4964691027 | active voice | the subject of the sentence performs the action; a more direct and preferred style of writing in most cases | 0 | |
4964700328 | allusion | an indirect reference to something (usually a literary text, although it can be other things commonly known, such as plays, songs, historical events) with which the reader is supposed to be familar | 1 | |
4964709082 | alter-ego | a character that is used by the author to speak the author's own thoughts; when an author speaks directly to the audience through a character | 2 | |
4964722012 | anecdote | a brief recounting of a relevant episode | 3 | |
4964724757 | antecedent | the word, phrase, or clause referred to by a pronoun | 4 | |
4964727943 | classicism | art or literature characterized by a realistic view of people atnd the world; sticks to traditional themes and structures | 5 | |
4964735290 | comic relief | when a humorous scene is inserted into a serious story, in order to lighten the mood somewhat | 6 | |
4964739830 | diction | word choice, particularly as an element of style | 7 | |
4964745950 | colloquial | ordinary or familiar type of conversation | 8 | |
4964748543 | connotation | rather than the dictionary definition (denotation), the associations suggested by a word | 9 | |
4964763916 | denotation | the literal, explicit meaning of a word, without its connotations | 10 | |
4964765777 | jargon | the diction used by a group which practice a similar profession or activity | 11 | |
4964768923 | vernacular | 1. language or dialect of a particular country 2. language or dialect of a regional clan or group 3. plain everyday speech | 12 | |
4964777865 | didactic | a term used to describe fiction, nonfiction or poetry that teaches a specific lesson or moral or provides a model of correct behavior or thinking | 13 | |
4964788676 | adage | a folk saying with a lesson (similar to aphorism and colloquialism) | 14 | |
4964793822 | allegory | a story, fictional or non fictional, in which characters, things, and events represent qualities or concepts | 15 | |
4964798957 | aphorism | a terse statement which expresses a general truth or moral principle | 16 | |
4964803102 | ellipsis | the deliberate omission of a word or phrase from prose done for effect by the author | 17 | |
4964806586 | euphemism | a more agreeable or less offensive substitute for generally unpleasant words or concepts | 18 | |
4964812932 | figurative language | writing that is not meant to be take literally | 19 | |
4964816634 | analogy | an analogy is a comparison of one pair of variables to a parallel set of variables | 20 | |
4964820702 | hyperbole | exaggeration | 21 | |
4964822829 | idiom | a common, often used expression that doesn't make sense if you take it literally | 22 | |
4964831193 | metaphor | making an implied comparison, not using "like," "as," or other such words | 23 | |
4964835099 | metonymy | replacing an actual word or idea, with a related word or concept | 24 | |
4964837638 | synecdoche | a kind of metonymy when a whole is presented by naming one of its parts, or vice versa | 25 | |
4964845447 | simile | using words such as "like" or "as" to make a direct comparison between two very different things | 26 | |
4964852622 | synethesia | a description involving a "crossing of the sense" | 27 | |
4964858603 | personification | giving human-like qualities to something that is not human | 28 | |
4964861675 | foreshadowing | when an author giver hints about what will occur later in a story | 29 | |
4964865647 | genre | the major category into which a literary work fits; the basic division of literature are prose, poetry, and drama | 30 | |
4964875900 | gothic | writing characterized by gloom, mystery, fear and/or death | 31 | |
4964881278 | imagery | word or words that create a picture in the reader's mind; usually involves the five sense | 32 | |
4964886398 | invective | a long, emotionally violent, attach using strong, abusive language | 33 | |
4964892600 | irony | when the opposite of what you expect to happen does | 34 | |
4964897282 | verbal irony | when you say something and mean the opposite/something different | 35 | |
4964900105 | dramatic irony | when the audience of a drama, play, movie, etc. knows something that the character doesn't and would be surprised to find out | 36 | |
4964907693 | situational irony | found in the plot (or story line) of a book, story, or movie; sometimes it makes you laugh because it's funny how things turn out | 37 | |
4964920448 | juxtaposition | placing things side by side for the purposes of comparison | 38 | |
4964924129 | mood | the atmosphere created by the literature and accomplished through word choice (diction) | 39 | |
4964932550 | motif | a recurring idea in a piece of literature | 40 | |
4964935218 | oxymoron | when apparently contradictory terms are grouped together and suggest a paradox | 41 | |
4964942018 | pacing | the speed or tempo of an author's writing | 42 | |
4964948178 | paradox | a seemingly contradictory situation which is actually true | 43 | |
4964952058 | parallelism | (also known as parallel structure or balanced sentences) sentence construction which places equal grammatical constructions near each other, or repeats identical grammatical patterns | 44 | |
4964982444 | anaphora | repetition of a word, phrase, or clause at the beginning of two or more sentences or clauses in a row | 45 | |
4964987310 | chiasmus | when the same words are used twice in succession, but the second time, the order of the words is reversed | 46 | |
4964993445 | antithesis | two opposite or contrasting words, phrases, or clauses, or eves ideas, with parallel structure | 47 | |
4965004265 | zuegma (syllepsis) | when a single word governs or modifies two or more others words, and the meaning of the first word must change for each of the other words it governs or modifies | 48 | |
