The Spanish language is a very rich language with lots of vocabulary. Mastering the Spanish vocabulary can help you a lot if you want to be able to understand everything you hear or read, even if you don't understand the whole meaning perfectly. The best way of learning new Spanish vocabulary is by reading a lot or practicing with flashcards or a similar technique.
Literary Spanish vocabulary can be tricky, especially when it's very technical. However, you'll notice many words sound and look almost the same, and this will make learning them easier. When you learn Spanish in Spain you'll be able to show off your extensive literary knowledge with this list of literary terms.
Spanish word | English word | Meaning |
acotación | side note / stage direction | an instruction to an actor or director, written into the script of a play |
alegoría | allegory | a representation of an abstract or spiritual meaning through concrete or material forms; |
alejandrino | Alexandrine | line of poetic meter comprising 12 syllables |
aliteración | alliteration | repetition of a particular sound in the first syllables of a series of words and/or phrases |
antítesis | antithesis | juxtaposition of contrasting ideas in balanced phrases |
argumento | plot | events that make up a story, particularly as they relate to one another through cause and consequences |
arquetipo | archetype | universally understood symbol or term |
“arte por el arte” | art for art's sake | the only "true" art, is divorced from any didactic, moral or utilitarian function |
asonante | assonant | the use of the same vowel sound with different consonants or the same consonant with different vowels in successive words or stressed syllables |
barroco | Baroque | artistic style prevalent from the late 16th century to the early 18th century in Europe |
clímax | climax | The most intense, exciting, or important point of something |
comedia | comedy | A book, play, or poem intended to make an audience laugh |
contrapunto | counterpoint | An argument, idea, or theme used to create a contrast with the main element |
copla | couplet | Two lines of verse, usually in the same meter and joined by rhyme, that form a unit |
costumbrismo | costumbrism | literary or pictorial interpretation of local everyday life, mannerisms, and customs, primarily in the Hispanic scene |
creacionismo | creationism | literary movement, initiated by Chilean poet Vicente Huidobro around 1912. Creationism is based on the idea of a poem as a truly new thing, created by the author for the sake of itself |
cultismo | learned word or expression | |
desenlace | ending / denouement / resolution | An end or final part of something, esp. a period of time, an activity, or a book or movie |
discurso | speech / discourse | Written or spoken communication or debate |
égloga | eclogue | A short poem, esp. a pastoral dialogue |
elegía | elegy | A poem of serious reflection, typically a lament for the dead |
enciplopedista | encyclopedist | A person who writes, edits, or contributes to an encyclopedia |
endecasílabo | pentameter | A line of verse consisting of five metrical feet, or (in Greek and Latin verse) of two halves each of two feet and a long syllable |
entremés | interlude / short farce | A pause between the acts of a play |
epístola | epistle | A poem or other literary work in the form of a letter or series of letters |
epíteto | epithet | An adjective or descriptive phrase expressing a quality characteristic of the person or thing mentioned |
escena | scene | A sequence of continuous action in a play, movie, opera, or book |
esperpento | macabre story | |
estribillo | chorus | A part of a song that is repeated after each verse, typically by more than one singer |
estrofa | stanza | A group of lines forming the basic recurring metrical unit in a poem; a verse |
existencialismo | existentialism | A philosophical theory or approach that emphasizes the existence of the individual person as a free and responsible agent determining their own development through acts of the will |
fábula | fable | A short story, typically with animals as characters, conveying a moral |
figuras retóricas | figures of speech | The rhetorical devices often used to give decorative and imaginative expression to literature |
hipérbaton (el) | hyperbaton | An inversion of the normal order of words, esp. for the sake of emphasis, as in the sentence “this I must see.” |
hipérbole | hyperbole | any rhetorical device or figure of speech that employs exaggeration |
Ilustración | Enlightenment | A European intellectual movement of the late 17th and 18th centuries emphasizing reason and individualism rather than tradition |
ironía | irony | The expression of one's meaning by using language that normally signifies the opposite, typically for humorous or emphatic effect |
leyenda | legend | A traditional story sometimes popularly regarded as historical but unauthenticated |
lírica | lyric | A lyric poem or verse |
marco escénico | setting | The place and time at which a play, novel, or film is represented as happening |
metáfora | metaphor | A figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable |
metonimia | metonymy | The substitution of the name of an attribute or adjunct for that of the thing meant, for example suit for business executive, or the track for horse racing |
métrica | metric | The meter of a poem |
modernismo | Modernism | A movement toward modifying traditional beliefs in accordance with modern ideas |
monólogo | monologue | A long speech by one actor in a play or movie, or as part of a theatrical or broadcast program |
monólogo interior | interior monologue | A piece of writing expressing a character's inner thoughts |
motivo | reason | A cause, explanation, or justification for an action or event |
narrador | narrator | A person who narrates something, esp. a character who recounts the events of a novel or narrative poem |
narrativo | narrative | A spoken or written account of connected events; a story |
naturalismo | Naturalism | A style and theory of representation based on the accurate depiction of detail |
