| 7611804754 | Alliteration | The repetition if consonant sounds at the beginning of words that are close to one another. "Beautiful blossoms blooming..." | 0 | |
| 7611819714 | Allusion | A reference to another work or famous figure that is assumed to be well known enough to be recognized by the reader. | 1 | |
| 7611830578 | Anachronism | An event, object, custom, person, or thing that is out of order in time; | 2 | |
| 7611847649 | Analogy | A comparison of two similar but different things, usually to clarify an action or relationship, such as comparing the work of a heart to that of a pump. | 3 | |
| 7611860337 | Anaphora | Specific type of repetition; word, phrase, or clause repeated at the beginning of two or more sentences in a row. "I had a dream..." | 4 | |
| 7611873945 | Anecdote | A short, simple narrative of an incident; often used for humorous effect or to make a point. | 5 | |
| 7611901087 | Aphorism | A short, often witty statement of a principle or a truth about life. | 6 | |
| 7611910179 | Apostrophe | Usually in poetry but sometimes in prose; the device of calling out to an imaginary, dead, or absent person or to a place, thing, or personified abstraction. | 7 | |
| 7611926993 | Argumentation | Writing that attempts to prove the validity of a point of view or an idea by presenting reasoned arguments; persuasive writing is a form of argumentation. | 8 | |
| 7611946595 | Assonance | The repetition of vowel sounds between different consonants, such as in neigh/fade. | 9 | |
| 7611952961 | Authority | Support for an argument that is based on recognized experts in the field. | 10 | |
| 7611963611 | Burlesque | Broad parody; whereas a parody will imitate and exaggerate a specific work. ex. Romeo and Juliet, a burlesque will take an entire style or form, such as myths, and exaggerate it into ridiculousness. | 11 | |
| 7611988646 | Cacophony | Harsh, awkward, or dissonant sounds used deliberately in poetry or prose; the opposite of EUPHONY | 12 | |
| 7612006767 | Caricature | Descriptive writing that greatly exaggerates a specific feature of a person's appearance or a facet of personality. | 13 | |
| 7612031131 | Classicism | The principles and styles admired in the classics of Greek and Roman literature, such as objectivity, sensibility, restraint, and formality. | 14 | |
| 7612046415 | Colloquialism | A word or phrase used in everyday conversation and informal writing but that is often inappropriate in formal writing. | 15 | |
| 7612064979 | Coherence | Quality of a piece of writing in which all the parts contribute to the development of the central idea, theme, or organizing. | 16 | |
| 7612081562 | Conceit | An elaborate figure of speech in which two seemingly dissimilar things or situations are compared. | 17 | |
| 7612095244 | Connotation | Implied or suggested meaning of a word because of its association in the reader's mind. | 18 | |
| 7612102193 | Consanance | The repetition of identical consonant sounds before and after different vowel sounds, as in boost/best; it can be seen within several compound words, such as fulfill and Ping-Pong. | 19 | |
| 7612126180 | Conundrum | A riddle whose answer is or involves a pun; it may also be a paradox or difficult problem. | 20 | |
| 7612136558 | Denotation | Literal meaning of a word as defined. | 21 | |
| 7612141610 | Description | The picturing of words of something or someone through detailed observation of color, motion, sound, taste, smell, and touch; one of four modes of discourse. | 22 | |
| 7612154431 | Discourse | Spoken or written language, including literary works; the four traditionally classified modes of discourse are description, exposition, narration, and persuasion. | 23 | |
| 7612176796 | Diction | Word choice, an element of style; also called syntax. | 24 | |
| 7612186560 | Dissonance | harsh or grating sounds that do not go together. | 25 | |
| 7612192353 | Epigram | A concise, witty saying in poetry or prose that either stands alone or is part of a larger work; it may also refer to a short poem of this type. | 26 | |
| 7612205222 | Euphony | A succession of harmonious sounds used in poetry or prose; the opposite of CACOPHONY | 27 | |
| 7612213616 | Exempum | A brief tale used in medieval times to illustrate a sermon or teach a lesson. | 28 | |
