Literature Glossary
Don’t be an oxymoron. Know your literary terms.
Over 200 literary terms, Shmooped to perfection.
Synesthesia
Definition:
What do you get when you take the five senses and throw them in a blender? If you're a writer, you get synesthesia, which is the fancy name for mixing the senses in order to create a more complex or meaningful description of something.
If you're ragging on your Uncle Herbert's loud Hawaiian shirt, for example, that's synesthesia because loud is an adjective that pertains to sound, and shirts don't make sounds. They can definitely be an aggressive assault on your eyes, though.