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| 5890267263 | allegory | A story in which the narrative or characters carry an underlying symbolic, metaphorical, or possibly an ethical meaning. The story and characters represent values beyond themselves. | 0 | |
| 5890267266 | alliteration | The repetition of one or more initial consonants in a group of words or lines of poetry or prose. The repetition can reinforce meaning, unify ideas, supply a musical sound, and/or echo the sense of the passage. | 1 | |
| 5890267267 | allusion | A direct or indirect reference to something which is presumably commonly known, such as an event, book, myth, place, or work of art. References can be historical, literary, religious, topical, or mythical. | 2 | |
| 5890267268 | ambiguity | A vagueness of meaning, either intentional or unintentional, resulting from using the multiple meanings of a word, phrase, sentence, or passage; a conscious lack of clarity meant to evoke multiple meanings and interpretation. | 3 | |
| 5890267270 | analogy | A comparison that points out similarities between two dissimilar things by suggesting a relationship between them. Something unfamiliar can be explained by pointing out its similarity to something more familiar. The comparisons can make writing more vivid, imaginative, or intellectually engaging. | 4 | |
| 5890323817 | anaphora | One of the devices of repetition, in which the same word or words is repeated at the beginning of two or more lines, clauses, or sentences. | 5 | |
| 5890333932 | anecdote | A short narrative detailing particulars of an interesting episode or event. The term most frequently refers to an incident in the life of a person. | 6 | |
| 5890341355 | antecedent | The word, phrase, or clause referred to by a pronoun. The AP exam occasionally asks for the antecedent of a given pronoun in a long, complex sentence or in a group of sentences. | 7 | |
| 5890267273 | antithesis | A rhetorical balance in which two contrasting ideas are intentionally juxtaposed, usually through the parallel arrangement of words, clauses, or sentences. The grammatical structure creates a definite and systematic relationship between ideas. | 8 | |
| 5890267274 | aphorism | A terse, pithy statement of known authorship which expresses a general truth or a moral principle. The statement can be a memorable summation of the author's point. If authorship is unknown, the statement is generally considered to be a folk proverb. | 9 | |
| 5890267276 | apostrophe | A figure of speech that directly addresses an absent or imaginary person or a personified abstraction, such as liberty or love. It is an address to someone or something that cannot answer. The effect is to give vent to or to display intense emotion which can no longer be held back. | 10 | |
| 5890352834 | asyndeton | Consists of omitting conjunctions between words, phrases, or clauses. This can give the effect of unpremeditated multiplicity, or an extemporaneous rather than a labored account. The lists can more emphatic than if a final conjunction were used. | 11 | |
| 5890375323 | atmosphere | The emotional mood created by the entirety of a literary work, established partly by the setting and aprtly by the author's choice of objects that are described. The mood fre foreshadow events. | 12 | |
| 5890441748 | chiasmus | From the Greek word for "criss-cross," a designation based on the Greek letter "chi" written X. In this figure of speech, two successive phrases or clauses are parallel in syntax, but reverse the order of the analogous words. | 13 | |
| 5890468422 | clause | A grammatical unit that contains both a subject and a verb. An independent unit expresses a complete thought and can stand alone as a sentence. A dependent, or subordinate unit, cannot stand alone as a sentence. | 14 | |
| 5890634306 | colloquial/colloquialism | The use of slang or informalities in speech or writing. Not generally acceptable in formal writing, slang expressions give a work a conversational, familiar tone. The expressions in writing include local or regional dialects. | 15 | |
| 5890686548 | coherence | A principle demanding that the parts of any composition be arranged so that the meaning of the whole may be immediately clear and intelligible. Words, phrases, and clauses within a sentence, and sentences, paragraphs, and chapters in larger pieces of writing are the units which display progressive and logical arrangement. | 16 | |
| 5890709057 | conceit | A fanciful expression usually in the form of an extended metaphor or surprising analogy between seemingly dissimilar objects. The unusual comparison being made displays intellectual cleverness. | 17 | |
| 5890725058 | connotation | The non-literal, associative meaning of a word; the implied, suggested meaning. These meanings may involve ideas, emotions, or attitudes. | 18 |
