1626598919 | Allegory | a story or poem in which characters, setting, and events stand for other people, other events, abstract ideas or qualities | 0 | |
1626598920 | Allusion | a reference in a literary work to a person, place or thing in history or another work of literature | 1 | |
1626598921 | Alliteration | the repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words | 2 | |
1626598922 | Ambiguity | deliberately suggesting two or more different, and sometimes conflicting meanings in a work | 3 | |
1626598923 | Analogy | a comparison of two things to show that they are alike | 4 | |
1626598924 | Antagonist | a character in a story or poem who deceives, frustrates, or works against the main character, or protagonist, in some way | 5 | |
1626598925 | Apostrophe | calling out to an imaginary, dead, or absent person, or to a place or thing, or to a personified idea | 6 | |
1626598926 | Anecdote | a brief account of an interesting incident or event that usually is intended to entertain or to make a point | 7 | |
1626598927 | Aside | an actor's speech, directed to the audience, that is not supposed to be heard by other actor's on the stage, used to let the audience know what a character is about to do or what he or she is thinking | 8 | |
1626598928 | Assonance | a repetition of vowel sounds within a line | 9 | |
1626598929 | Atmosphere | a pervading emotional quality developed by the handling of the setting, helps to establish tone | 10 | |
1626598930 | Bildungsroman | a coming of age story | 11 | |
1626598931 | Cacophony | harsh, clashing, or dissonant sounds | 12 | |
1626598932 | Caesura | a pause or a sudden break in meter or rhythm in a line of poetry; sometimes punctuated, sometimes not | 13 | |
1626598933 | Characterization | the process by which the author reveals the personality of a character | 14 | |
1626598934 | Climax | the point in the plot that creates the greatest intensity, suspense, or interest-- sometimes referred to as "turning point" | 15 | |
1626598935 | Colloquialism | a word or phrase in everyday use in conversation and informal writing, but is inappropriate for formal situation | 16 | |
1626598936 | Conceit | an elaborate metaphor that compares two things that are startlingly different, often an extended metaphor | 17 | |
1626598937 | Connotation | the idea and feeling associated with a word as opposed to its dictionary definition | 18 | |
1626598938 | Denotation | the exact or dictionary meaning of a word | 19 | |
1626598939 | Detail | facts that support the thesis or assertion in a piece of writing | 20 | |
1626598940 | Diction | author's word choice | 21 | |
1626598941 | Figurative Language | words which are inaccurate if interpreted literally, but are used to describe | 22 | |
1626598942 | Imagery | the use of words and phrases that appeal to the five senses | 23 | |
1626598943 | Pacing | speed in which the plot moves along | 24 | |
1626598944 | Point of View | perspective from which the story is told | 25 | |
1626598945 | Shift | a change or movement in a piece from one point, idea, concept, etc, to another; usually signaled by words such as but, then, however, etc. | 26 | |
1626598946 | Syntax | the actual way in which words and sentences are placed together in the writing | 27 | |
1626598947 | Theme | the insight about human nature revealed in a work | 28 | |
1626598948 | Tone | the writer's attitude or feeling about his or her subject | 29 | |
1626663464 | Conflict | the struggle between opposing forces in literature; internal and external | 30 | |
1626663465 | Consonance | a special type of alliteration in which the repeated pattern of consonants is marked by changes in intervening sounds | 31 | |
1626663466 | Enjambment | the continuation of a sentence or clause over a line-break | 32 | |
1626663467 | Epiphany | moment in the story where a character achieves realization, awareness or feeling of knowledge after which events are through a different light within the story | 33 | |
1626663468 | Euphony | attempting to group words together harmoniously, so that the consonants permit an easy and pleasing flow of sound when spoken | 34 | |
1626663469 | Flashback | a narrative technique that allows a writer to present past events during current events, in order to provide background for the current narration | 35 | |
1626663470 | Foil | a character that serves by contrast to highlight or emphasize opposing traits in another character | 36 | |
