet's persona, or a speaker expresses personal feelings, and often addressed to the reader (originally, a poem sung to a lyre).
coup de théâtre	French for "stroke of theater"; either a sudden sensational turn in a play (e.g., when the screen falls in The School for Scandal) or a spectacular moment that stops the show (e.g., the ascension of Mephistopholes and Grizabella in Cats).
steal	See main article: steal.
bretons	The Celtic inhabitants of Brittany ("Little Britain") in northeast France who speak the Breton language
emblem book	Emblem books are a category of illustrated book printed in Europe during the 16th and 17th centuries, typically containing a number of emblematic images with explanatory text.
ellipsis	A writer´s technique of leaving out words intentionally which would give the full meaning of the phrase or line
wild card	See main article: wild card
ilathalam	see elathalam
flebile	"mournfully"
trombone	the lever on a follow spot that allows the operator to make the beam larger or smaller
stanza	A group of two or more lines of poetry
exit / exuent	Common Latin
curtain line	1
satyr	A mythological Greek creature, half man and half goat, who attended Dionysus and represented male sexuality and drunken revelry; goatskin-clad followers of Dionysus who served as the chorus of the satyr play.
novella	An extended fictional prose narrative that is longer than a short story, but not quite as long as a
eight or better	A common qualifier in High-low split games that use Ace-5 ranking
lyrics	The words that are sung by characters in a musical.
versification	Literally, the making of verse, the term is often used as another name for prosody
churchwardens	Every parish has two churchwardens, who are senior laity elected annually at a meeting of electors, who are those who live within the parish or are on the Electoral Roll of the parish church. They are, ex officio, members of the Parochial Church Council and of its Standing Committee. Their duties are covered in the Churchwardens' Measure 2001.
antithesis	Antithesis (Greek for "setting opposite", from ἀντί "against" + θέσις "position") is a counter-proposition and denotes a direct contrast to the original proposition
associate artistic director	An artistic officer of a theater company, frequently a director and often second to the Artistic Director, integrally involved with its artistic decisions.
mise en scène	Mise-en-scène (French: "placing on stage") is an expression used to describe the design aspects of a theatre or film production, which essentially means "visual theme" or "telling a story" —both in visually artful ways through storyboarding, cinematography and stage design, and in poetically artful ways through direction
heroic couplet	Two successive rhyming lines of iambic pentameter
imitatio interrupta	(Latin) interrupted imitation, one of the rhythmic proportions of imitation
historical linguistics	Historical linguistics (also called diachronic linguistics) is the study of language change
juxtaposition - contrast	In semantics, contrast is a relationship between two discourse segments
screening	The showing of a film for test audiences and/or people involved in the making of the movie.
paradox	A seemingly self-contradictory and therefore absurd and senseless statement; sometimes, however, a paradox can contain some universal and important truth which is revealed on second thought.
subito	"suddenly."
piangevole	"plaintive"; in the style of a lament.
poetic diction	Distinctive language used by poets, i.e., language that would not be common in their everyday speech
universal symbol	Another term for an
dream vision	above.
synthesize	To examine, closely study, and evaluate how individual text elements work together as a whole by combining the knowledge of one text element to the analysis of an additional element.
madrigal	an Italian short poem or part song suitable for singing by three or more voices, first appearing in England in the anthology Musica Transalpina
heptameter	seven feet, a measure made up of seven feet (fourteeners)
immer springend. bog.	(German) always spiccato
soiree	(swa-ray) A party or reception held in the evening.
musical comedy	A popular form of twentieth-century theatre, with singing and dancing, designed primarily for entertainment.
classification	Classification is a figure of speech linking a proper noun to a common noun using the or other articles.
focoso	"passionately"
synonym	A word that has a meaning identical with, or very similar to, another word in the same language (i.e., right/correct)
transition words and phrases	Words or phrases that signal a change from one idea to another
designer	an artist who designs some element of the look or sound of a film (such as set design, light design, costume design, sound design, etc.)
pastiche	work patched together from excerpts of other writers, or from passages clearly recognizable as imitating others.
