Access Date
The date you actually read an online source, recorded because online sources change.
Accord (as a citation signal)
A signal indicating a second source that agrees with, and is functionally equivalent to, the first cited.
Accumulatio
A figure in which points already made are gathered and restated in a compressed rush at the end of an argument.
Adage
An old, well-known saying that has acquired authority through long use.
Adagia
Erasmus's monumental 1500 collection of Greek and Latin proverbs — the book that put classical sayings back into European speech.
Adynaton
A form of extreme hyperbole that describes something as impossible, often by piling up impossibilities.
Aesop's Fables
The Greek fable collection whose closing morals became a durable source of proverbs.
Aetiologia
Giving a reason immediately after making a claim, so assertion and cause arrive together.
Air Quotes
A spoken gesture — two fingers of each hand crooked — that marks scare quotes in conversation.
Allegory
An extended metaphor in which characters or events stand for abstract ideas.
Alliteration
The repetition of an initial consonant sound across nearby words.
Allusion
An indirect reference to another text, person, event, or work — often quoted.
Ampersand in Citations
The style rule governing when '&' replaces 'and' between author names.
Ana
A genre of compiled sayings, anecdotes, and observations of a notable person — the suffix that gives us 'Johnsoniana' and 'Boswelliana'.
Anacoluthon
A sentence that changes grammatical direction mid-course, breaking the expected syntax.
Anadiplosis
A figure of speech that repeats the last word of one clause at the start of the next, chaining thought forward.
Analects
A collection of sayings and short dialogues — most famously, the Analects of Confucius.
Anaphora
The deliberate repetition of a word or phrase at the start of successive clauses.
Anastrophe
A rhetorical figure that inverts normal word order for emphasis, formality, or characterisation.
Anecdote
A short, often autobiographical story used to illustrate a larger point.
Annotated Bibliography
A source list where every entry is followed by a short note evaluating the source.
Anonymous Attribution
Crediting a work or quotation to an unnamed author, and doing it honestly.
Antanaclasis
The repetition of a word within a short passage, with a different meaning each time.
Antanagoge
Answering an unavoidable negative by placing a compensating positive beside it.
Anthimeria
The use of one part of speech as another — most often a noun used as a verb.
Antimetabole
A rhetorical figure that repeats words in reverse grammatical order to reverse the sense.
Antiphrasis
The use of a word to mean its opposite, usually with an ironic or humorous edge — calling a giant 'Tiny'.
Antisagoge
Pairing a promise with a threat, or a reward with a penalty, in balanced form.
Antistrophe
The repetition of the same word or phrase at the end of successive clauses.
Antithesis
A grammatical balance of two opposed ideas — 'to be or not to be'.
Antitheton
An argument built on opposition — the reasoning counterpart to the figure of antithesis.
Antonomasia
Using an epithet or title in place of a proper name — 'the Bard' for Shakespeare, 'the Iron Lady' for Thatcher.
Aperçu
A brief illuminating glimpse — an insight offered as a flash rather than an argument.
Aphorism
A short, sharp statement that compresses a truth or observation into a single line.
Apocryphal Quote
A quote attributed to a famous person that they almost certainly never said.
Apodioxis
Rejecting an opponent's argument outright as absurd or unworthy of reply.
Apologia
A formal defence of one's beliefs or conduct — an explanation, not an apology.
Apophasis
The device of raising a subject by explicitly refusing to raise it — 'I will not mention…'
Apophthegmata Patrum
The Sayings of the Desert Fathers — collected wisdom of the early Christian monastic elders.
Aporia
A rhetorical expression of genuine or feigned doubt about how to proceed — the speaker stops to wonder aloud.
Aposiopesis
A rhetorical figure in which a sentence breaks off mid-thought, leaving the reader to complete it.
Aposiopesis
A deliberate breaking off of a sentence, leaving the thought unfinished for effect.
Apostrophe (rhetorical)
A sudden turn of address, in which the speaker breaks off to address an absent person, thing, or abstraction.
Apostrophe vs Single Quotation Mark
Two different marks that share a keyboard key and point in different directions.
Apothegm
A terse, instructive saying — a first cousin of the aphorism, usually attributed to a real person and delivered with a sting.
Apposition
Placing a second noun phrase beside a first to rename or specify it.
apud
Latin for 'in the works of' — cites a passage as found in another author's text.
Archival Citation
The citation form for unpublished material held in a collection: item, folder, box, collection, repository.
As Quoted In
The honest way to cite a quotation you found in a second-hand source rather than the original.
Aside
A remark delivered off to the side of the main speech — to the audience, to oneself, or in a parenthesis.
Assonance
Repeated vowel sounds in nearby words, binding a phrase together without rhyming it.
Asteismus
A polite, witty reply that deliberately takes the speaker's words in another sense.
Asyndeton
A rhetorical figure that removes conjunctions between clauses for speed and force.
Asyndeton
The deliberate omission of conjunctions between clauses to create speed and force.
Attribution
The act of naming the original speaker or writer of a quote.
Attribution in Captions
Crediting a quotation shown inside an image, caption, or graphic.
Attribution Laundering
The process by which a quotation gradually shifts to a more famous name through repeated sharing.
Attribution Line
The credit set below a block quotation, epigraph, or pull quote.
