Literary Terms for the AP English Literature Exam.
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| 4008622326 | Accent | the stressed portion of a word | 0 | |
| 4008622327 | Allegory | a story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one | 1 | |
| 4008622328 | Alliteration | the occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words. | 2 | |
| 4008622329 | Allusion | an expression designed to bring something to mind without mentioning it plainly | 3 | |
| 4008622330 | Anachronism | a thing belonging or appropriate to a period other than that in which it exists; something that is old-fashioned | 4 | |
| 4008622331 | Analogy | a comparison between two things, typically on the basis of their structure and for the purpose of explanation or clarification | 5 | |
| 4008622332 | Anecdote | a short and amusing or interesting story about a real incident or person | 6 | |
| 4008622333 | Aphorism | a witty observation that contains a general truth about life, such as, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." | 7 | |
| 4008622334 | Apostrophe | an exclamatory passage in a speech or poem addressed to a person or thing | 8 | |
| 4008622335 | Aside | a remark or passage by a character in a play that is intended to be heard by the audience but unheard by the other characters in the play. | 9 | |
| 4008622336 | Assonance | in poetry, the repetition of the sound of a vowel in non-rhyming stressed syllables near enough to each other for an echo effect | 10 | |
| 4008622337 | Ballad | a long narrative poem or song narrating a single story, which is often tragic or violent, in short stanzas. | 11 | |
| 4008622338 | Caesura | a break between words within a metrical foot; "To err is human forgive, divine" | 12 | |
| 4008622339 | Folk Ballad | Traditional ballads are typically of unknown authorship, having been passed on orally from one generation to the next as part of the folk culture. | 13 | |
| 4008622340 | Literary Ballad | also called an art ballad that imitates the form and spirit of the folk ballad, but is more polished and uses a higher level of poetic diction | 14 | |
| 4008622341 | Blank Verse | poetry written in unrhymed iambic pentameter; often found in Shakespeare's works | 15 | |
| 4008622342 | Burlesque | an absurd or comically exaggerated imitation of something in a literary or dramatic work; a parody | 16 | |
| 4008622343 | Cacophony | a harsh, discordant mixture of sounds; opposite of euphony | 17 | |
| 4008622344 | Caricature | a picture, description, or imitation of a person or thing in which certain striking characteristics are exaggerated in order to create a comic or grotesque effect | 18 | |
| 4008622345 | Catharsis | the process of releasing, and thereby providing relief from, strong or repressed emotions. | 19 | |
| 4008622346 | Chorus | a group of performers, in Greek drama, who comment on the main action, typically speaking and moving together. | 20 | |
| 4008622347 | Classicism | the following of ancient Greek or Roman principles and style in art and literature, generally associated with harmony, restraint, and adherence to recognized standards of form and craftsmanship | 21 | |
| 4008622348 | Colloquialism | a word or phrase that is not formal or literary, typically one used in ordinary or familiar conversation. | 22 | |
| 4008622349 | Conceit | a fanciful expression in writing or speech; an elaborate metaphor | 23 | |
| 4008622350 | Consonance | the recurrence of similar sounds, such as consonants, in close proximity | 24 | |
| 4008622351 | Conundrum | a riddle whose answer is or involves a pun; may also be a paradox or difficult problem | 25 | |
| 4008622352 | Description | the picturing in words of something or someone through detailed observation of color, motion, sound, taste, smell, and touch; one of the four modes of discourse | 26 | |
| 4008622353 | Diction | word choice; also called syntax | 27 | |
| 4008622354 | Discourse | written or spoken language and literary works | 28 | |
| 4008622355 | Dissonance | the grating of sounds that are harsh or do not go together | 29 | |
| 4008622356 | Elegy | a poem of serious reflection, typically a lament for the dead | 30 | |