adagio	"slow."
to go	The amount that a player is required to call in order to stay in the hand, "Alice was deciding whether to call now it was $50 to go."
deus ex machina	Literally, "god from a machine." In ancient Greek theater, the convention of bringing in gods on a mechane—that is, a crane or lever suspended from the top of the scene house
truss	a horizontal gridwork structure that is suspended from the ceiling or held up by towers on either end; designed to hold lighting instruments; standard equipment for larger industrial shows or rock-and roll concerts
phonolexis	a term coined by Philip Davies Roberts to describe "meaning conveyed through phonemic connotation limited to speakers of a particular language" (How Poetry Works: The Elements of English Poetry [Penguin, 1986]: 53-54)
blind stud	A stud poker game in which all cards are dealt face down
apostrophe	Apostrophe (Greek ἀποστροφή, apostrophé, "turning away"; the final e being sounded) is an exclamatory rhetorical figure of speech, when a speaker or writer breaks off and directs speech to an imaginary person or abstract quality or idea
ptolemy hephestion	Apparently this person does not exist."..
submission	Name for a script once it is submitted to producers or agents.
accelerando	gradually increasing the tempo; "accelerating".
spiritoso	"spiritedly."
speaker	The voice which speaks to the reader / listener in a piece of verse (not necessarily identical with the poet).
attacca	attack, or go on; i.e., at the end of a movement, a direction to begin (attack) the next movement immediately, without a gap or pause
hesper	The Hesperides were the Greek goddesses of evening or sunset
conflict	the opposition of forces
hibbut ha-kever	Literally "thrashing in the grave" it is a cabbalistic text on means of punishment inflicted by angels in order to exempt the deceased from further purgatory.
dark	An action taken before receiving information to which the player would normally be entitled
laws of hospitality	Called
unity of effect	In his review of Nathaniel Hawthorne´s Twice-Told Tales the famous short story writer Edgar Allan Poe demanded that in a short story every word, sentence or incident must serve to bring about a "certain single effect"
hyperbaton	anastrophe, hysteron-proteron, and catachresis.
offstage	Areas of the stage, usually in the wings, which are not in view of the audience.
syntax	Refers to the order in which words are placed
bon ton	Fashionable manner or style
final table	The last table in a multi-table poker tournament
context clue	Information surrounding a word or phrase (i.e., words, phrases, sentences, or syntax) that gives clues to its meaning
dissemble	Hide under a false appearance.
antechamber	Hall, lobby, reception room.
alojero	In corrales, the theaters of the Spanish golden age, a box from which refreshments—food and drinks—were sold.
triplet	a three-syllable foot, or a three-line stanza, with a single rhyme
mise-en-scène	Arrangement of all the elements in a stage picture, either at a given moment or dynamically throughout a performance.
figures of speech	Words or groups of words the writer doesn't mean literally, such as similes (thin as a reed), metaphors (traffic is a high energy current jumping constantly between the poles of Brooklyn and New Jersey), and personification (the very skins of the drums are singing with pleasure)
float	Calling a bet with the intention of bluffing on a later betting round
ibo	a Caribbean dance rhythm that belongs to the group of faster Haitian merengues
sinciput	The forehead, or the upper half of the skull.
neologism	blending, and kenning.
educed	Brought out
masorah	The Hebrew Bible was originally written without full indication of the vowelling of the consonantal text, this being preserved by oral tradition
metaphorical language	Metaphorical language is the use of a complex system of metaphors to create a sub-language within a common language which provides the basic terms (verbs, prepositions, conjunctions) to express metaphors.
ext.	Outdoors.
axiom	A statement accepted as true as the basis for argument or inference
prestissimo	extremely quickly, as fast as possible
glissando	a continuous sliding from one pitch to another (a "true" glissando), or an incidental scale played while moving from one melodic note to another (an "effective" glissando)
maniac	A very loose and aggressive player, who bets and raises frequently, and often in situations where it is not good strategy to do so
alla marcia	in the style of a march
spread	The range between a table's minimum and maximum bets.