Attribution to a Tradition
Crediting a saying to a culture, school or community when no individual author exists.
Author–Date System
A citation family that identifies sources in text by author surname and year of publication.
Auxesis
A rhetorical climb — arranging words or ideas in ascending order of force or magnitude.
Badinage
Light, playful, good-humoured talk exchanged for pleasure rather than for points.
Barb
A short, sharply pointed remark designed to wound as it passes.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations
The landmark English-language quotation reference, first published in 1855.
Bathos
An abrupt, often unintentional descent from the elevated to the trivial — the opposite of pathos.
Battle Cry
A short shouted phrase used to rally a group and signal shared identity in action.
Beatitude
A blessing-formula quotation — 'Blessed are…' — that pronounces good on a class of people or an action.
Benediction
A short formal blessing spoken over an audience, usually at a close.
Bhagavad Gita
The 700-verse Sanskrit dialogue that is among the world's most quoted philosophical texts.
Bibliographic Entry
A single item in a bibliography or reference list.
Bibliography
The list of works cited or consulted, printed at the end of a book, chapter, or article.
Block Quotation Length Threshold
The word counts at which style guides require a quotation to be set off as a block.
Block Quote
A long quotation set off as its own indented paragraph, without quotation marks.
Boast
A quotation in which the speaker openly claims greatness for themselves.
Bon Mot
A neatly turned witty remark — literally a 'good word' in French.
Book Blurb
A short endorsement quotation printed on a book cover to signal quality.
Book of Proverbs
The Hebrew Bible's anthology of wisdom sayings and a foundational model for the proverb collection.
Boutade
A sudden, whimsical outburst — a remark that surprises by its abruptness rather than its argument.
Brachylogia
Deliberate omission of conjunctions between single words for clipped speed.
Bracketed Ellipsis
A three-dot mark enclosed in square brackets — […] — that flags a deliberate editorial omission from a quotation.
Bracketed Insertion
Editorial words added inside square brackets within a quotation.
Bracketed Translation
Supplying a translation or gloss inside square brackets within a quotation.
Brackets in Quotes
Square brackets mark editorial changes inside a quotation — clarifications, edits, or [sic].
BrainyQuote Effect
The way large quotation databases launder unverified attributions into apparent fact.
Bromide
A trite, dull statement that sounds soothing but carries no real thought.
Bumper-Sticker Quote
A quotation compressed enough to fit — and be read at speed — on the back of a car.
But See
A citation signal introducing a source that contradicts the writer's point.
Byline
The line naming the author of an article, and the basis for citing journalism accurately.
Byword
A name or short phrase that has become a common shorthand for a particular quality or condition.
Cacophony
A harsh or discordant combination of sounds in a phrase or passage.
Call-and-Response Quotation
A quotation that survives in pairs — a leader's line followed by a crowd's answering line — and only makes full sense in both halves.
Capitalization in Quotations
The set of conventions governing when to keep, change, or silently bracket the first letter of a quoted passage.
Catachresis
A strained or paradoxical use of a word — deliberately, when it becomes striking; accidentally, when it becomes an error.
Catchphrase
A short phrase strongly associated with one speaker, character, or campaign.
Catena
A 'chain' of quoted commentaries on a scripture or text, one author after another.
Cf.
A Latin citation abbreviation for confer, 'compare' — used to point the reader to a related passage.
Chapter and Verse
Locating a quotation by fixed internal divisions rather than by page number.
Charientismus
Defusing hostility by answering a harsh remark with a graceful joke.
Chiasmus
An ABBA word-order reversal — 'ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country'.
Chreia
A short anecdote or saying attributed to a named figure — a classical rhetorical unit for teaching, arguing, and remembering.
Chronicle
A historical record arranged year by year, often a source of memorable quotations.
Churchillian Drift
The tendency for anonymous or minor-author quotations to migrate, over time, to a small pool of famous names — Churchill, Twain, Lincoln, Wilde.
Citation
A formal reference that lets a reader locate the source of a quote.
Citation Needed
An editorial flag marking a claim that is stated without a source and requires one.
Classical Quotation
A quotation drawn from the literature, philosophy, or history of ancient Greece or Rome.
Cliché
A phrase or quote so overused that it has lost most of its force.
Climax (Rhetorical)
A figure in which successive clauses ascend in intensity, each building on the last.
Colon Before a Quotation
When to introduce quoted material with a colon rather than a comma or nothing at all.
Comeback
A quick reply that answers, and ideally reverses, an insult or challenge.
Commencement Address Quote
The graduation-speech line, a genre with its own conventions and its own myths.
Commonplace Book
A personal notebook of quotations, ideas, and passages — a tradition stretching from antiquity to today.
Commoratio
A figure in which the speaker lingers on the same point by restating it in different words — dwelling for emphasis.
Concordance
A reference work listing every occurrence of every significant word in a text, with its context and location.
Conduplicatio
Repeating a key word from a previous clause at the start of the next, for emphasis.
Consonance
Repeated consonant sounds within or at the end of nearby words.
Copypasta
A block of text copied and pasted repeatedly across the internet, often evolving into a shared quotation.
Corporate Author
An organisation credited as the author of a work when no individual is named.
Correctio
Correcting oneself mid-sentence to arrive at a stronger or truer word.