| 4008622357 | End Rhyme | a rhyme that comes at the end of lines of poetry | 31 | |
| 4008622358 | Epic | a long poem, typically one derived from ancient oral tradition, narrating the deeds and adventures of heroic or legendary figures or the history of a nation | 32 | |
| 4008622359 | Epigram | a pithy saying or remark expressing an idea in a clever and amusing way; a short poem having a witty or ingenious ending | 33 | |
| 4008622360 | Euphony | the quality of being pleasing to the ear through a harmonious combination of words | 34 | |
| 4008622361 | Exemplum | a model moralizing or illustrative story | 35 | |
| 4008622362 | Exposition | the part of a play or work of fiction in which the background to the main conflict is introduced and revealed | 36 | |
| 4008622363 | Farce | a comic dramatic work using buffoonery and horseplay and typically including crude characterization and ludicrously improbable situations | 37 | |
| 4008622364 | Figurative Language | language that contains figures of speech such as similes and metaphors in order to create associations that are imaginative rather than literal | 38 | |
| 4008622365 | Figures of Speech | expressions such as similes, metaphors, and personifications that make imaginative, rather than literal, comparisons or asscociatons | 39 | |
| 4008622366 | Foil | a character who, by contrast, highlights the characteristics of another character | 40 | |
| 4008622367 | Folklore | the traditional beliefs, customs, stories, and songs of a community, passed through the generations by word of mouth | 41 | |
| 4008622368 | Foot | the combination of stressed and unstressed syllables that makes up the basic rhythmic unit of a line of poetry | 42 | |
| 4008622369 | Anapest | a metrical foot consisting of two short or unstressed syllables followed by one long or stressed syllable; in-ter-rupt | 43 | |
| 4008622370 | Dactyl | a metrical foot consisting of one stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables or one long syllable followed by two short syllables; beau-ti-ful | 44 | |
| 4008622371 | Iamb | a metrical foot consisting of one short unstressed syllable followed by one long stressed syllable; dis-turb | 45 | |
| 4008622372 | Spondee | a foot consisting of two long or stressed syllables; hodge-podge | 46 | |
| 4008622373 | Trochee | a foot consisting of one long or stressed syllable followed by one short or unstressed syllable; in-jure and con-stant | 47 | |
| 4008622374 | Foreshadowing | be a warning or indication of a future event in a story | 48 | |
| 4008622375 | Free Verse | poetry that is written without a regular meter, usually without ryme | 49 | |
| 4008622376 | Genre | a category of literature, characterized by similarities in form, style, or subject matter | 50 | |
| 4008622377 | Gothic | referring to a type of novel that emerged in the eighteenth century that uses mystery, suspense, and sensational and supernatural occurrences to evoke terror | 51 | |
| 4008622378 | Hubris | in Greek tragedies, excessive pride toward or defiance of the gods, leading to nemesis | 52 | |
| 4008622379 | Humor | anything that causes laughter or amusement | 53 | |
| 4008622380 | Hyperbole | exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally | 54 | |
| 4008622381 | Idyll | a short description in verse or prose of a picturesque scene or incident, esp. in rustic life | 55 | |
| 4008622382 | Imagery | visually descriptive or figurative language in a literary work | 56 | |
| 4008622383 | Interior Monologue | writing that records the conversation that occurs inside a character's head | 57 | |
| 4008622384 | Internal Rhyme | a rhyme occurring within a line of poetry | 58 | |
| 4008622385 | Inversion | reversal of the normal order of words, typically for rhetorical effect but also found in the regular formation of questions in English | 59 | |
| 4008622386 | Irony | the expression of one's meaning by using language that normally signifies the opposite, typically for humorous or emphatic effect | 60 | |
| 4008622387 | Loose Sentence | a sentence that is grammatically complete before its end | 61 | |
