Dictionary of Fiction

This page is UnTrash Wiki's dictionary of terms from all throughout fiction. Like a real dictionary, it will give descriptions of those terms and provide example sentences. This is to compact every possible definition list page into one and save on every imaginable resource. Origin tags (like VG. and Mov.) will be used to denote where a tag comes from if it cannot be used universally.

A
Act - "Act" has more than one sense:

1) (n.) A segment a story has been cut into.

~"The first act of this play is the shortest of the seven."

2) (v.) To perform in or for a story, especially by physically assuming a role of a character in costume.

~"I acted as the main character's childhood friend."

|| Actor (fem. actress) - Someone who plays a role in a story.

~"My favorite actor from that movie was Guy Greene. He nailed the role and really made his own character feel alive."

Voice — - Someone who provides the voice of a character.

~"She's a very talented voice actress who can put on a variety of distinct personalities." ||

Antagonist - Any character who stands in the way of the protagonists. UnTrash has a page about this.

~"Poorly-written antagonists tend to be more clichéd and mindless than those that do what's wrong with sophisticated motives that personally matter to the protagonists and audience."

Author (B.) - A person who writes books.

"My favorite author as a kid was Emily S. Day. She wrote many bedtime books my parents would read me."

B
Backdrop - A cloth that acts as a background on a set.

~"We have a backdrop for many typical scenes of European countries."

Backstory - The life someone led before the story began.

~"His backstory was that he was a small-time thief before he joined the Good Guys."

C
Canon - The official set of facts and events relating to a franchise. We have a page about this.

~"This franchise's canon is pretty deep and almost suffered because of it."

|| Cast - The team of actors taking up roles for a story.

~"They're a very functional cast : they all have years of experience, everyone knows each other, and they work well together."

Principal — - The foremost actors in a project.

~"The principal cast of a show are likely the most recurrent crew members the audience sees or hears." ||

Catchphrase - A short saying someone repeatedly utters that becomes recognized and possibly part of their character.

~"Chase's early catchphrase that never caught on was 'Didja neeeed me?'."

Chapter - A manageable segment a story (most often a book) is broken into.

~"Despite having four more chapters, 'Chasing Jessica' is shorter than 'The World's Failing Again'."

Character - "Character" has more than one sense:

1) (n.) A thing — alive, dead, or undead — that makes an appearance in a franchise and is (treated like) a person.

~"All the characters in this show are girls except one. I know where this is going."

2) (n.) The persona an actor assumes.

~"It's hard to stay in character when the other actors on the set are screwing around."

Cheese (VG.) - "Cheese" has more than one sense:

1) (n.) A cheap, easy-win technique that often requires little effort on the player's end to complete a challenge.

~"Although I otherwise discourage trash gameplay, I'm partial to cheese when I'm fighting someone who's cheesing me off."

2) (v.) To win a part of the game with little difficulty using the above-described cheese.

~"These dumb, torturous, overly hard missions are begging you to cheese them."

Chick flick - A movie mostly targeting a female audience.

~"It was such a chick flick with all that kissing and loving. I mean, who wants to watch any of that?"

Cliché or cliche - An overdone element in fiction that typically causes annoyance in audience members.

~"That movie bombed after people bashed it for being loaded with more clichés than any one person could count."

Cliffhanger - A moment that sets up for a later dramatic continuation.

~"That cliffhanger to Guy Attempts to Visit the Moon Part 6 left me wondering if he'd break into NASA's headquarters without getting caught."

Crackfic - An otherworldly fanfic that got its name from crack cocaine.

~"My friend wrote a crackfic about Guy from UnTrash Wiki and SpongeBob from SpongeBob committing crime with time travel and space travel and also there are giant robots who launch animals and smoke weed for some reason."

Crossover - An installation that involves characters from at least two different franchises interacting.

~"A crossover between Guy Attempts to Visit the Moon and Criminal Hugo would be a pretty cool watch."

D
Dark humor - Humor that relies on grim topics like death, murder, or suicide.

~" Dark humor has its moments and places, but if you constantly fall back on it like a mattress in place of other comedy, you aren't being funny."