Credo
A personal or institutional statement of belief — the 'I believe' quotation.
Cross-Reference
A pointer inside a document to another passage of the same document, using consistent language such as 'see above' or 'infra'.
Curated Quote
A quotation selected and presented by an editor or collector for a particular effect.
Curtain Line
The last line of a scene, act or play, written to land as the lights go down.
Decontextualized Quote
A quotation stripped of the surrounding argument or occasion that made it mean what it originally meant.
Deep Quote
A long, often philosophical quotation shared for its apparent profundity.
Dhammapada
An early Buddhist anthology of 423 verses, one of the most quoted wisdom collections in the world.
Diacope
The repetition of a word or phrase after a brief interruption, often for emphasis or emotion.
Dialogue Paragraphing
The convention of starting a new paragraph each time the speaker changes.
Dialogue Tag
The short attributive phrase — 'she said', 'he replied' — that identifies the speaker of a line of quoted dialogue.
Diatribe
A sustained, forceful verbal attack on a person, idea or institution.
Diazeugma
One subject governing a rapid series of verbs.
Dictum
An authoritative pronouncement — a saying with the weight of a verdict.
Dinkus
A typographic marker, usually three asterisks, used to indicate a break in a text.
Dirimens Copulatio
Balancing a statement by adding the qualifying other side — 'not only... but also'.
Distinctio
An explicit definition, mid-argument, of a term the speaker will then rely on — narrowing the sense to prevent ambiguity.
Ditto Marks
The ″ symbol used in lists to mean 'the same as the line above' — not a quotation mark.
DOI
A permanent digital identifier that points to a work no matter where it moves online.
Double Entendre
A word or phrase that carries two meanings, one of them often risqué.
Doxology
A short formula of praise — the 'giving of glory' quotation — often used as a fixed closing line.
Dysphemism
The opposite of euphemism — a deliberately harsh or negative substitute for a neutral word.
e.g. vs i.e.
Two Latin abbreviations that mean different things: 'e.g.' introduces examples, 'i.e.' introduces a restatement.
Ecclesiastes
The biblical wisdom book that supplied English with an unusual density of stock phrases.
Ecphonesis
An exclamatory outcry — a short interjection expressing strong emotion.
Editorial Note
A signed comment by an editor, distinct from the author's own text or notes.
Ellipsis in Quotes
Three dots that mark words omitted from a quotation.
Em Dash in Quotations
The use of an em dash to introduce or attribute a quotation.
Em-Dash Attribution
The em-dash convention for attributing a freestanding quote (— Author).
Email Signature Quote
A quotation appended below a sender's name, functioning as a small personal banner.
Emphasis Added
A parenthetical note telling the reader that italics or bolding in a quotation come from the quoter, not the original author.
Enallage
The deliberate use of a grammatically 'wrong' form for rhetorical effect.
Enchiridion of Epictetus
A short Stoic handbook of practical maxims, compiled by a student from Epictetus' lectures.
Encomium
A formal speech or piece of writing in warm praise of a person, thing, or idea.
Endnote
A note collected at the end of a chapter or book rather than at the foot of the page.
Energeia
Vivid description that makes an absent scene feel present to the audience.
Enthymeme
A compressed syllogism in which one premise is left unstated, to be supplied by the audience.
Enumeratio
Breaking a subject into its parts and listing them for force or clarity.
Epanalepsis
A figure in which the same word or phrase begins and ends a clause or sentence.
Epanodos
Naming several things, then returning to treat each one in the same order.
Epanorthosis
A figure in which the speaker corrects or intensifies a word just used, as if catching themselves in a weaker choice.
Epexegesis
An added phrase that explains or specifies what was just said.
Epicrisis
Quoting a passage and then commenting on it in your own voice.
Epigram
A short, witty, often satirical statement built on a clever turn.
Epigraph
A short quotation set at the beginning of a book, chapter, or essay to suggest its theme.
Epigraph
A short quotation placed at the opening of a book, chapter, or essay to set its theme.
Epigraph Attribution
How to credit the quotation placed at the head of a book, chapter or essay.
Epigraph Formatting
The typographic conventions for the quotation that opens a book or chapter.
Epimone
Persistent repetition of a phrase to hammer a point until it cannot be evaded.
Epiplexis
A reproachful rhetorical question asked not to learn but to shame or rebuke.
Epistrophe
A figure of speech that repeats the same word or phrase at the end of successive clauses.
Epitaph
A short text written in memory of a dead person — often inscribed on a tombstone.
Epithet
A descriptive phrase attached to a name to characterise the person or thing named.
Epitrope
Ironically granting permission or conceding a point, so that the concession damages the opponent.
Epizeuxis
The immediate repetition of a word for emotional emphasis, without any intervening word.
Erotema
The classical name for a rhetorical question — one asked for effect, not for information.
Et Al.
Latin for 'and others' — used in citations of multi-author works.
et seq.
Latin abbreviation meaning 'and following' — cites a passage plus the pages after it.
Ethopoeia
Speaking in another person's character, imitating their manner of thought and speech.
Ethos, Pathos, Logos
Aristotle's three modes of persuasion — character, emotion, and reason.
Eulogy
A speech of praise for someone who has died, often the source of widely-quoted lines.