| 4008622388 | Lyric | expressing the writer's emotions, usually short and briefly and in stanzas or recognized form | 62 | |
| 4008622389 | Metaphor | a figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable | 63 | |
| 4008622390 | Meter | the repetition of a regular rhythmic unit in a line of peotry | 64 | |
| 4008622391 | Monometer | One foot | 65 | |
| 4008622392 | Dimeter | Two feet | 66 | |
| 4008622393 | Trimeter | Three feet | 67 | |
| 4008622394 | Tetrameter | Four feet | 68 | |
| 4008622395 | Pentameter | Five feet | 69 | |
| 4008622396 | Hexameter | Six feet | 70 | |
| 4008622397 | Heptameter | Seven feet | 71 | |
| 4008622398 | Metonymy | the substitution of the name of an attribute or adjunct for that of the thing meant | 72 | |
| 4008622399 | Mode | the method or form of a literary work: a manner in which a work of literature is written | 73 | |
| 4008622400 | Mood | similar to tone, it is the primary emotional attitude of a work | 74 | |
| 4008622401 | Myth | a traditional story, concerning the early history of a people or explaining some natural or social phenomenon, and typically involving supernatural beings or events | 75 | |
| 4008622402 | Narration | the action or process of narrating a story | 76 | |
| 4008622403 | Naturalism | 19th-century artistic and literary movement, influenced by contemporary ideas of science and society, that rejected the idealization of experience and adopted an objective and often uncompromisingly realistic approach to art. | 77 | |
| 4008622404 | Objectivity | an impersonal presentation of events and characters | 78 | |
| 4008622405 | Ode | a lyric poem in the form of an address to a particular subject, often elevated in style or manner and written in varied or irregular meter | 79 | |
| 4008622406 | Onomatopoeia | the formation of a word from a sound associated with what is named; cuckoo; sizzle | 80 | |
| 4008622407 | Oxymoron | a figure of speech in which apparently contradictory terms appear in conjunction | 81 | |
| 4008622408 | Parable | a simple story used to illustrate a moral or spiritual lesson, as told by Jesus in the Gospels | 82 | |
| 4008622409 | Paradox | a statement or proposition that leads to a conclusion that seems senseless, logically unacceptable, or self-contradictory | 83 | |
| 4008622410 | Parallelism | the use of successive verbal constructions in poetry or prose that correspond in grammatical structure, sound, meter, meaning | 84 | |
| 4008622411 | Parody | an imitation of the style of a particular writer, artist, or genre with deliberate exaggeration for comic effect | 85 | |
| 4008622412 | Pastoral | a work of literature portraying or evoking country life, typically in a romanticized or idealized form | 86 | |
| 4008622413 | Periodic Sentence | a sentence that is not grammatically complete until it's last phrase | 87 | |
| 4008622414 | Personification | the attribution of a personal nature or human characteristics to something nonhuman | 88 | |
| 4008622415 | Persuasion | a mode of discourse in which the action or fact of persuading someone or of being persuaded to do or believe something | 89 | |
| 4008622416 | Petrarchan Sonnet | one of the most important types of sonnets, composed of an octave with abba abba rhyme scheme and ending in a sestet with cde cde rhyme scheme; also called an Italian sonnet | 90 | |
| 4008622417 | Point of View | the perspective from which a story is presented | 91 | |
| 4008622418 | First Person Narrator | character in a story who relates their actions and thoughts through his or her perspective | 92 | |
| 4008622419 | Stream of Consciousness Narrator | similar to first person, but places the reader in the character's head | 93 | |
| 4008622420 | Omniscient Narrator | a third person narrator who is able to see into other character's minds and understand all their actions | 94 | |
| 4008622421 | Limited Omniscient Narrator | a third person narrator who only reports the thoughts of one character and generally only what the one character sees | 95 | |
| 4008622422 | Objective Narrator | a third person narrator who only reports what would be visible to a camera; thoughts and feelings are only revealed if the character speaks of them | 96 | |