Dialogue - An instance of at least two characters talking to each other.

~"The dialogue in this film was a far cry from its greatest strength. Most of the characters were spouting nonsense throughout the whole duration."

Director (Mov.) - The person in charge of the creative production of the film who guides the rest of the crew throughout its making.

~"The director's name is Rinkus Dinkus. He worked on such films as 'Guy Attempts to Visit the Moon Episode I' and 'Guy Attempts to Visit the Moon Episode XXV'."

E
Easter egg - A hidden feature that the developers hid as a fun surprise for the audience to discover.

~"An upcoming Easter egg in Nexus's work is the Anomaly Man. He disappears just as suddenly as he appears."

Entertainment value - Whatever makes and keeps a franchise interesting.

~"This game I bought has such little entertainment value . There are hardly any side quests, the characters are all flat and forgettable, and the graphics. Oh, GOD, the graphics."

Episode (Tele.) - A lone installation to a TV or web show or series.

~"An episode from Dudes around the World that always bothered me is Chris is Still Alive."

|| Exposition - The act of explaining to the audience what is going on, what happened before, or what will happen through the characters.

~" Exposition can be done well if the characters don't blab to each other about it."

— dump - Slowing the story down with telling the audience what's happening in the story.

~"But the writers of this train wreck didn't care and still had their main characters fly into a full-on exposition dump for seven minutes." ||

F
|| Fan - A person who enjoys a franchise and is a part of its regular audience.

~"If you like a comic strip, you can consider yourself a fan ."

—base - The entirety of a franchise's regular audience.

~"The movie's fanbase is pretty small, but they still respect it very much."

—boy - A male fan.

~"Those Criminal Hugo fanboys all have the hots for one of its female leads."

—dom - "Fandom" has more than one sense.

1) A section of a fanbase made of like-minded individuals. This is often confused for "fanbase" and is what leads to people to use the two terms interchangeably.

~"Many anime fandoms make their favorite franchises look absolutely disgusting to outsiders."

2) The state of being a fan.

~"My fandom of this one webseries I follow has been dwindling lately. The artist behind it isn't uploading videos like how she used to."

—fic - Short for "fan fiction", seen below.

~"I revisited a fanfic I wrote when I was 14. It was unfiltered pain."

—girl - "Fangirl" has more than one sense:

1) (n.) A female fan.

~"My sister is a Summertime with Ava fangirl ."

2) (v.) To mindlessly gush about a franchise or character, often annoying others who disagree or are outside of the fandom.

~"She won't stop fangirling over this buff lifeguard Ava also has a crush on."

— favorite - An aspect, often a character, that the overall audience most heavily enjoys.

~"It's because of people like her the lifeguard is a fan favorite ."

— fiction - Also shortened to "fanfic". A non-canonical story written by a fan that takes place in an established franchise. Although not all are, fanfics are best known for having characters be in sexual situations.

~"My sister shamefully writes fan fiction between Ava and the lifeguard." ||

Franchise - An individual entity in which installments, characters, plots, and event are contained.

~"Somebody said it isn't a franchise if it only has one installation. Nope."

Friendfic - A fanfic in which two characters who aren't canonically friends are such.

~"Wouldn't it be a cute friendfic if Guy and Jessica could be together for even one day?"

G
Grawlix (plural grawlixes) (Com.) - Symbols that replaces profanities.

~" Grawlixes often consist of keyboard-friendly symbols like a dollar sign, but they can also be scribbles or planets."

H
Hack (VG.) - "Hack" has more than one sense.

1) (n.) A line of code used to change the game in some way.

~"I entered a hack that makes enemies' attacks always do less than 0 damage."

2) (v.) Editing the game's code. If a player does it to give themselves an advantage, it's often considered a form of cheating.

~"Is it wrong to hack a game whose favorite pastime is pissing you off?"

3) (n.) An altered version of one game that can be played separately from the original software.

~"My buddy recently did a hack of CyberCreeps: Girls Unleashed. ...I don't want to talk about what he did to it."

Hatedom - A group of people united to hate against something, typically a character, in a franchise.