Euphemism
A mild or indirect substitute for a word considered harsh, taboo, or unwelcome.
Euphuism
An artificial, ornate prose style packed with elaborate similes, alliteration, and antithesis.
Eutrepismus
Numbering your points aloud so the audience can count them with you.
Exegesis
The disciplined interpretation of a text — drawing meaning out of it rather than reading meaning in.
Exergasia
Repeating one idea in a series of differently worded statements to work it thoroughly.
Exhortation
A quotation that urges action rather than states a truth.
Expolitio
Refining the same idea by restating it in varied forms.
Extract
A passage selected from a longer text and quoted as a self-contained unit.
Fair Use
A US legal doctrine that permits limited quotation of copyrighted material without permission.
Fake Quote
A quote deliberately invented and attributed to someone for credibility, humour, or harm.
Film Quotation
A remembered line of screen dialogue, credited to a character, a writer and a film.
Florilegium
A 'bouquet' of extracts — a curated anthology of passages from other authors, gathered by theme.
Folio and Line Citation
Citing manuscripts and early printed books by leaf, side and line rather than page.
Footnote
A note printed at the bottom of a page giving a citation, a qualification, or a small side-comment.
Foreign-Language Quotations
How to present a quotation in a language other than the language of your text.
Forthcoming Citation
A citation for a work that has been accepted but not yet published.
Fortune Cookie Quote
A short aphorism or prediction on the slip of paper inside a fortune cookie — a mass-produced descendant of the wisdom-slip tradition.
Fridge-Magnet Quote
A short, feel-good saying designed for display on everyday objects.
Gibe
A taunting or mocking remark aimed at a specific target.
Gnome
A short, pithy statement of a general truth — the classical Greek ancestor of the modern aphorism.
Gnomic Poetry
Verse composed largely of aphoristic sayings, usually didactic in intent.
Gnomologium
A classical or medieval collection of gnomai — short maxims gathered for study and reuse.
Goodreads Quote Page
Crowd-sourced quotation databases that spread text quickly and sources slowly.
Gradatio
A figure in which the last word of one clause becomes the first word of the next, building a climax.
Graffiti Quotation
A quotation inscribed on public walls — anonymous, ephemeral, and often politically charged.
Grandiloquence
Speech or writing that is deliberately lofty, ornate, and inflated — often at the expense of clarity.
Greeting Card Quotation
Quotation as consumer sentiment: short, warm, occasion-fitted, and often loosely attributed.
Guillemets
The angled quotation marks « … » used in French, Russian, Italian, and several other languages.
Gulistan (Saadi)
Saadi's 1258 Persian classic mixing prose tales with verse maxims on conduct.
Hadith
A recorded saying or action of the Prophet Muhammad, transmitted through a documented chain of narrators.
Hagakure
An early-eighteenth-century Japanese collection of samurai reflections, widely quoted and widely stripped of context.
Haiku Quotation
A three-line, seventeen-syllable Japanese verse quoted as a self-contained observation — the shortest respectable literary quote in most Western anthologies.
Hanging Indent
A paragraph whose first line sits left of the rest — the standard shape of a bibliography entry.
Hanging Punctuation
Setting opening quotation marks slightly outside the text block so the margin looks straight.
Hapax Legomenon
A word that appears only once in an entire body of text — a corpus, an author, or a language.
Harangue
A long, forceful, often scolding address delivered at an audience rather than to it.
Hashtag Quote
A quotation formatted or repurposed for social media hashtags.
Hat Tip
An informal credit acknowledging the person who pointed you to a source or idea.
Hávamál
The Old Norse 'Sayings of the High One' — a foundational gnomic poem.
Hendiadys
A rhetorical figure that expresses one idea by joining two nouns with 'and' where a noun and modifier would suffice.
Hereinafter
A citation shorthand that assigns a short form to a long source name for later reference within the same document.
Homily
A short moral address, traditionally an explanation of a scriptural passage for a congregation.
Homoioteleuton
Successive phrases or clauses ending with the same sound.
Hypallage
A figure in which a modifier is grammatically attached to the 'wrong' noun for expressive effect.
Hyperbaton
A figure that displaces a word from its expected position for emphasis or rhythm — 'This I must see.'
Hyperbole
Deliberate exaggeration for effect — not meant to be taken literally.
Hypophora
A rhetorical figure in which the speaker asks a question and immediately answers it.
Hypotaxis
A prose style built out of long, subordinated sentences with layered dependent clauses.
Hypozeuxis
Giving every clause its own subject and verb, so each stands as a complete unit.
Hysteron Proteron
Reversing the natural order of events, putting what happened later first.
Ibid.
A citation shorthand meaning 'in the same source as the previous note'.
Id.
A short-form citation meaning 'the same source as the one immediately preceding' — the legal cousin of 'ibid.'
Imprecation
A formal curse or invoked misfortune — the dark twin of the blessing.
Indented Quotation
A long quotation set off from the surrounding text by margin indentation instead of quotation marks.
Influencer Quote
A quotation attributed to a social media influencer or content creator.
Infra
A cross-reference meaning 'below' — used to point forward to a source or passage discussed later in the same document.
Inline Quote
A short quotation embedded directly in a sentence, inside quotation marks.
Inspirational Quote
A short, motivational line — often quoted, often misattributed — offered as consolation, exhortation, or self-help.