absurdity	a theatre-of-the-absurd play, often using comedic elements in a nihilistic vein, that is, denying the existence of any basis for knowledge or truth
il est temps que	(French) It's time that
ich dien	(archaic German) 'I serve' (the motto of the Prince of Wales)
acephalous	From Greek "headless," acephalous lines are lines in normal iambic pentameter that contain only nine syllables rather than the expected ten
allegretto	"a little lively," or "moderately fast."
scene	(1) The period of stage time representing a single space over a continuous period of time, now usually marked either by the rise or fall of a curtain or by the raising or lowering of lights but in the past often marked simply by a stage clearing; often the subdivision of an act
beast fable	The beast fable or beast epic, usually a short story or poem in which animals talk, is a traditional form of allegorical writing
trap	See slow play.
backdrop	Large drapery or painted canvas which provides the rear or upstage masking of a set.
prosody	see Metre.
coffee housing	Talking in an attempt to mislead other players about the strength of a hand
grand guignol	Le Théâtre du Grand-Guignol (French: "The Theater of the Big Puppet") — known as the Grand Guignol — was in the Pigalle area of Paris (at 20 bis, rue Chaptal)
wash	To mix the deck by spreading the cards face down on the table and mixing them up
voiceover narration	a narration heard over the images of a scene.
simile	similarly; i.e., continue applying the preceding directive, whatever it was, to the following passage
irato	angrily
il est étonnant	(French) It's amazing
improvvisamente	(Italian) extemporaneously, suddenly, unexpectedly
catalogue verse	poems with lists that perform an encyclopedic purpose, lending high seriousness to a topic
scribe	A literate individual who reproduces the works of other authors by copying them from older texts or from a dictating author
con amor	with love, tenderly
tone	the poet's attitude to the poem's subject as the reader interprets that, sometimes through the tone of the persona or speaker (who may feel quite differently).
twins of leda	In Greek mythology, Castor and Pollux were twins born of Leda and fathered by Zeus, who disguised himself as a swan and seduced her
bivalve	Having a shell composed of two valves
characterization	Characterisation or characterization is the process of conveying information about characters in narrative or dramatic works of art or everyday conversation
ruritanian romance	A Ruritanian Romance is a story set in a fictional country, usually in Central or Eastern Europe, such as the Ruritania that gave the genre its name
illustrer	(French) to illustrate
iban agarrados del brazo	(Spanish) they were walking along arm in arm
antiphon	a sacred poem with responses or alternative parts.
discordantly	In disagreement with, conflicted.
holograph	A holograph is a document written entirely in the handwriting of the person whose signature it bears
calore	warmth; so con calore, warmly
menippean satire	The genre of Menippean satire is a form of satire, usually in prose, which has a length and structure similar to a novel and is characterized by attacking mental attitudes instead of specific individuals
closed couplet	An end-stopped, rhymed couplet that contains a complete thought
right	On stage, the actors' right, assuming they are facing the audience
allegory	A pattern of reference in the work which evokes a parallel action of abstract ideas
asemic writing	Asemic writing is a wordless open semantic form of writing
tilt	Emotional upset, mental confusion, or frustration in which a player adopts a less than optimal strategy, usually resulting in poor play and poor performance
scaena	In Roman theater, the stage house.
gaudioso	with joy
denotation	Literal meaning of a word
bisbigliando	"whispering" – a special tremolo effect on the harp where a chord or note is rapidly repeated at a low volume.
immer langsamer	(German) slower and slower
analogy	The invocation of a similar but different instance to that which is being represented, in order to bring out its salient features through the comparison.
iambic trimeter	a Classical Greek and Latin metre with six iambic feet (also known in English as the Alexandrine).
oral history	Reports from people who experienced a certain historical time themselves; recordings are made from interviews, and later on these recordings are printed
andantino	slightly faster than andante.
half-rhyme	See inexact rhyme.
ossia	Denotes an alternative way of performing a passage often notated with a footnote, additional small notes, or an additional staff.
positivism	In theater history, the idea that history can be chronicled objectively and explained logically.
