Diction
Levels of Diction (Formal / Standard / Informal)
Formal / High Diction
Formal or high diction contains language that creates an elevated tone. High or formal diction is free of slang, idioms, colloquialisms, and contractions. It often contains polysyllabic words, sophisticated syntax, and elegant word choice.
Related terms (with various connotations): cultured, learned, dignified, pretentious, scholarly, pedantic, elaborate, ornate, elegant, flowery
Example: “It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance, sir.”
Standard Diction
Standard diction follows grammatical rules and uses normal vocabulary. It is meant to be clear and easily understood.
Related terms: unadorned, plain, detached, simple
Example: “Nice to meet you.”
Informal / Colloquial Diction
Informal, colloquial, or low* diction is the plain language of everyday use. It is relaxed and conversational. It often includes common and simple words, idioms, slang, jargon, and contractions. *Note: Beware the condescending connotation of the word “low.” I would only use the term “low diction” if the author uses it to degrade a character.
Example: “Sup?”
Complexity (Complex / Standard / Simple)
Complex / Standard / Simple Diction
Specific Types of Complex Diction
Bombastic diction refers to speech that is pompous and important-sounding but largely meaningless.
Example: “My dear Copperfield, a man who labors under the pressure of pecuniary embarrassments, is, with the generality of people, at a disadvantage. That disadvantage is not diminished, when that pressure necessitates the drawing of stipendiary emoluments, before those emoluments are strictly due and payable.” — Charles Dickens, David Copperfield
Pretentious diction means language that is intentionally complex and pretentious.
Examples: “Members of an avian species of identical plumage congregate” (birds of a feather flock together); “Freedom from incrustation of grime is contiguous to rectitude” (cleanliness is godliness); “neophyte's serendipity” (beginner’s luck)
Specific Types of Simple Diction
Trite diction is cliché and uninteresting because of overuse.
Example: Here are some examples of trite phrases from graduation speeches: “You are the future”; “Follow your dreams”; “As you embark on the next phase of your journey”; “I’m humbled”; “Get out of your comfort zone.”
Child-directed or infant-directed diction is the academic term for “baby talk,” or the way that adults sometimes speak to young children and pets.
Example: “Who’s my little cutie? Who’s my little cutie? Do you like it when I tickle your little toesies?”
Specificity
Abstract / Concrete Diction
Abstract diction refers to language that denotes intangible ideas, emotions, conditions, or concepts — anything that can’t be perceived through the five senses.
Concrete diction consists of specific words that describe physical qualities or conditions — anything that can be perceived through the five senses.
Poetry often takes abstract ideas and makes them concrete: “Is love a tender thing? It is too rough, / Too rude, too boisterous, and it pricks like thorn.” — William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet
Precise / Ambiguous Diction
Precise diction is straightforward, exact, and unambiguous.
Denotative / Connotative Diction
Denotative diction is unambiguous, literal, exact, journalistic, and straightforward. There are not subtle shades of meaning in the language.
Connotative diction has subtle shades of meaning. It is often poetic, lyrical, figurative, symbolic, metaphoric, obscure.
Tone
Euphonic / Cacophonous Diction
Harsh / Neutral / Mild Diction
Specific Type of Mild Diction
Euphemistic diction means that mild expressions are used instead of harsh ones.
Example: “I am one, sir, that comes to tell you your daughter and the Moor are now making the beast with two backs.” — William Shakespeare, Othello
Example: “‘For the time being,’ he explains, ‘it had been found necessary to make a readjustment of rations.’” — George Orwell, Animal Farm
Cold / Neutral / Warm Diction
Beauty & Lack Thereof
Picturesque Diction
Picturesque diction refers to words used to depict a visually pleasing scene. Writers can use picturesque diction to create pleasant visual imagery.
Example: “Come live with me and be my love, / And we will all the pleasures prove, / That Valleys, groves, hills, and fields, / Woods, or steepy mountain yields.” — Christopher Marlowe, “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love”
Sensuous Diction
Sensuous diction consists of words that suggest physical gratification.
Example: “Ah, happy, happy boughs! that cannot shed / Your leaves, nor ever bid the Spring adieu; / And, happy melodist, unwearied, / For ever piping songs for ever new; / More happy love! more happy, happy love! // For ever warm and still to be enjoy'd, / For ever panting, and for ever young; / All breathing human passion far above, / That leaves a heart high-sorrowful and cloy'd, / A burning forehead, and a parching tongue.” — John Keats, “Ode to a Grecian Urn”
Grotesque Diction
Grotesque diction highlights the bizarre, the absurd, the ugly, the uncanny, the twisted aspects of human reality. It often describes deformities or disturbing abnormalities of the human body.
Example: “The cows in their pens lay burbling blood through their nostrils, with javelin holes in their necks. None had been eaten. The watchdogs lay like dark wet stones, with their heads cut off, teeth bared. The fallen hall was a square of flames and acrid smoke, and the people inside (none of them had been eaten either) were burned black, small, like dwarfs turned dark and crisp.” — John Gardner, Grendel
Vulgar Diction
Vulgar diction is coarse and rude, often explicitly mentioning sex or bodily functions.
Example: “I did try and f*** her. She was married. … I moved on her like a b****. But I couldn’t get there. And she was married. Then all of a sudden I see her, she’s now got the big phony t**** and everything.” — Donald Trump, 2005
Other
Jargon
Jargon or technical diction consists of words and expressions characteristic of a particular trade, profession, or pursuit.
Example: Nautical jargon includes the terms “cuddy,” “mizzen,” and “binnacle,” from The Secret Sharer by Joseph Conrad.
Dialect
Dialect is a nonstandard subgroup of a language with its own vocabulary and grammatical features. Writers often use regional dialects or dialects that reveal a person’s economic or social class.
Example: “Well, why don’t you? Becuz you know mighty well you can’t. This is a pretty early tick, I reckon.” — Mark Twain, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Ironic Diction
Ironic diction refers to language that conveys the opposite of its literal meaning. Verbal irony uses ironic diction.
Example: “A flat tire is exactly what I needed this morning.”