Internal Monologue Formatting
How to mark a character's unspoken thought: italics, quotation marks, or nothing at all.
Interpolation
An editor's word or phrase inserted inside a quotation, marked with square brackets.
Introducing a Quotation: Comma, Colon, or Nothing
The three standard ways to join a lead-in to a quotation — comma, colon, or seamless integration — each carrying a different weight.
Introductory Signals
Small words placed before a citation that tell the reader what the cited source is doing — supporting, contradicting, or merely comparing.
Invective
Language of attack: abuse shaped by craft rather than simply shouted.
Inverted Commas
The British name for quotation marks — the paired punctuation used to enclose direct speech and quoted material.
Irony
A gap between what is said and what is meant — or between expectation and outcome.
Isocolon
A rhetorical scheme in which successive clauses have the same length and grammatical structure.
Italics vs Quotation Marks
Italics for whole, self-contained works; quotation marks for parts contained within them.
Kabir's Dohas
Two-line devotional couplets attributed to the fifteenth-century Indian poet-saint Kabir.
Kenning
A compressed metaphorical compound — like 'whale-road' for the sea — drawn from Old Norse and Old English verse.
Kōan
A short Zen story or paradoxical question used as an object of meditation — a quote designed to resist easy quoting.
La Rochefoucauld's Maximes
A 1665 French collection of maxims arguing that self-interest underlies apparent virtue.
Lament
A quotation whose work is to express grief rather than to argue or advise.
Last Words
A dying person's final recorded utterance, treasured as a summary of a whole life.
Letters to Lucilius (Seneca)
124 Stoic letters that supply much of the West's stock of practical moral quotation.
Line-Break Slash
The forward slash used to mark line endings when verse is quoted inline.
LinkedIn Quote Post
The professional-network genre of a short quotation plus a personal-lesson gloss.
Litotes
An understatement that affirms by denying its opposite — 'not bad' meaning 'good'.
Locator
The precise place in a source that lets a reader find the quoted passage.
Loci Classici
The 'classical places' — the passages in the canon that a given topic keeps returning to.
Logical Quotation
Placing punctuation inside quotation marks only when it belonged to the quoted material.
Malapropism
The comic misuse of a word for one that sounds like it — a staple of characterisation and unintended honesty.
Manifesto Quote
A quotation extracted from a public declaration of principles or aims.
Mantra
A phrase or sound repeated to focus the mind, originally from Vedic religious practice.
Manuscript Siglum
A short letter code standing for a specific manuscript witness in a critical edition.
Marginalia
Notes, comments, and quotations written by a reader in the margins of a book.
Masnavi (Rumi)
Rumi's six-book Persian poem, the most quoted and most loosely translated source of Sufi wisdom.
Maxim
A short rule for conduct, usually stated as a general principle.
Meditations
Marcus Aurelius's private notebook, written for himself and quoted by everyone else.
Meiosis
Deliberate understatement — describing something as less than it is, for emphasis or irony.
Meme Quotation
A short, image-anchored quote in the modern viral sense — quickly shared, easily altered, and prone to misattribution.
Merism
A figure that names the extremes of something to imply the whole — 'heaven and earth', 'young and old'.
Metabasis
A brief transitional statement summarising what has been said and previewing what follows.
Metanoia
A rhetorical self-correction — retracting or qualifying a statement immediately after making it.
Metaphor
A figure of speech that describes one thing as if it were another.
Metonymy
Calling something by the name of an associated thing — 'the crown' for 'the monarchy'.
Midrash
The rabbinic genre of interpretive commentary that expands and re-reads biblical texts.
Misattribution
Assigning a quote to the wrong person — the most common error in quotation.
Misquotation
Reproducing a quote with the wording changed — even if the source is correct.
Montaigne's Essais
The 1580 collection that invented the essay and made quotation a method of thought.
Moral
The concise lesson drawn from a story, especially a fable.
Mot Juste
The exact right word for the situation — a writer's ideal.
Motivational Poster
The image-plus-quotation-plus-abstract-noun format, and the parody genre it spawned.
Motto
A short phrase adopted by a person, family, or institution as an expression of guiding principle.
Neologism
A newly coined word or expression, often minted to capture something the existing vocabulary cannot.
Nested Quotation
A quotation inside another quotation, distinguished by alternating single and double marks.
No Date (n.d.)
The abbreviation used when a source carries no identifiable publication date.
Non Sequitur
A statement that does not logically follow from what preceded it — sometimes a fallacy, sometimes a joke.
Non-Breaking Space
A space that keeps a quotation mark or a word from being separated from its neighbour by a line break.
Nota Bene (N.B.)
Latin for 'note well' — flags a qualification the reader must not skip.
Obiter Dictum
A remark made in passing — memorable, quotable, and not the main point.
Off-the-Record and Background Attribution
The graded conventions governing how an unnamed source may be quoted.
One-Liner
A complete joke, observation, or punch delivered in a single sentence.
Op. Cit.
A citation shorthand meaning 'in the work already cited'.
Oration
A formal public speech — the original setting for many of the most-quoted lines in history.
Orphan Quotation
A quotation in circulation with no traceable source or verified speaker.
Oxford Dictionary of Quotations
Oxford's flagship quotation reference, prized for its rigorous sourcing.