4965012306 | parenthetical idea | parentheses are used to set off an idea from the rest of the sentence | 49 | |
4965016752 | parody | an exaggerated imitation of a serious word for humorous purpose | 50 | |
4965020516 | persona | the fictional mask or narrator that tells a story | 51 | |
4965025597 | poetic device | a device used in poetry to manipulate the sound of words, sentences or lines | 52 | |
4965030876 | alliteration | the repetition of the same consonant sound at the beginning of words | 53 | |
4965036183 | assonance | the repetition of identical or similar vowel sounds | 54 | |
4965040371 | consonance | the repetition of the same consonant sound at the end of words or within words | 55 | |
4965043877 | onomatopoeia | the use of a word which imitates or suggest the sound that the thing makes | 56 | |
4965049072 | internal rhyme | when a line of poetry contains a rhyme withing a single line | 57 | |
4965062086 | slant rhyme | when a poet creates a rhyme, but the two words no not rhyme exactly, they are merely similar | 58 | |
4965065787 | end rhyme | when the last word of two different lines of poetry rhyme | 59 | |
4965070081 | rhyme scheme | the pattern of a poem's end rhymes | 60 | |
4965075405 | stressed and unstressed syllables | in every word of more than one syllable, one of the syllables is stressed, or said with more force than the other syllable(s) | 61 | |
4965081774 | meter | a regular pattern to the syllables in lines of poety | 62 | |
4965084035 | free verse | poetry that doesn't have much meter or rhyme | 63 | |
4965086617 | iambic pentameter | poetry that is written in lines of 10 syllables, alternating stressed and unstressed syllables | 64 | |
4965095403 | sonnet | a 14 line poem written in iambic pentatmeter | 65 | |
4965099348 | polysyndeton | when a writer creates a list of items which are all separated by conjunctions | 66 | |
4965104958 | pun | when a word that has two or more meanings is used in a humorous way | 67 | |
4965113123 | rhetoric | the art of effective communication | 68 | |
4965118819 | Aristotle's rhetorical triangle | the relationships, in any piece of writing, between the writer, the audience, and the subject | 69 | |
4965124892 | rhetorical question | question not asked for information but for effect | 70 | |
4965130222 | romanticism | art or literature characterized by an idealistic, perhaps unrealistic view of people the the world, and an emphasis on nauture; does not rely on traditional themes and structures | 71 | |
4965148128 | sarcasm | a generally bitter comment that is ironically or satirically worded | 72 | |
4965153357 | satire | a work that reveals a critical attitude towards some element of life to a humorous effect | 73 | |
4965159889 | sentence | a sentence is a group of words (including subject and verb) that expresses a complete thought | 74 | |
4965165652 | appositive | a word or group of words places beside a noun or noun substitute to supplement its menaing | 75 | |
4965176458 | clause | a grammatical unit that contains both a subject and a verb (and independent clause expresses a complete thought and can stand alone as a sentence; a dependent, or subordinate clause cannot stand alone as a sentence and must be accompanied by an independent clause) | 76 | |
4965192903 | balanced sentence | a sentence in which two parallel elements are set off against each other like equal weights on a scale | 77 | |
4965200312 | compound snetence | contains at least two independent clauses but no dependent clauses | 78 | |
4965209899 | complex snetence | contains only one independent clause and at least one dependent clause | 79 | |
4965216021 | cumulative sentence | (also called a loose sentence) when the writer begins with an independent clause, then adds subordinate elements | 80 | |
4965229148 | periodic sentence | when the main idea is not completed until the end of the sentence; the writer begins with subordinate elements and postpones the main clause (the opposite construction is called a cumulative sentence) | 81 | |
4965239908 | simple sentence | contains only one independent clause | 82 | |
4965243853 | declarative sentence | states an idea; it does not give a command or request, nor does it ask a question | 83 | |
4965254148 | imperative sentence | issues a command | 84 | |
4965254149 | interrogative sentence | sentences incorporating interrogative pronouns (what, which, who, whom, and whose) | 85 | |
4965283378 | style | the choices in diction, tone, and syntax that a writer makes; style may be conscious or unconscious | 86 | |
4965292431 | symbol | anything that represents or stands for something else | 87 | |
4965296545 | syntax/sentence variety | grammatical arrangement of words (syntax is the grouping of words, while diction refers tot he selection of individual words) | 88 | |
4965314271 | theme | the central idea or message of a work; the theme may be directly states in nonfiction works, although not necessarily; it is rarely states directly in fiction | 89 | |
4965324883 | thesis | the sentence or groups of sentences that directly expresses the author's opinion, purpose, meaning, or proposition | 90 | |
4965338417 | tone | a writer's attitude toward his subject matter revealed through diction, figurative language and organization | 91 | |
4965343188 | understatement | the ironic minimizing of fact, understatement presents something as less significant than it is; can frequently be humorous | 92 | |
4965352662 | litotes | a particular form of understatement, generated by denying the opposite of the statement which otherwise would be used; depending on the tone and context of the usage, litotes either retains the effect of understatement or becomes an intensifying expression | 93 |
AP Language Terms Flashcards
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