neoclasicismo | Neoclassicism | The revival of a classical style or treatment in art, literature, architecture, or music |
novela de tesis | thesis novel | a novel that advances, illustrates, or defends a thesis |
novela negra | thriller | A novel, play, or movie with an exciting plot, typically involving crime or espionage |
objetivismo | Objectivism | The belief that certain things, esp. moral truths, exist independently of human knowledge or perception of them |
octava | octave | A poem or stanza of eight lines; an octet |
octosílabo | octosyllabic | A line of verse that has eight syllables |
oda | ode | A lyric poem in the form of an address to a particular subject, often elevated in style or manner and written in varied or irregular meter |
onomatopeya | onomatopoeia | The formation of a word from a sound associated with what is named (e.g., cuckoo, sizzle) |
oxímoron | oxymoron | A figure of speech in which apparently contradictory terms appear in conjunction (e.g., faith unfaithful kept him falsely true) |
paradoja | paradox | A statement or proposition that, despite sound (or apparently sound) reasoning from acceptable premises, leads to a conclusion that seems senseless, logically unacceptable, or self-contradictory |
paralelismo | parallelism | The use of successive verbal constructions in poetry or prose that correspond in grammatical structure, sound, meter, meaning, etc |
parnasianismo | Parnassianism | A mid nineteenth-century movement in French literature. Followers of the movement stressed adherence to well-defined artistic forms as a reaction against the often chaotic expression of the artist's ego that dominated the work of the Romantics |
parodia | parody | An imitation of the style of a particular writer, artist, or genre with deliberate exaggeration for comic effect |
perspectivismo | Perspectivism | The theory that knowledge of a subject is inevitably partial and limited by the individual perspective from which it is viewed |
personificación | personification | The attribution of a personal nature or human characteristics to something nonhuman, or the representation of an abstract quality in human form |
prosopopeya | prosopopoeia | A figure of speech in which an abstract thing is personified |
poesía pura | pure poetry | Poetry written without instructional intent or moral purpose that aims only to please a reader by its imagery or musical flow. |
realismo | Realism | The movement or style of representing familiar things as they actually are |
regionalismo | Regionalism | Regionalism is an American realist modern art movement that was popular during the 1930s. The artistic focus was from artists who shunned city life, and rapidly developing technological advances, to create scenes of rural life |
retórica | rhetoric | Language designed to have a persuasive or impressive effect on its audience, but is often regarded as lacking in sincerity or meaningful content |
retrospectiva | retrospective | Looking back on or dealing with past events or situations |
rima | rhyme | Correspondence of sound between words or the endings of words, esp. when these are used at the ends of lines of poetry |
ritmo | rhythm | The measured flow of words and phrases in verse or prose as determined by the relation of long and short or stressed and unstressed syllables |
romance | ballad | A poem or song narrating a story in short stanzas. Traditional ballads are typically of unknown authorship, having been passed on orally from one generation to the next as part of the folk culture |
romanticismo | Romanticism | A movement in the arts and literature that originated in the late 18th century, emphasizing inspiration, subjectivity, and the primacy of the individual |
simbolismo | Symbolism | An artistic and poetic movement or style using symbolic images and indirect suggestion to express mystical ideas, emotions, and states of mind. |
símil | simile | A figure of speech involving the comparison of one thing with another thing of a different kind, used to make a description more emphatic or vivid (e.g., as brave as a lion, crazy like a fox) |
sinecdoque | synecdoche | A figure of speech in which a part is made to represent the whole or vice versa, as in Cleveland won by six runs (meaning “Cleveland's baseball team”) |
sinestesia | synesthesia | The poetic description of a sense impression in terms of another sense, as in “a loud perfume” or “an icy voice.” |
soliloquio | soliloquy | An act of speaking one's thoughts aloud when by oneself or regardless of any hearers, esp. by a character in a play |
soneto | sonnet | A poem of fourteen lines using any of a number of formal rhyme schemes, in English typically having ten syllables per line |
subjetivismo | Subjectivism | The doctrine that knowledge is merely subjective and that there is no external or objective truth |
surrealismo | Surrealism | A 20th-century avant-garde movement in art and literature that sought to release the creative potential of the unconscious mind, for example by the irrational juxtaposition of images |
teatro del absurdo | Absurd theatre | Tragic farces in which human existence is seen to be pointless |
tema | theme / topic | A matter dealt with in a text, discourse, or conversation; a subject |
tragedia | Tragedy | A play dealing with tragic events and having an unhappy ending, esp. one concerning the downfall of the main character |
tropo | trope | A figurative or metaphorical use of a word or expression |
ultraísmo | ultraism | The Ultraist movement was a literary movement born in Spain in 1918, with the declared intention of opposing Modernismo, which had dominated Spanish poetry since the end of the 19th century |
verso | verse | Writing arranged with a metrical rhythm, typically having a rhyme |
vanguardismo | avant-garde | New and unusual or experimental ideas, esp. in the arts, or the people introducing them |
verso libre | free verse | Poetry that does not rhyme or have a regular meter |
villancico | carol | A religious folk song or popular hymn, particularly one associated with Christmas |