Oxymoron
A figure that pairs two contradictory terms in a single phrase — 'deafening silence', 'bittersweet'.
Palindrome
A word or phrase that reads the same backward as forward.
Panchatantra
The Sanskrit frame-story collection that carried fable maxims across Eurasia.
Panegyric
A formal speech or text in elaborate praise of a person, place, or achievement.
Parable
A short story that teaches a moral or spiritual lesson — most famously, the parables of Jesus.
Paradox
A statement that appears self-contradictory but reveals a deeper truth on reflection.
Parallel Citation
A citation that gives two or more reporters for the same source, so readers using different libraries can find it.
Paraphrase
Restating someone's words in your own — credit still required, quotation marks not.
Paraprosdokian
A sentence whose ending redefines or subverts the meaning of its beginning.
Parataxis
A prose style built from short, coordinate clauses placed side by side without subordination.
Parenthetical Citation
An in-text source reference given in parentheses, keyed to a fuller entry in the bibliography.
Paromologia
Conceding a weaker point in order to strengthen the main one.
Paronomasia
The rhetorical name for the pun — a play on words that exploits sound similarity or multiple meanings.
Parrhesia
Frank speech: saying the risky thing plainly, often with an acknowledgement of the risk.
Passim
A Latin note in a citation meaning 'in various places throughout the cited work'.
Patristic Quotation
A quotation from the early Christian writers known as the Church Fathers.
Pensées
A book of short, numbered thoughts on a serious subject — the form is named for Pascal's posthumous Pensées.
Period After Quotation
The convention governing whether a period goes inside or outside closing quotation marks.
Periphrasis
The use of many words where fewer would do — a deliberate roundabout expression.
Peroration
The closing section of a speech, written to summarise and to move.
Personal Communication
A citation for information obtained privately — letter, email, interview — that a reader cannot retrieve.
Pin Cite
A citation that points to the exact page, paragraph, or section where a quoted or paraphrased passage appears.
Pleonasm
The use of more words than strictly necessary — sometimes an error, sometimes a deliberate figure of emphasis.
Podcast Clip Quotation
Short audio or captioned video excerpts that turn spoken conversation into circulated quotation.
Polyptoton
The repetition of a word in different grammatical forms — 'love the loved', 'judged and judging'.
Polysyndeton
A rhetorical figure that repeats conjunctions for rhythmic accumulation and biblical weight.
Polysyndeton
The deliberate use of many conjunctions between clauses to slow a sentence into ceremony.
Poor Richard's Almanack
Franklin's annual almanac (1732–1758), a major source of English-language proverbs.
Praeteritio
A rhetorical figure in which a speaker names something while claiming not to mention it — the 'not to mention' move.
Primary Source
The original record of a quote — the book, letter, speech, or recording in which it first appeared.
Prime Marks
The straight vertical marks (′ and ″) that denote feet, inches, minutes, and seconds — often confused with quotation marks.
Procatalepsis
Anticipating an objection in your own argument and answering it before it can be raised.
Prolepsis (Rhetorical)
Anticipating and answering an objection before the audience raises it.
Pronouncement
A formal, weighty statement issued as if from authority.
Prophecy Quotation
A quoted statement about the future, remembered mainly because of how it turned out.
Prosopopoeia
A figure in which the speaker gives voice to an absent, dead, or non-human entity, letting it speak in the first person.
Protest Slogan
A phrase built for chanting, placards, and collective repetition.
Proverb
A traditional saying that expresses a generally accepted truth — almost always anonymous.
Pseudonymous Attribution
Attribution to a pen name, alias, or assumed name rather than a legal name.
Public Domain Quotes
Quotations whose copyright has expired — free to reuse without permission.
Pull Attribution
The convention of citing only the author's name when quoting in casual writing.
Pull Quote
A short, eye-catching quote lifted from an article and displayed in large type for emphasis.
Punctuation Inside vs Outside Quotes
The rule — differing on either side of the Atlantic — for where the comma and period sit relative to a closing quotation mark.
Put-Down
A remark designed to deflate, diminish, or dismiss its target in one move.
q.v.
Abbreviation of 'quod vide' — 'which see' — directing the reader to another entry.
Question Marks with Quotation Marks
The question mark goes inside the quotes when the quoted words are the question.
Quibble
A petty objection, or a play on words used to evade the point.
Quip
A brief, witty remark — sharper than an observation, lighter than an argument.
Quotable
An adjective describing a phrase, person, or work that lends itself naturally to being quoted.
Quotation
A passage repeated verbatim from a written or spoken source, with attribution.
Quotation Dash
A dash placed at the start of a line to mark the opening of direct speech, used in French, Spanish, and other European typographic traditions.
Quotation Ethics in Journalism
The professional rules governing how reporters may clean up, trim or condense what a source said.
Quotation in Advertising
Borrowed words used to sell — with legal, ethical, and reputational strings attached.
Quotation in Headlines
Headline conventions for quoted material: single marks, no full stops, and strict fidelity.
Quotation in Speechwriting
The professional craft of placing borrowed lines inside a speech for authority, relief, or transition.
Quotation Marks
The punctuation that signals direct speech or a quoted phrase — single or double, depending on locale.