| 4008622423 | Protagonist | the leading character or one of the major characters in a literary work | 97 | |
| 4008622424 | Realism | late 19th-century movement that meant to portray and focus on simple and unidealized treatment of contemporary life | 98 | |
| 4008622425 | Refrain | repeated line or number of lines in a poem or song, typically at the end of each verse | 99 | |
| 4008622426 | Regionalism | an element in literature that conveys a realistic portrayal of a specific geographical locale, using the locale and its influences as a major part of the plot | 100 | |
| 4008622427 | Rhyme | a similarity of accented sounds between two words | 101 | |
| 4008622428 | Masculine Ryhme | the rhyme sound is the last syllable of a line | 102 | |
| 4008622429 | Feminine Ryhme | the accented syllable is followed by an unaccented syllable | 103 | |
| 4008622430 | Romanticism | a movement in the arts and literature that originated in the late 18th century, emphasizing inspiration, subjectivity, and the primacy of the individual | 104 | |
| 4008622431 | Sarcasm | the use of irony to mock or convey contempt | 105 | |
| 4008622432 | Simile | a figure of speech involving the comparison of one thing with another thing of a different kind, used to make a description more emphatic or vivid | 106 | |
| 4008622433 | Soliloquy | an act of speaking one's thoughts aloud when by oneself or regardless of any hearers, especially by a character in a play | 107 | |
| 4008622434 | Sonnet | a poem of fourteen lines using any of a number of formal rhyme schemes, in English typically having ten syllables per line | 108 | |
| 4008622435 | Speaker | the voice of a poem; an author may speak as himself or herself or as a fictional character | 109 | |
| 4008622436 | Stanza | a group of lines forming the basic recurring metrical unit in a poem; a verse | 110 | |
| 4008622437 | Couplet | the simplest stanza, consisting of two rhymed lines | 111 | |
| 4008622438 | Tercet | three lines, usually having the same rhyme | 112 | |
| 4008622439 | Quatrain | Four lines | 113 | |
| 4008622440 | Cinquain | Five lines | 114 | |
| 4008622441 | Sestet | Six lines | 115 | |
| 4008622442 | Octave | Eight lines | 116 | |
| 4008622443 | Stereotype | a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing | 117 | |
| 4008622444 | Stock Character | a standard character who may be stereotyped such as the miser or fool | 118 | |
| 4008622445 | Style | an author's characteristic manner of expression | 119 | |
| 4008622446 | Subjectivity | based on or influenced by the authors personal feelings, tastes, or opinion | 120 | |
| 4008622447 | Suspension of Disbelief | the demand made of a theater audience to provide some details with their imagination and to accept the limitations of reality and staging; also the acceptance of the incident of the plot by the reader or audience | 121 | |
| 4008622448 | Symbolism | the use of symbols to represent both literal and representative ideas or qualities with a more complex significance | 122 | |
| 4008622449 | Synecdoche | a figure of speech in which a part is made to represent the whole or vice versa | 123 | |
| 4008622450 | Syntax | the word choice of diction | 124 | |
| 4008622451 | Theme | the central idea or message of a literary work | 125 | |
| 4008622452 | Tone | the characteristic emotion of attitude of an author toward the characters, subject, and audience | 126 | |
| 4008622453 | Tragic Flaw | the one weakness that causes the downfall of the hero in a tragedy | 127 | |
| 4008622454 | Villanelle | a lyric poem consisting of five tercets ad a final question | 128 | |
| 4008622455 | Voice | the way a written work conveys an author's atittude | 129 | |
| 4008622456 | Rhythm | Four strong beats; "To err is human forgive, divine" | 130 | |
| 4008622457 | Kenning | Two word poetic renaming; sea-paths (rivers); Lord of life, Ruler of glory (God) | 131 | |
| 4008622458 | Epithets | Brief, descriptive phrases used to characterize people or things | 132 | |
| 4008622459 | Hamartia | Greek word for character flaws. (Often used instead of "character flaws" on AP Test) | 133 |