~"There's been a hatedom built in Chris's name ever since he betrayed his friends for Jessica."

I
Installment - An individual addition to the franchise such as one book, movie, TV episode, or game.

~"Everybody keeps talking about how that game's last installment was trash."

J
Jank (VG.) - A part of the game that looks wrong in some way, usually caused by a glitch.

~"The dialogue in this game can be funny at times, but its sheer abundance of jank is where the real comedy's at."

L
Lampshading - Referencing an UnTrash with the purpose of either shaming it for being a bad one or to justify playing it. We have a page about this.

~"I was right there with Ava when she lampshaded All Just A Dream."

Lead - See protagonist below.

Line - A single word, phrase, sentence, or paragraph spoken by a character.

~"Hugo drops a famous line in 'Chase at the Bat'. I don't remember how it goes."

M
Magnum opus - The peak of a creator's work that may often be considered a masterpiece.

~"'Guy Visits the Moon' is widely regarded as Rinkus Dinkus's magnum opus ."

O
Off - Not in character.

~"It's strange seeing the clowns off but still in their costumes."

On - "On" has more than one sense.

1) (adj.) In character; performing.

~"He's been working as a comedian for so long that jokes naturally come out of him, even when he's not on ."

2) (adj.) Currently playing.

~"Everyone shut up — my show's on now."

One-liner - A short joke that fits into a single line.

~"The best moment in the film was Chase's one-liner about Guy being a loser."

Original - The first installment of a franchise.

~"Everyone loves the original while treating the sequels like they don't exist. Probably because they wish they didn't."

P
Parody - "Parody" has more than one sense.

1) (n.) A work that references a franchise such as a movie or video game on any level of obviousness, commonly to mock that franchise, and sometimes directly using its characters and settings as opposed to spoofs.

~"Guile Green is known for his unapologetic parodies of many of today's most popular TV shows."

2) (v.) To produce such a work.

~"Mr. Green has also parodied shows from the late 20th century, instead praising them for what he says is their entertainment value."

Part - "Part" has more than one sense.

1) (n.) Synonymous with "role", seen below.

2) (n.) A segment an episode plot is broken into.

~" Part one is where the story starts and part two is where it ends. If else, cancel the show."

|| Player (VG.) - The real-life person who plays a video game.

~"This game loves to taunt the player after they die."

—base - The collective of all everyone who plays a game.

~"The game is said to have a massive playerbase, but analysts never count for how a massive chunk of them (84%) haven't picked it up in the past decade."

— character - The in-game character who represents the player.

~"This game lets you customize your player character, from their name to their eye and hair color."

—name - The name a player chooses for themselves.

~"My playername will most likely be squishmin, but if my slate doesn't provide enough space, I'll go with squish." ||

Plot device - An often physical feature in a story that helps advance it by being an important and recurring topic.

~"The time-halting pocket watch Hugo inherited from his grandfather was the film's central plot device . ...Get it?"

Pop culture reference - See reference below.

Prequel - The continuation of a story that happens before the original installment.

~"The prequel to Dudes around the World was just an excuse to babify Guy and his friends."

Producer (Mov.) - The person who oversees the progress of and secures funding for the creative project.

~"The producer of a movie does more than that, UnTrash. They also hire workers, manage all parts of production, and more."

Protagonist - A character who takes the focus of a story.

~"Even though they are in most cases, protagonists aren't always supposed to be thought of as good by the audience."

Program (Tele.) - See show below.

Q
Quote - An instance of a character's removed line, likely to emphasize on how true it is even when applied to another context.

~"There are a few quotes from the last movie that people typically use when talking about art."

R
Reboot - The continuation of a franchise that has the same characters (possibly with significant changes) in a different setting after the original is concluded.

~"Not even the creators were comfortable with the reboot after it got trashed by everyone on planet Earth."

Reference - Short for "pop culture reference". Also known as a ref.

~"The movie made many references to the director's favorite shows as a kid."

Role - "Role" has more than one sense:

1) (n.) The character someone plays in a story.

~"She plays the role of the overlooked artist who becomes fed up with the outside world and only creates for herself."