Quotation Within a Title
How to punctuate a title that itself contains a quoted phrase or another title.
Quotations Inside Parentheses
How to punctuate and mark a quotation that sits within a parenthetical aside.
Quote Approval
The practice of letting a source review and revise their quotations before publication.
Quote Card
A square, image-based social-media graphic in which a pull-quote is set in large type over a photograph or plain background.
Quote Clipping
Cutting a short audio or video excerpt to circulate as a standalone quotation.
Quote Fatigue
The diminishing return when a famous quote has been repeated past the point of feeling.
Quote Investigator
A research tradition (and a well-known website) devoted to tracing the true origin of famous quotations.
Quote Mining
The practice of quoting selectively to misrepresent a source's overall meaning.
Quote of the Day
The daily-quotation format — calendar, newsletter, widget — and the accuracy problems it creates.
Quote Plagiarism
Presenting someone else's words as your own by removing or omitting the quotation marks.
Quote Tweet
A social-media format in which a user shares another post with their own commentary attached.
Quote Verification
The process of tracing a quotation to its earliest reliable source before publishing it.
Quote vs Quotation
Verb vs noun in traditional usage — but modern style treats both as nouns.
Quoting from Memory
Reproducing a quotation from recollection rather than from the source — the main cause of misquotation.
recte
Latin for 'correctly' — supplies the right reading beside an error in a source.
Rejoinder
A considered reply to a remark or argument — longer and more reasoned than a retort.
Repartee
Quick, witty reply-and-counter-reply — wit measured by speed as much as by content.
Reporting Verb
The verb that introduces a quotation and colours how the reader hears it — 'said', 'claimed', 'insisted', 'conceded'.
Reprinted In
A citation element pointing readers from an original publication to the accessible reprint you actually used.
Retort
A quick, pointed reply that turns the previous speaker's words back on them.
Rhetoric
The art of persuasive speaking and writing — the discipline behind every great quoted line.
Rhetorical Question
A question asked for effect rather than to elicit an answer.
Riddle
A quotable statement built to conceal its referent until the hearer solves it.
Riposte
A quick, sharp reply that turns an opponent's remark back on them.
Run-In Quotation
A short quotation set inside the writer's own sentence with quotation marks, rather than displayed as a separate block.
Sally
A brief, spirited flight of wit — a remark that sallies out from the flow of talk and returns.
Saw
An old, familiar saying, usually anonymous, repeated so often it has taken on the authority of common sense.
Saying
A general term for any short, often-repeated expression of a common idea.
Sayings Gospel Q
A hypothesised lost collection of sayings reconstructed from quotation overlap.
Scare Quotes
Quotation marks used to flag a word as suspect, ironic, or not the writer's own.
Scesis Onomaton
Restating one idea through a string of near-synonymous phrases.
Screed
A long, vehement piece of writing or speech, usually a complaint delivered at length.
Screenshot Quotation
Quoting by circulating an image of text rather than the text itself.
Secondary Source
A later account that reports a quote, rather than recording it directly.
Self-Deprecating Quote
A line in which the speaker jokes at their own expense to disarm the listener.
Semicolons with Quotation Marks
Semicolons and colons always go outside the closing quotation mark, in every major style.
Sentence Case vs Title Case
Two capitalisation systems for titles — and the citation styles that require each.
Sententia
A short, weighty statement of general truth used to close or crown a passage of argument.
Sententiae of Publilius Syrus
A first-century BCE line collection that is the ancestor of the modern quote book.
Serial Comma in Quotations
How to handle a source's presence or absence of the Oxford comma when quoting.
Sermocinatio
Inventing speech for a real or imagined person to reveal their character.
Sermon
A religious address — historically one of the most prolific sources of quotation in any culture.
Shibboleth
A phrase whose use — or pronunciation — identifies the speaker as an insider or outsider.
Short-Form Citation
An abbreviated citation used after the first full citation of a source.
Sic
Latin for 'thus' — used in quotes to mark an error reproduced from the original.
Signal Phrase
The introductory clause — 'as Orwell writes' — that flags a quotation and identifies its source in running prose.
Significatio
Saying less than is meant so the audience supplies the rest.
Simile
A comparison that uses 'like' or 'as' — 'my love is like a red, red rose'.
Single vs Double Quotes
A national style difference — double in American English, single in much of British English.
Slogan
A short, catchy phrase designed to be remembered and repeated in the service of a cause, brand, or campaign.
Small Capitals in Quotations
When to reproduce, and when to normalise, small caps in quoted text.
Smart Quotes vs. Straight Quotes
Curly typographic quote marks ('smart') versus the vertical marks of typewriters and code ('straight').
Snowclone
A cliché template with fill-in-the-blank slots — an old quotation reused as a grammatical mould.
Song Lyric Quotation
Quoting words from a song, which carries stricter copyright rules than quoting prose.
Soundbite
A short, vivid extract from a longer speech, designed to be repeated by news media.
Source Note
An unnumbered note that credits the origin of a whole chapter, table, epigraph, or image.
Spacing After Ellipsis
The small mechanical rules governing spaces, periods, and line breaks around an omission mark.
Sports Quotation
A quotable line spoken in or about sport, often produced under pressure and off the cuff.
Square Brackets vs Parentheses
Brackets mark what someone else added to a quotation; parentheses mark what the original author wrote.