1626663471 | Foreshadowing | use of hints and clues to suggest a future happening in the plot | 37 | |
1626663472 | Genre | a type or category of literature marked by shared features | 38 | |
1626663473 | Hyperbole | an extravagant exaggeration | 39 | |
1626663474 | Irony | a discrepancy between appearances and reality | 40 | |
1626663475 | Juxtaposition | the arrangement of two or more ideas, characters, actions, settings, phrases, or words side by side or in similar narrative moments for the purpose of comparison, contrast, rhetorical effect, suspense or character development | 41 | |
1626663476 | Litotes | an understatement in which the affirmative is expressed by the negation of the opposite | 42 | |
1626663477 | Metaphor | the comparison of two unlike things without using the words like or as | 43 | |
1626663478 | Metonymy | the substitution of a word which relates to the object or person to be named, in place of the name itself Ex. The pen is mightier than the sword | 44 | |
1626663479 | Mood | an atmosphere created by the writer's diction and the details | 45 | |
1626663480 | Motif | a recurring object, concept, or structure in a piece of work | 46 | |
1626663481 | Onomatopoeia | the use of words whose sounds echo their sense | 47 | |
1626663482 | Omniscient | All knowing as in its narration, the narrator knows everything about all characters | 48 | |
1626663483 | Oxymoron | the use of combining opposites or contradictory phrases or terms in a phrase | 49 | |
1626663484 | Parallelism | when the writer establishes similar patterns of grammatical structure and length | 50 | |
1626663485 | Parody | a work that makes fun of another work by imitating some aspect of the writer's style | 51 | |
1626706637 | paradox | a statement that appears self-contradictory, but that reveals a truth | 52 | |
1626706638 | Personification | when an object or animal is given human thoughts, feelings, or attitudes | 53 | |
1626706639 | Protagonist | the central character of a story, the one who initiates the action | 54 | |
1626706640 | Sarcasm | the use of verbal irony meant to say one thing, but mean another | 55 | |
1626706641 | Satire | a type of writing that ridicules the shortcomings of people or institutions in attempt to bring about a change | 56 | |
1626706642 | Scansion | reading a poem in such a way to determine its meter (stresses and unstresses in a line) | 57 | |
1626706643 | Setting | the general locale, historical time, and social circumstances in which the action of a fictional or dramatic work occurs | 58 | |
1626706644 | Simile | the comparison of two unlike things using the words like or as | 59 | |
1626706645 | Stereotype | a character who is so ordinary or unoriginal that the character seems like an oversimplified representation of a type, gender, class, religious group, or occupation | 60 | |
1626706646 | Subjective | based on influence by personal feelings, tastes, or opinions | 61 | |
1626706647 | Symbol | when an object, person, place, thing that has meaning in itself stands for something else, usually more complex | 62 | |
1626706648 | Synaesthesia | it involves taking one type of sensory input (light, sound, smell, touch, taste) and coupling it with another separate sense in an impossible way. In the resulting figure of speech, we end up discussing how color tastes or looks smell. | 63 | |
1626706649 | Synecdoche | a part of something represents the whole or it may use a whole to represent a part | 64 | |
1626706650 | Style | the distinctive way in which a writer uses language which includes diction, tone, and syntax | 65 | |
1626706651 | Turning point | That crucial moment in story where the fate of the hero or heroine is sealed, when the events of the plot must move forward toward a happy or unhappy ending | 66 |
AP Literature Devices Flashcards
Primary tabs
Need Help?
We hope your visit has been a productive one. If you're having any problems, or would like to give some feedback, we'd love to hear from you.
For general help, questions, and suggestions, try our dedicated support forums.
If you need to contact the Course-Notes.Org web experience team, please use our contact form.
Need Notes?
While we strive to provide the most comprehensive notes for as many high school textbooks as possible, there are certainly going to be some that we miss. Drop us a note and let us know which textbooks you need. Be sure to include which edition of the textbook you are using! If we see enough demand, we'll do whatever we can to get those notes up on the site for you!