2) (n.) The personality and condition a character takes up.

~"The Hero is an adventurous franchise role, whereas the Main is for non-adventurous franchises."

S
Satire - Mocking humor that pokes fun at the flaws, weaknesses, or past mistakes of its subject.

~"Back in the day, satire was a solemn seen element in a TV show. Nowadays, it's more common than actual quality of those shows."

Script - A document that outlines the plot, characters, their lines, and events in the plot.

~"There were script issues from day 1. The characters sounded like morons."

|| Season - "Season" has more than one sense:

1) (Tele.) A group of episodes with a normally one-year break in between each other. Commonly used to measure a show's age.

~"The end of season 6 of Dudes around the World is widely thought of as the time when the show stopped being good."

2) (VG.) A collection of DLC or other content.

~"Season 2 of Player Versus Everything is scheduled to bring new weapons, characters, and maps."

— finale (Tele.) - The last episode of a show's season.

~"The season finale to 4 was a pretty special episode that showed Guy and Ava finally getting back together." ||

Self-insert - When a creator puts themselves in their own work in some way.

~"My friend has a general dislike for self-inserts — he thinks they're disgusting and pathetic."

Sequel - The continuation of a story that happens later in the universe's time.

~"The sequel seems to never be as good as the original."

|| Series - See show below.

— finale (Tele.) - The episode that marks the end of a show.

~"Everyone dreaded the day the series finale would arrive, but they all agreed it was better than having the show go on for too long." ||

Set - The area where characters, their interactions, props, and backgrounds are placed and occur.

~"Everyone was doing so well until a dog ran onto the set and distracted the whole cast."

Ship - "Ship" has more than one sense:

1) (n.) The man-made, fan-made, non-canonical relationship between two characters, typically a romantic or sexual one.

~"The Guy x Jessica ship was not as good of an idea as I thought."

2) (v.) To forcefully pair two characters in such a relationship.

~"Many of the fandom's members like to ship any two characters from their franchise. Any. Two."

Show (Tele.) - Refers to a TV show.

~"The show lasted for a good eight seasons, but the creators felt burned out on it by 6."

Spin-off - An installation to a franchise separate from what could be considered its main line of installations or that sees at least one character from the Main Cast in a new setting.

~" 'Dudes around the World Unloaded' is a spin-off of 'Dudes around the World' that puts everyone in the future."

Spoof - A less obvious form of parody where elements are loosely taken from preexisting mediums.

~"There's this spoof character I created called Heemoar Zempzin and you'll never guess who he's supposed to be."

Surreal humor - Comedy that plays with strange or impossible events to get the audience to laugh.

~"I like using surreal humor because it gives me an excuse for putting my stupid ideas in my work."

T
Tearjerker - An installation that tends to or is said to be capable of making its audience cry.

~" 'Choo-Choo Goes Home' is a real tearjerker . It got me beaten up by real men by the end."

W
|| World - "World" has more than one sense:

1) (VG.) (n.) The entirety of an area where the player, NPCs, items, and more can be found. Mainly used to refer to truly large maps such as whole cities.

~"Vast worlds that lack side missions for the player to take feel vacant and lifeless."

2) (VG.) (n.) The collection of related levels in one area.

~"The game's world has seven smaller worlds in it, each being a unique biome. Confused yet?"

—building - The act of adding characters, locations, backstories, and other details to a world to make it feel more lifelike.

" Worldbuilding can really transform a franchise's central location. It can take any flat, generic American town and make it a place you wish you could visit." ||

Writer - A person who organizes a story or plot's events and dialogue.

~"I worked as a writer on the team behind 'Dudes around the World' for four years. People kept complaining about how my stories made no sense."

X
x (Web.) - "x" has more than one sense.

1) (interj.) Put between the names of two characters in a classic fanfic.

~"Come on. UnTrash Wiki x BOFSE. Let's DO IT."

2) (interj.) Indicates the collaboration of at least and usually two entities, such as franchises or companies.

~"Wait, no. This is where I wanted that other x example sentence. Stop thinking about it."

Guide
Origin tags, their keys, and more elements of this dictionary are listed below.