Stand-alone Quote
A quotation presented as its own block, without an introductory clause running into it.
Stet
An editorial mark meaning 'let it stand' — undo a proposed change and keep the original.
Stoic Quote Tradition
A 2,000-year-old practice of distilling ethical instruction into short, repeatable lines.
Straight Quote Typing
The habit of typing vertical quote characters where typographic curly quotes belong.
String Citation
A citation that stacks multiple sources in a single note to support one proposition.
sub verbo (s.v.)
'Under the word' — the way to cite an alphabetically organised reference work.
Supra
A cross-reference meaning 'above' — used to point back to a source or passage cited earlier in the same document.
Sutra
A terse aphoristic formula from Indian religious and technical literature, designed to be memorised.
Syllepsis
A construction in which one word governs two others in different senses at once.
Symploce
A figure in which each clause begins with the same word and ends with the same word — anaphora and epistrophe combined.
Synchysis
Interlocking word order — an ABAB arrangement that braids two ideas together.
Syncrisis
Comparison of two people or things, point by point, to evaluate both.
Synecdoche
A figure where the part stands for the whole, or the whole for the part.
T-Shirt Quotation
The wearable quotation: text chosen for identity display rather than for argument.
Table Talk
A published record of a notable person's informal conversation, usually taken down by an admirer at meals.
Tagline
A short phrase, usually attached to a brand or work, that sits under the name to condense its promise.
Talmudic Quotation
The layered citation tradition of Jewish religious literature — quote upon quote upon quote.
Tao Te Ching
An 81-chapter Chinese classic whose compression makes it endlessly quotable and endlessly mistranslated.
Tattoo Quotation
A quotation worn permanently on the body — the highest-stakes form of quoting.
Tautology
Saying the same thing twice in different words — sometimes a fault, sometimes a device.
Testimonia
Collected quotations from later writers that preserve the words or ideas of an earlier lost author.
The Art of War
Sun Tzu's military treatise, endlessly quoted far outside its original subject.
Tirade
A sustained, vehement speech of denunciation — anger organised into paragraphs.
Tirukkuṟaḷ
The classical Tamil work of 1,330 couplets, one of world literature's densest quotation sources.
Titles in Quotation Marks
How to punctuate a short work's title, including what happens when it meets other punctuation.
Tmesis
The insertion of a word into the middle of another word, usually for emphasis.
Toast Quotation
A quotation deployed as part of a toast — used to open, land, or lend weight to a raised-glass address.
Tombstone Quote
A quotation inscribed on a grave marker to characterise the person beneath.
Translation Fidelity
How faithfully a translated quote preserves the meaning and music of the original.
Translator Credit
Naming the translator, because a quotation in translation is also that translator's wording.
Tricolon
A rhetorical structure of three parallel clauses, phrases, or words — the most persuasive number in English.
Truism
A statement so obviously true that it is almost not worth saying.
Typographic Apostrophe
The curled apostrophe (’) used in typeset text, as opposed to the straight foot-mark (').
Valediction
A parting statement — the last words of a speech, letter, or life.
Variorum Edition
A scholarly edition of a work that gathers the variant readings of earlier editions and the notes of previous editors.
Verbatim
Word-for-word — quoting exactly as the original was spoken or written.
Version of Record
The publisher's final, fixed version of a scholarly article.
Viral Misattribution
The phenomenon by which a quotation snowballs into being attributed to a more famous figure online.
Watchword
A short, rallying quotation adopted by a group as a public expression of what it stands for.
Wedding Reading
Quotation chosen for a ceremony — selected for the room, not for the page.
Wisdom Literature
Ancient texts that collect practical advice, proverbs, and reflections on how to live.
Wisecrack
A flippant, knowing remark that scores a point through cheek rather than through wit's higher polish.
Witticism
A clever, often spontaneous remark that delivers humour through verbal ingenuity.
Yearbook Quote
A short line a student chooses to appear beneath their photograph in a school yearbook — an early exercise in self-presentation through quotation.
Yogi-ism
A paradoxical or malapropistic quotation in the style of baseball manager Yogi Berra — accidentally profound.
Zeitgeist
Zeitgeist is the prevailing spirit, mood, or intellectual climate of a particular age.
Zen Saying
A Zen saying is a brief line from Zen tradition that carries spiritual instruction, often through shock or compression.
Zeno's Paradox
Zeno's paradox is an ancient argument showing how motion, change, or completion can seem logically impossible.
Zetetic Method
The inquiry by disciplined questioning rather than by immediate assertion or settled doctrine.
Zettelkasten
A linked slip-box note system for collecting, connecting, and developing ideas over time.
Zeugma
A figure in which one word governs two or more others in different senses — often for wit or surprise.
Zeugma
A figure in which one word governs two others in different senses, usually one literal and one figurative.
Zibaldone
An Italian commonplace book — a personal miscellany of quotations, notes, and reflections gathered without formal order.
Zinger
A sharp, witty, and often cutting remark delivered for maximum effect — the modern cousin of the epigram.
Zombie Quote
A zombie quote is a false, dubious, or mangled quotation that keeps circulating after correction.
Zoomorphism
Zoomorphism is the description of a person, object, or abstraction in animal form or animal terms.