full bet rule	In some casinos, the rule that a player must wager the full amount required in order for his action to constitute a raise
curvature	If a manuscript is photographed when in its binding, inward curvature at the spine produces a distorted image
spfx	Abbreviation for Special Effects.
facile	"easily"
juxtaposition	The act or an instance of placing two or more things side by side.
internal rhyme	see rhyme.
analyzed rhyme	Another term for inexact rhyme
extended metaphor	An extended metaphor, also called a conceit, is a metaphor that continues into the sentences that follow
bachic meter	Poetry in which each foot is a three-syllable foot consisting of three heavy stresses
il medesimo tempo	(Italian m.) the same time
apothegm	An adage (pronounced /ˈædɨdʒ/), or adagium (Latin), is a short but memorable saying which holds some important fact of experience that is considered true by many people, or that has gained some credibility through its long use
unity	The state of being one complete whole.
vittorioso	"victoriously"
masque	Lavish form of private theatrical entertainment which developed in Renaissance Italy and spread rapidly to the courts of France and England
homeric	Relating to, or characteristic of the Greek poet Homer, author of the Iliad and Odyssey.
alter-ego	a substitute “self” for a writer, usually a protagonist in the writer’s story.
alliteration	the repetition of initial consonant sounds in words close together (e.g
journalism	Writing for newspapers.
anaphora	In rhetoric, an anaphora (Greek: ἀναφορά, "carrying back") is a rhetorical device that consists of repeating a sequence of words at the beginnings of neighboring clauses, thereby lending them emphasis
personification	an anthropomorphic figure of speech where the poet describes an abstraction, a thing, or a non-human form as if it were a person
call	To match a bet or raise
romance	long narrative poems in French about courtly culture and secret love that triumphed in English with poems such as Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Chaucer's The Knight's Tale and Troilus and Criseyde.
immer bewegter	(German) still moving more (i.e
central meaning	In a formal analysis of a novel, short story etc
blank verse	Blank verse is a type of poetry, distinguished by having a regular meter, but no rhyme
verso	See discussion under quarto or examine this chart.
ananke-	Greek term for "necessity" or "that which has to be;" ananke was the force in the universe that kept "the natural order of things."
novelist	The writer of novels.
understatement	The opposite of hyperbole, understatement (or litotes) refers to a figure of speech that says less than is intended
taburetes	In the Spanish golden age, a row of stools or a few benches at the front of the patio (pit) of a corral, near the stage.
harrison ainsworth	William Harrison Ainsworth (1805-1882) was a British historical novelist
story of initiation	See initiation.
zarzuela	In the Spanish golden age, a court entertainment; usually, a short, stylized musical drama based on mythology and with ornate scenic effects, influenced by Italian opera and intermezzi.
against	A term describing the ultimate potential payday for a writer in a film deal
disconsolate	Downcast, dejected, cheerless.
virelay	a medieval French poetic form, consisting of short lines in stanzas with only two rhymes, where the final rhyme of one stanza becomes the main rhyme of the next.
in modo di	in the art of, in the style of
sunda islands	The Lesser Sunda Islands are a number of smaller islands between 800 and 1200 miles east of Jakarta (formerly Batavia), Indonesia.
overpair	In community card games such as Texas hold 'em and Omaha hold 'em, a pocket pair with a higher rank than any community card.
benefice	One of those words loved by the lawyers that are difficult to define. The Shorter Oxford Dictionary says "an ecclesiastical tenure", whatever that may mean. For our purposes it may do to say that it relates to all that an incumbent accepts on his appointment to a parish – any endowments, the cure of souls in the parish, the freehold, the occupation of the clergy residence, be it vicarage or rectory. It used to include tithes when they were payable to an incumbent.
poi	"then," indicating a subsequent instruction in a sequence; diminuendo poi subito fortissimo, for example: "getting softer then suddenly very loud."
romantic farce	a broad comedy blending incongruous situations with lightly treated love
prolepsis	anticipation.
cravat	A necktie
verse	A general word for all kinds of poetry
head and tail bands	Ornamental bands at the head and tail of a book, sewn between the book block and the spine covering
heroic quatrain	Like an Heroic Couplet but a group of four lines rhymed a b a b.
