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AP Language: Review Set 2 Flashcards

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4381619284AnachronismThe misplacement of a person, occurrence, custom, or idea in time; also sometimes refers to an individual or thing that is incorrectly placed in time.0
4381619285CatharsisA cleansing or purification of one's emotions through art.1
4381619286PropagandaIdeas, facts, or allegations spread to persuade others to support one's cause or to go against the opposing cause.2
4381619287Antithesis: the contrasting of ideas by the use of parallel structure in phrases or clauses."I came to bury Caesar, not to praise him."3
4381619288ParodyA humorous and often satirical imitation of the style or particular work of another author.4
4381619289Metonymy: a figure of speech in which something is referred to by one of its attributes."The crown carries many responsibilities."5
4381619290AllegoryA narrative in which literal meaning corresponds directly with symbolic meaning.6
4381619291AmbiguityA word or idea that can be understood in multiple ways; frequently refers to the condition of being obscure or difficult to understand.7
4381619292Alliteration: the repetition of similar sounds, usually consonants, at the beginning of words."Barber, baby, bubbles, and a bumblebee"8
4381619293ProseAny composition not written in verse.9
4381619294NostalgiaA yearning for the past or for some condition or state of existence that cannot be recovered.10
4381619295Litotes: deliberate understatement, in which an idea or opinion is often affirmed by negating its opposite."It's nothing. I'm just bleeding to death is all."11
4381619296Hyperbole: excessive overstatement or conscious exaggeration of fact."I've told you this a million times already."12
4381619297Satire"A work that ridicules the shortcomings of individuals, institutions, or society, often to make a political point."13
4381619298DictionSpecific word choice used in a piece of writing, often chosen for effect but also for correctness and clarity.14
4381619299Oxymoron: the association of two contradictory terms."Same difference;" "Jumbo shrimp;" "Soft rock."15
4381619300Metaphor: the comparison of unlike things without the use of like or as."Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player / That struts and frets his hour upon the stage."16
4381619301LogosGreek for "wisdom" or "reason"; in the context of rhetoric, refers to the process of persuading by means of logic and reason, as opposed to style, authority, or emotion.17
4381619302ParableA short narrative that illustrates a moral by means of allegory (in which literal meaning and symbolic meaning correspond clearly and directly).18
4381619303Sarcasm: a simple form of verbal irony, in which it is obvious from context and tone that the speaker means the opposite of what he or she says.Saying "that was graceful" when someone trips and falls.19
4381619304Onomatopoeia: the use of words that sound like the thing or action to which they refer."Bow-wow. Crackle. Buzz. Zoom."20
4381619305DenotationThe explicit, literal meaning of a word.21
4381619306ImageryLanguage that brings to mind sense-impressions, especially via figures of speech22
4381619307EllipsisA figure of speech in which a word pr short phrase is omitted, but easily understood from the context; also the marks (...) that indicates the omission of a word or phrase.23
4381619308ForeshadowingTo present ideas, images, events, or comments that hint at events to come in a story.24
4381619309PathosFrom the Greek word for "feeling"; the quality in a work of literature that evokes high emotion, most commonly sorrow, pity, or compassion.25
4381619310Personification: the use of human characteristics to describe animals, objects, or ideas."The handsome houses on the street to the college were not fully awake, but they looked very friendly."26
4381619311ExpositoryAn explanation of the meaning or purpose of a piece of writing, especially one that is difficult to understand.27
4381619312Dramatic irony: a technique in which the author lets the reader in on a character's situation while the character remains in the dark.In Sophocles' Oedipus Rex, Oedipus vows to discover his father's murderer, not knowing, as the audience does, that he himself is the murderer.28
4381619313Anaphora: repeated use of a word or phrase at the start of successive phrases or sentences for effect."We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills."29
4381619314Synecdoche: a figure of speech in which a part of an entity is used to refer to the whole."One thousand sails pursued Paris when he fled with Helen of Troy."30
4381619315Inductive reasoning: reasoning in which one arrives at a general conclusion from specific instances."I got hives from the shrimp I ate last night. I must be allergic to shellfish."31
4381619316DigressionTo turn or move away from the main subject of discussion or the main argument in a piece of writing.32
4381619317Apostrophe: a direct address to an absent or dead person, or to an object, quality, or idea.Walt Whitman's poem "O Captain, My Captain" was written upon the death of Abraham Lincoln33
4381619318Chiasmus: two phrases in which the syntax is the same but placement of words is reversed."Life imitates art far more than art imitates life."34
4381619319Stream-of-consciousnessForm of narration in which the narrator conveys a subject's thoughts, impressions, and perceptions exactly as they occur, often in disjointed fashion and without the logic and grammar of typical speech and writing.35
4381619320Situational ironyA technique in which one understanding of a situation stands in sharp contrast to another, usually more prevalent, understanding of the same situation.36
4381619321CaricatureIn writing and literature, an author's exaggeration or distortion of certain traits or characteristics of an individual.37
4381619322BildungsromanA novel about the education or psychological growth of the protagonist, or main character.38
4381619323Epithet: an adjective or phrase that describes a prominent or distinguishing feature of a person or thing."The wine-dark sea"39
4381619324Cliche: an expression that has been used so frequently it has lost its expressive power."Avoid it like the plague."40

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