| 7612227678 | Exposition | The immediate revelation to the audience of the setting and other background information necessary for understanding the plot; also, explanation; one of the four modes of discourse. | 29 | |
| 7612243150 | Figurative Language | Language that contains figures of speech, such as similes and metaphors, in order to create associations that are imaginative rather than literal. | 30 | |
| 7612260997 | Figures of Speech | Expression, such as similes, metaphors, and personification that make imaginative, rather than literal, comparisons or associations. | 31 | |
| 7612273810 | Folklore | Traditional stories, songs, dances, and customs that are preserved among a people; folklore usually precedes literature, being passed down orally from generation to generation until recorded by scholars. | 32 | |
| 7612292282 | Foreshodowing | The use of a hint or clue to suggest a larger event that occurs later in the work. | 33 | |
| 7612299907 | Genre | A type of literary work, such as a novel or poem; there are also subgenres, such as science fiction or sonnet, within the larger genres. | 34 | |
| 7612321624 | Hubris | The excessive pride or ambition that leads a tragic hero to disregard warnings of impeding doom, eventually causing his or her downfall. | 35 | |
| 7612333800 | Humor | Anything that causes laughter or amusement; up until the end Renaissance, humor meant a person's temperament. | 36 | |
| 7618676383 | Hyperbole | Deliberate exaggeration in order to create humor or emphasis. | 37 | |
| 7618682346 | Idyll | A short descriptive narrative, usually a poem about an idealized country life; also called pastoral. | 38 | |
| 7618691261 | Imagery | Words or phrases that use a collection of images to appeal to one or more of the five senses in order to create a mental picture | 39 | |
| 7618698676 | Interior Monologue | Writing that records the conversation that occurs inside a character's head. | 40 | |
| 7618706319 | Inversion | Reversing the customary orders of elements in a sentence or phrase,it is used effectively in many cases, such as posing a question. | 41 | |
| 7618717575 | Irony | A situation or statement in which the actual outcome or meaning is opposite to what was expected. | 42 | |
| 7618726926 | Loose Sentence | A sentence that is grammatically complete before its end. | 43 | |
| 7618758364 | Metaphor | A figure of speech in which one thing is referred to as another, for example, "My love is fragile as a flower". | 44 | |
| 7618771122 | Metonymy | A figure of speech that uses the name of an object, person, or idea to represent something which it is associated, such as using "the crown" to refer to the monarch. | 45 | |
| 7618783076 | Mode | The method or form of a literary work; the manner in which a work of literature is written. | 46 | |
| 7618790555 | Mood | Similar to tone, mood is primary emotional attitude of a work. | 47 | |
| 7618794500 | Motif | Main theme or subject of a work that is elaborated on in the development of the piece; a repeated pattern or idea. | 48 | |
| 7618801370 | Myth | One story in a system of narrative set in a complete imaginary world that once served to explain the origin of life, religious beliefs, and the forces of nature as supernatural occurrences. | 49 | |
| 7618812993 | Narration | The telling of a story in a fiction. nonfiction. poetry or drama; one of the four modes of discourse. | 50 | |
| 7618822972 | Naturalism | A literary movement that grew out of realism in France, the US, and England in the late-nineteenth and early twentieth century. Portrays humans as having no free will, being driven by the natural forces or heredity, environment, and animalistic urges over which they have no control. | 51 | |
| 7618846544 | Objectivity | An impersonal presentation of events and characters. | 52 | |
| 7618850630 | Onomatopoeia | The use of words that sound like what they mean, such as "hiss" and "boom". | 53 | |
| 7618874058 | Oxymoron | A figure of speech composed of contradictory words or phrases, such as "wise fool". | 54 | |
| 7618856042 | Parable | A short tale that teaches a moral; similar to but shorter than an allegory. (Allegory - a story, poem, or picture that can interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political meaning.) | 55 | |
| 7618882425 | Paradox | A statement that seems to contradict itself but that turns out to have a rational meaning. | 56 | |
| 7618888467 | Parallelism | The technique of arranging words, phrases, clauses, or larger structures by placing them side by side and making them similar in form. | 57 | |