skene	The Greek stagehouse (and root word of our scene)
theater of cruelty	Antonin Artaud's visionary concept of theater based on magic and ritual which would liberate deep, violent, erotic impulses
immutabilis	(Latin) one of the accentus ecclesiastici
exact rhyme	above and slant rhyme, below.
mythology	A system of stories about the gods, often explicitly religious in nature, that were once believed to be true by a specific cultural group, but may no longer be believed as literally true by their descendents
aphesis	the omission of the initial syllable of a word
concetti	set comic speeches by actors in the commedia dell'arte; for example, the Capitano's concetti might include boastful descriptions of his military prowess.
modern english	The English language as spoken between about 1450 and the modern day
improvise	(French) extemporaneous
rag	A low-valued (and presumably worthless) card
forte	usually marked with f: to be played or sung loudly
imagery	hyperbole
verbal irony	See discussion under irony, above.
dominus	Leader of a Roman acting troupe.
dystopia	See utopia.
mobile	"flexible", "changeable"
dramaturge	A specialist in dramatic construction and the body of dramatic literature; a scientist of the art of drama
horticulturist	A person who specializes in the art of growing fruits, vegetables, flowers, or ornamental plants.
ililta	in the Horn of Africa, ululation performed by worshippers at services in the Ethiopian Orthodox and Eritrean Orthodox rites
five of a kind	A hand possible only in games with wild cards, or a game with more than one deck, defeating all other hands, comprising five cards of equal rank.
charlatanerie	One making usually showy pretenses to knowledge or ability
gimlet	A small tool with a screw point, grooved shank, and cross handle for boring holes.
symbolist movement	late 19th-century French writers, including Mallarmé and Valéry, whose verse dealt with transcendental phenomena or with images and actions whose meaning was associative rather than referential.
document	A paper or record, especially an official one
illustrazione	(Italian f.) illustration
marcato	play every note as though it is accented.
ossification	The natural process of bone formation; the hardening (as of muscular tissue) into a bony substance; a mass or particle of ossified tissue.
fourth-wall convention	Pretense that in a proscenium-arch theater the audience is looking into a room through an invisible fourth wall
expressionism	a movement in drama which emphasizes subjectivity of perception
overstatement	See Hyperbole.
medieval theatre	Medieval theatre refers to the theatre of Europe between the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the beginning of the Renaissance
short play	See one-act play.
fantasy	An imaginative work that has nothing whatsoever to do with reality.
primo	"first."
imagery	The use of description, figures of speech and pictures to create ideas and feelings.
il est temps de	(French) It's time to
il est triste	(French) It's sad
dramatic irony	See Irony.
idm	see 'Intelligent dance music'
libero	"(I) liberate"
stage directions	Scene descriptions, blocking instructions, and general directorial comments written, usually by the playwright, in the script.
plot	The unified structure of incidents in a literary work
tremolo	a rapid repetition of the same note, or an alternation between two or more notes
window card	An upcard in stud poker
liturgical drama	Liturgical drama or religious drama, in its various Christian contexts, originates from the mass itself, and usually presents a relatively complex ritual that includes theatrical elements.
stave	Another term for stanza
il est surprenant	(French) It's surprising
abbreviations	shortcuts used in scripts such V.O., O.C.
realism	Literary period when writers tried to portray characters, events, situations, and social conditions as they really were.
tone	Tone can be conveyed by a poet’s choice of words or by the poem’s rhythm
proscenium arch	An arch framing the stage which separates the actors and audience.
theme	central ideas or thoughts of a play that synthesize the audience's experiences
prose poem	continuous, non-end-stopped writing that has other traits of poetry and is, from its context, associated with poems.
improv	an abbreviation of 'improvisation', used in jazz to describe the improvisational section of a work
comedy of manners	A comic drama consisting of five or three acts in which the attitudes and customs of a society are critiqued and satirized according to high standards of intellect and morality
con fuoco	with fire, in a fiery manner
epic simile	extended comparison or cluster of similes or metaphors.
