Here you’ll find 33 Literary devices that start with D, organized from “Dactyl” to “Dysphemism”. These entries cover names, sound patterns, and rhetorical moves commonly used in poetry, fiction, and criticism.
Literary devices that start with D are techniques and labels writers use to shape sound, meaning, and emphasis. Many trace their names to Greek and Latin roots, reflecting classical influence on literary study.
Below you’ll find the table with Device, Definition, and Example.
Device: The name of each literary term, which you can use to search, sort, or cite in your work.
Definition: A concise explanation of what the device does and how you recognize it in text.
Example: A brief contextual sentence that shows the device in action, so you can use or teach it.
Literary devices that start with D
| Device | Alternate names | Category | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dactyl | Dactylic foot | Meter | Half a league, half a league… |
| Dactylic hexameter | Epic dactyl meter | Meter | Homeric epic lines |
| Diacope | Repetition with interruption | Rhetoric | The horror! Oh, the horror! |
| Diaeresis | Vowel separation; prosodic break | Poetics | lion pronounced li-on |
| Diaphora | Name repeated with different sense | Rhetoric | John, my friend John |
| Dialogue | Direct speech; conversation | Structure | Two friends arguing in a novel |
| Dialogism | Multiple interacting voices | Theory/structure | Novel with many conflicting voices |
| Diction | Word choice | Style | Formal diction in academic essays |
| Denotation | Literal meaning | Semantics | Dog meaning the animal |
| Denouement | Resolution; conclusion | Structure | After the trial the villain confesses |
| Deus ex machina | God from the machine | Plot device | A stranger arrives and solves everything |
| Didacticism | Didactic literature | Purpose/genre | A fable teaching honesty |
| Dialect | Regional speech | Style/characterization | Character speaks in Appalachia dialect |
| Digression | Authorial tangent | Structure | Narrator pauses to reflect on history |
| Direct characterization | Telling (vs. showing) | Characterization | Narrator states “She was brave.” |
| Dramatic irony | Audience knows more than characters | Irony/trope | We know the killer before the protagonist |
| Dramatic monologue | Persona poem | Poetic form | My Last Duchess style speaker |
| Distich | Couplet; two-line stanza | Poetic form | A two-line epigram concludes poem |
| Double entendre | Pun with two meanings | Trope/rhetoric | Marriage is a fine institution. |
| Double rhyme | Multisyllabic rhyme; feminine rhyme | Sound/rhyme | motion / “notion” |
| Double plot | Parallel storylines | Structure | Two couples’ stories interweave |
| Dissonance | Harsh sound juxtaposition | Sound | Jarring consonant clusters |
| Doggerel | Comic, crude verse | Style/poetry | A clumsy limerick with simple rhyme |
| Doppelgänger | Double or mirror character | Trope/motif | Protagonist meets his double |
| Dysphemism | Harsh opposite of euphemism | Rhetoric | Loony bin for psychiatric hospital |
| Decorum | Appropriateness of style | Rhetoric/style | Formal language in a solemn scene |
| Deixis | Context-dependent reference words | Linguistics/semantics | I will go there tomorrow. |
| Decasyllabic | Ten-syllable line | Meter | Iambic pentameter lines |
| Decasyllabic (alternate entry) | Decasyllabic line | Meter | Shakespearean iambic pentameter example |
| Dimeter | Two-foot line | Meter | Short two-foot poetic line |
| Defamiliarization | Ostranenie; make strange | Technique | Describing walking as if first time |
| Dead metaphor | Overused, literalized metaphor | Trope | Foot of the mountain |
| Dramatization | Rendering as drama | Technique | Chapter reenacts a past event onstage |
Descriptions
Dactyl
A metrical foot with one stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables; common in classical and English poetry.
Dactylic hexameter
A classical epic meter of six dactyls per line, used in ancient Greek and Latin epic poetry.
Diacope
Repetition of a word or phrase separated by one or two intervening words for emphasis or emotion.
Diaeresis
A prosodic device separating adjacent vowels into different syllables or marking a metrical break in verse.
Diaphora
Repetition of a word or name used in different grammatical or semantic roles to emphasize or clarify.
Dialogue
Conversation between characters used to reveal personality, advance plot, and provide exposition.
Dialogism
A concept (Bakhtin) where texts contain multiple, often conflicting voices and perspectives.
Diction
An author’s selection of words and phrasing that shapes tone, clarity, and voice.
Denotation
The direct, dictionary meaning of a word, often contrasted with its connotations.
Denouement
The story’s final phase where plotlines are resolved and outcomes revealed.
Deus ex machina
An unexpected, often contrived intervention that resolves a story’s conflicts abruptly.
Didacticism
Literature intended primarily to instruct or teach moral, practical, or ethical lessons.
Dialect
Use of region-specific vocabulary and grammar to convey character, setting, or authenticity.
Digression
A temporary departure from the main narrative to provide commentary, background, or reflection.
Direct characterization
When a narrator plainly states a character’s traits instead of revealing them through actions or speech.
Dramatic irony
When readers or viewers know crucial information that characters do not, creating tension or poignancy.
Dramatic monologue
A poem in which a single speaker addresses a silent listener, revealing character through speech.
Distich
A pair of lines of verse often forming a complete thought or epigram.
Double entendre
A phrase with two interpretations, typically one innocent and one risqué or ironic.
Double rhyme
Rhyme involving two or more syllables, giving a sing-song or light effect.
Double plot
A narrative that follows two main plots that mirror, contrast, or intersect.
Dissonance
Deliberate use of clashing, discordant sounds to create tension, discomfort, or emphasis.
Doggerel
Loose, irregular, often humorous or trivial poetry characterized by forced rhyme and meter.
Doppelgänger
A character’s double or alter ego used to explore identity, otherness, or psychological conflict.
Dysphemism
Choosing a blunt, offensive, or negative term over a neutral one for rhetorical effect.
Decorum
The principle that form, tone, and style should suit the subject, audience, and occasion.
Deixis
Words (this, that, here, now) whose meanings rely on speaker, time, and place context.
Decasyllabic
A line of verse composed of ten syllables, commonly used in formal English verse.
Decasyllabic (alternate entry)
Ten-syllable poetic line; typical of many English dramatic and narrative poems.
Dimeter
A line of verse with two metrical feet, used for brevity, emphasis, or rhythmic variation.
Defamiliarization
Presenting familiar things in unexpected ways so readers perceive them anew.
Dead metaphor
A metaphor used so often it loses figurative force and is treated as a literal expression.
Dramatization
Turning events, ideas, or emotions into a dramatic scene to enliven and concretize them.