| 7618910007 | Parody | A work that ridicules the style of another work by imitating and exaggerating its elements. | 58 | |
| 7618929055 | Periodic Sentence | A sentence that is not grammatically complete until its last phrase. | 59 | |
| 7618933877 | Persona | A fictional voice that a writer adopts to tell a story, determined by the subject matter and audience. | 60 | |
| 7618939242 | Personification | The attribution of human qualities to a nonhuman or inanimate object. | 61 | |
| 7618947370 | Persuasion | A form of argumentation, one of the four modes of discourse; language intended to convince through appeals to reason or emotion. | 62 | |
| 7618956182 | Point of View | The perspective from which a story is presented. ex. First person (using "I"). second person, and third person. | 63 | |
| 7619018753 | Stream of consciousness narrator | Like a first narrator, but instead placing the reader inside the character's head, making the reader privy to the continuous, chaotic flow of disconnected, half-formed thoughts and impressions in the character's mind. | 64 | |
| 7619037653 | Omniscient narrator | A third person narrator, referred to as "he", "she", or "they", who is able to see into each character's mind and understands all the action. | 65 | |
| 7619060812 | Limited omniscient narrator | A third person narrator who reports the thoughts of only one character and generally only what that one character sees. | 66 | |
| 7619071670 | Objective narrator | A third person narrator who only reports what would be visible to a camera; thoughts and feelings are only revealed if a character speaks of them. | 67 | |
| 7619084079 | Protagonist | The main character of a literary work. | 68 | |
| 7619087216 | Realism | A 19th century literary movement, stressed accuracy in the portrayal of life. Focusing on characters with whom middle-class readers could easily identify; it is in direct contrast with romanticism. | 69 | |
| 7619097243 | Rhetoric | The art of persuasion, using language effectively. Remember SOAPS (Subject, Occasion, Audience, Purpose, Speaker). | 70 | |
| 7619116309 | 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. | 71 | |
| 7619128277 | Rhetorical modes | Exposition, description, narration, argumentation | 72 | |
| 7619131075 | Romanticism | A literary, artistic, and philosophical movement that began in the 18th century. Focal points; imagination, emotion, and freedom. Stressing subjectivity, individuality, the love and worship of nature, and a fascination with the past. | 73 | |
| 7619146088 | Sarcasm | Harsh, caustic personal remarks to or about someone; less subtle than irony. | 74 | |
| 7619150344 | Simile | A figure of speech that uses "like" or "as". A direct comparison between two things. | 75 | |
| 7619164817 | Speaker | The voice of a work; an author may speak as himself/herself or as a fictitious persona. | 76 | |
| 7619171502 | Stereotype | A character; who represents a trait that is usually attributed to a particular social or racial group and who lacks individuality. | 77 | |
| 7619177504 | Style | An author's characteristic manner of expression | 78 | |
| 7619180347 | Subjectivity | A personal presentation of events and characters, influenced by the author's feelings and opinions. | 79 | |
| 7619188005 | Suspension of disbelief | The demand that made the reader accepts the incidents recounted in the literary work. | 80 | |
| 7619191278 | Symbolism | The use of symbols or anything that is meant to be taken both literally and as a representative of a higher and more complex significance. | 81 | |
| 7619200767 | Synecdoche | A figure of speech in which a part of something is used to represent a whole, such as using "boards" to mean a stage or "wheels" to mean a car. | 82 | |
| 7619209465 | Syntax | Word choice or diction or arrangement of words in a phrase. | 83 | |
| 7619215086 | Theme | The central idea or "message" of a literary work. | 84 | |
| 7619217033 | Tone | The characteristic emotion or attitude of an author toward the characters, subject, and audience. | 85 | |
| 7619221989 | Unity | Quality of a piece of writing... Coherence | 86 | |
| 7619224600 | Voice | The way a written work conveys an author's attitude. | 87 |
AP Language and Comp Vocab Flashcards
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