historical novel	According to Encyclopædia Britannica, a historical novel is: "a novel that has as its setting a period of history and that attempts to convey the spirit, manners, and social conditions of a past age with realistic detail and fidelity (which is in some cases only apparent fidelity) to historical fact
zibaldoni	In the Italian Renaissance, manuscripts compiled by actors in commedia dell'arte, containing jokes, comic business, and repeated scenes and speeches; some of these manuscripts survive today.
manumitted	To let go, send; To release from slavery.
double suited	An Omaha hold 'em starting hand where two pairs of suited cards are held, e.g
carpe diem	A poem advising someone to Seize the day
ambiguity	Device which is used deliberately by an author: a word or phrase which may have two or more relevant meanings
enfatico	"emphatically"
iberian organ	the great majority of instruments that had only one manual employed 'divided registers'
maker	a medieval and early Renaissance term for `poet.'
dolente	sorrowfully, plaintively
symbol	Something representing something else.
anapodoton	Deliberately creating a sentence fragment by the omission of a clause: "If only you came with me!" If only students knew what anapodoton was! Good writers never use sentence fragments? Ah, but they can
top billing	the star of the show whose name is most prominent on the marquee and at the top of the playbill
bufo cubano	Cuban versions of the minstrel show.
professional recommendation	A method of submission in which a writer may submit a full script if it's accompanied by a theater professional (typically a literary manager or artistic director, though sometimes a director is acceptable as well).
mano destra	[played with the] right hand (abbreviation: MD).
imbarcazione da diporto	(Italian f.) pleasure craft
peer-reviewed journal	Also called a
mezzo	half; used in combinations like mezzo forte (mf), meaning moderately loud
poop	A deck raised over the after part of the spar deck
upcard	A card that is played face up
hijack seat	The seat to the right of the cutoff seat, or second to the right of the button.
simile	An explicit comparison
gnomic poetry	Gnomic poetry consists of sententious maxims put into verse to aid the memory
tie lines	small cotton lines used to attach drapes and drops to battens
chant royale	a complex French form of the ballade, having various forms.
underfull	A full house made where the three of a kind has lower-ranking cards than the pair
vivo	lively
ossia	or instead; i.e., according to some specified alternative way of performing a passage, which is marked with a footnote, additional small notes, or an additional staff
genre	Literary genres, categories or types are the short story, novel, novella, poem, and so on.
conceit	a complicated intellectual metaphor
churchwardens	Every parish has two churchwardens, who are senior laity
bruscamente	"brusquely".
eye-rhyme	At the end of the lines in poetry there may be words which are spelt alike but pronounced differently, like in Wordsworth´s Composed upon Westminster Bridge the words "by" and "majesty": an imperfect rhyme.
comparison	See simile
plot	The events of the play, expressed as a series of linked dramatic actions; more generally, and in common terms, the story of the play
persona	A personality, in the word's everyday usage, is a social role or a character played by an actor
stanza	A group of two (couplet) or more lines in a poem
georgian poetry	Georgian Poetry was the title of a series of anthologies showcasing the work of a school of English poetry that established itself during the early years of the reign of King George V of the United Kingdom.
multiculturalism	In theater history, an approach focusing on diverse cultural, social, and ethnic groups that have traditionally been underrepresented.
iambic	The most common metrical foot in English poetry a foot of two syllables, with a weak stress followed by a strong.
magic if	Stanislavski's acting exercise which requires the actor to ask, "How would I react if I were in this character's position?"
anglican communion	The worldwide group of churches in communion with one another and, in particular, with Canterbury; all have a historical link with the Church of England, the Church of Ireland or the Scottish Episcopal Church. They accept fully the Lambeth Quadrilateral and look to the Archbishop of Canterbury as the senior bishop within the worldwide communion. All such churches uphold the Lambeth Quadrilateral.
pageant master	In the Middle Ages, a professional stage manager who oversaw the production of a cycle of mystery plays.
ephemeron	Something short-lived or of no lasting significance.
symposium	A social gathering at which there is free interchange of ideas
private symbol	In contrast with an archetype (universal symbol), a private symbol is one that an individual artist arbitrarily assigns a personal meaning to
consonance	repetition of final consonant sounds in words close together (short and sweet, struts and frets)
coda	Closing section of a movement.
theatricalist	A style of contemporary theatre that boldly exploits the theatre itself and calls attention to the theatrical contexts of the play being performed
silenzio	silence; i.e., without reverberations
agile	"swiftly"
hexameter	six feet; sometimes termed hexapody, a six-part foot, one measure made up of six feet
paranomasia	The technical Greek term for what English-speakers commonly refer to as a "pun." See extended discussion under pun, below.
shooting schedule	a principal photography production schedule created by a production manager and assistant director to organize the shooting of scenes out-of-continuity in the most economical and time-saving way possible.
burlesque	Ludicrous imitation of a dramatic form or a specific play
antimetabole	In rhetoric, antimetabole (pronounced /æntɨməˈtæbəliː/ AN-ti-mə-TAB-ə-lee) is the repetition of words in successive clauses, but in transposed grammatical order (e.g., "I know what I like, and I like what I know")
vignette	A short, descriptive, literary sketch
dada	A provocative and playful European art movement following World War I - characterized by seemingly random, unstructured, and "anti-aesthetic" creativity - that was briefly but deeply influential in poetry, painting, and theatre.
exact rhyme	while the rhymes
iglesia ortodoxa griega	(Spanish f.) Greek Orthodox Church
parallelogram	A geometric figure with sides that are parallel and equal
im takt	(German) a tempo, in time (to the music)
genetic fallacy	The genetic fallacy is a fallacy of irrelevance where a conclusion is suggested based solely on something or someone's origin rather than its current meaning or context
dead button	See dead button rule.
public theaters	In Elizabethan England, outdoor theaters.
paradox	a self-contradictory phrase or sentence, such as "the ascending rain" or Alexander Pope's description of man, "Great lord of all things, yet a prey to all." Don Marquis's "quote buns by great men quote" (archys life of mehitabel [London: Faber and Faber, 1934]: 103-04), describes a drunk trying to go up a down-escalator as "falling upwards / through the night" (the poem also parodies Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's "St
aube	An aubade is a poem or song of or about lovers separating at dawn.
soliloquy	The act of talking to oneself
director	In American usage, the person who is responsible for the overall unity of a production, coordinating the efforts of the contributing artists
angle perspective	Use of two or more vanishing points, frequently at the sides of a painted design
letters - intellectual	An intellectual is a person who uses intelligence (thought and reason) and critical or analytical reasoning in either a professional or a personal capacity.
light ending	Light ending may refer to:
im tempo	(German) a tempo, return to the original pace
secrets	In medieval theater, special effects.
feroce	"ferociously"
imbarazzato	(Italian) embarrassed
scenery	In drama, the overall decoration of the stage comprising the props and the stage design
christmas	The Christmas morning service continues to attract many casual participants for whom it is, perhaps, the only service they attend in a year – apart from weddings, baptisms or funerals. Many parishes also hold a celebration of Holy Communion late on Christmas Eve. It is, of course, the annual celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary. The season of Christmas is also celebrated by crib and Christingle services.
herod	"Herod the Great" was the King of Judea around the time of Christ's birth (0 BC)
blocker	In community card poker, holding one of the opponent's outs, typically when the board threatens a straight or straight draw
onomatopoeia	The use of words that sound like the natural noises they name
il n'est pas mal!	(French) He's not bad looking!
footlights	Row of lights in the floor along the edge of the stage or apron; once a principal source of stage light but now rarely used.
bed-trick	The term for a recurring folklore motif in which circumstances cause two characters in a story to end up having sex with each other because of mistaken identity--either confusion in a dark room or deliberate acts of disguise in which one character impersonates another
set-up	A deck that has been ordered, usually King to Ace by suit (spades, hearts, clubs and diamonds)
imshi!	(Arabic) go away!, be off!
rounder	An expert player who travels around to seek out high-stakes games
regional theater	(1) Theater whose subject matter is specific to a particular geographic region
locution	A word or expression characteristic of a region, group, or cultural level.
satiric comedy	a play in which abuses, follies, stupidities, vices are ridiculed
im gleichen tempo	(German) the same speed
big full	The best possible full house in community card games
dirge	A lyric poem or song commemorating a death and expressing grief.
bubble	The last finishing position in a poker tournament before entering the payout structure
ballad	elegy
sociétaire	Shareholder in a French acting troupe.
period	an historical time and place that serves as the setting or “special world” of a screenplay story.
inflection	In drama the change in the tone or loudness of the voice.
idyll	A poem which represents the pleasures of rural life.
il est injuste	(French) It's unfair
anti-masque	An anti-masque (also spelled antimasque) is a comic or grotesque dance presented before or between the acts of a masque, a type of dramatic composition
summary	In a summary you tell the reader what a story, a poem, a novel is about
flourisher	In medieval times, this was a professional artist who works in conjunction with illuminators and rubricators to design pen-work decoration on initials and /or flourishwork on the borders of decorated books
householders	In Elizabethan England, star members of an acting company who were given part-ownership of its playhouse; also, people who owned buildings and rented them to acting companies.
coir	A stiff coarse fiber from the outer husk of a coconut
long metre	Long metre is a poetic meter consisting of four line stanzas, or quatrains, in iambic tetrameter with alternate rhyme pattern a-b-a-b
enjambement	the running over of a sentence or phrase from one verse to the next, without terminal punctuation, hence not end-stopped
heat	Positive gossip about a project on the Hollywood grapevine.
bauble	A small ornament
coincidence	something which happens by chance
ten-minute play	A complete play, with a beginning, middle and end, designed to play in ten minutes.
theme	The idea of a literary work abstracted from its details of language, character, and action, and cast in the form of a generalization
shaking the vibrating object	maracas, pellet bells, etc.
sedge	Any of a family of usually tufted marsh plants.
buy short	To buy into a game for an amount smaller than the normal buy-in
alto	high; often refers to a particular range of voice, higher than a tenor but lower than a soprano
allegory	or click here to download a pdf handout contrasting allegory and symbolism in greater detail.
stamboul	Istanbul, historically Byzantium and later Constantinople, is Turkey's most populous city, and its cultural and financial center
dumbshow	A mimed episode introduced into a spoken play, i.e
improvviso	(Italian) sudden, unexpected, unforeseen, extemporaneous
tragedy	and allows the audience or reader time to relax, laugh, and consider the developing events within the plot structure.
zanni	In commedia dell'arte, comic male servants.
package	The assembly of the basic elements necessary to secure financing for a film.
il est bizarre	(French) It's odd
im	(German) in the
truncated line - acatalexis	An acatalectic line of verse is one having the metrically complete number of syllables in the final foot
bowdlerize	Thomas Bowdler (pronounced /ˈbaʊdlər/) (11 July 1754 â€" 24 February 1825) was an English physician who published an expurgated edition of William Shakespeare's work, edited by his sister Harriet, intended to be more appropriate for 19th century women and children than the original.
masque	a short allegorical stage entertainment, popular in the 16th and 17th centuries but still used, that features masked actors
incalzando	"getting faster and louder." (the exact opposite of calando).
loathly lady	The
character development	the gradual revelation of information about a character that the audience needs to know in order to understand the character’s motivations and intent.
saltando	bouncing the bow as in a staccato arpeggio, literally means "jumping"
rhythm	If stressed and unstressed syllables of a text follow a particular pattern, a certain flow of the language is achieved which we call rhythm of the language.
aufklärung	The German term for the philosophical movement called in English "the Enlightenment" or the Neoclassical movement
mark	The signature of someone who does not know how to write
volta	Also called a turn, a volta is a sudden change in thought, direction, or emotion near the conclusion of a sonnet
romance	An imaginative story full of love and adventure.
octameter	Octameter in poetry is a line of eight metrical feet
tempo	general rate of playing a scene