7315148341 | Allegory | The device of using character and/or story elements symbolically to represent an abstraction in addition to the literal meaning. | 0 | |
7315148342 | Alliteration | The repetition of sounds, especially initial consonant sounds in two or more neighboring words. | 1 | |
7315148343 | Allusion | A direct or indirect reference to something which is presumably commonly known, such as an event, book, myth, place, or work of art. | 2 | |
7315151003 | Ambiguity | The multiple meanings, either intentional or unintentional, of a word, phrase, sentence, or passage. | 3 | |
7315151004 | Analogy | A comparison between two things, typically for the purpose of explanation or clarification. | 4 | |
7315151005 | Anaphora | The repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses. | 5 | |
7315153311 | Anastrophe | The order of a noun and adjective are exchanged (switched around). | 6 | |
7315154012 | Anecdote | A short and amusing or interesting story about a real incident or person. | 7 | |
7315154013 | Antagonist | A person who actively opposes or is hostile to someone or something; an adversary. | 8 | |
7315156497 | Antimetabolite | A chemical that inhibits the use of metabolite. | 9 | |
7315108403 | Antithesis | A rhetorical opposition or contrast of ideas by means of a grammatical arrangement of words, clauses, or sentences. | 10 | |
7315108404 | Antihero | A protagonist who is marked unheroic; morally weak, cowardly, dishonest, or any number of other unsavory qualities. | 11 | |
7315118767 | Anthropomorphism | When animals are given human characteristics; often confused with personification. | 12 | |
7315253386 | Aphorism | A short, pithy statement of a generally accepted truth or sentiment. | 13 | |
7315253387 | Apostrophe | Calling at an imaginary dead or nonhuman. | 14 | |
7315254811 | Apposition | Noun phrases side by side where one element serves to define the other. | 15 | |
7315254812 | Assonance | The repeated use of vowel sounds "Old king Cole was a merry old soul." | 16 | |
7315257919 | Asyndeton | The deliberate omission of conjunctions from series of related independent clauses. The effect is to create a tight, concise, and forceful sentence. | 17 | |
7315261310 | Balance | A sentence in which words, phrases, or clauses are set off against each other to emphasize a contrast. | 18 | |
7429590368 | Characterization | The process by which the writer reveals the personality of a character. | 19 | |
7429599495 | Indirect Characterization | The author reveals to the reader what the character is like by describing how the reader looks, dresses, says, thinks, feels, behaves, or acts. | 20 | |
7429628548 | Direct Characterization | The author tells us directly what the character is like. | 21 | |
7429636847 | Static Character | One who does not change much like in the course of the story. | 22 | |
7429651056 | Dynamic Character | One who changes in some important way as a result of the story's action. | 23 | |
7429661827 | Flat Character | Has only one or two personality traits; they can be summed up in one phrase. | 24 | |
7429670495 | Round Character | Has more dimensions to their personality. | 25 | |
7429681511 | Chiasmus | A rhetorical balance in poetry in which the second part is syntactically balanced against the first, but with the parts reversed. Example: "Flowers are lovely, love is flowerlike." | 26 | |
7429712432 | Cliche | A word or phrase, often a figure of speech, that has become lifeless because of overuse. | 27 | |
7429722196 | Colloquialism | A word or phrase in everyday use in conversation and informal writing but is inappropriate for formal situations. | 28 | |
7731103392 | Comedy | in general, a story that ends with a happy resolution of the conflicts faced by the main character or characters. | 29 | |
7731103393 | Conceit | an elaborate metaphor that compares two things that are startlingly different. Often an extended metaphor. | 30 | |
7731106708 | Confessional Poetry | a twentieth century term used to describe poetry that uses intimate material from the poet's life. | 31 | |
7731106709 | Conflict | the struggle between opposing forces or characters in the story. | 32 | |
7731109766 | External Conflict | conflicts can exist between two people, between a person and nature or a machine or between a person and a whole society. | 33 | |
7731113276 | Internal Conflict | a conflict can be internal, involving opposing forced within a person's. | 34 | |
7731116096 | Connotation | the associations and emotional overtones that have become attached to a word or phrase, in addition to its strict dictionary definition. | 35 | |
7731116097 | Couplet | two consecutive rhyming lines of poetry. | 36 | |
7731119245 | Dialect | a way of speaking that is characteristic of a certain social group or of the inhabitants of a certain geographical area. | 37 | |
7731119246 | Diction | a speaker or writer's choice of words. | 38 | |
7906504001 | Didactic | intended to teach; morally instructive | 39 | |
7906504002 | Elegy | a poem of mourning, usually about someone who has died | 40 | |
7906507948 | Epanalepsis | repetition at the end of a clause of the word that occurred at the beginning | 41 | |
7916287770 | Epic | a long narrative poem telling of a hero's deeds | 42 | |
7906587694 | Epistrophe | repetition of the same word or group of words at the ends of successive clauses | 43 | |
7916308924 | Epithet | a descriptive name or phrase used to characterize someone or something | 44 | |
7916311277 | Essay | a short nonfiction work about a particular subject | 45 | |
7906620139 | Persuasion | relies more on emotional appeals than on facts | 46 | |
7906626788 | Argument | form of persuasion that appeals to reason instead of emotion to convince an audience to think or act in a certain way | 47 | |
7906681950 | Causal Relationship | form of argumentation in which the writer claims that one thing results from another, often used as part of a logical argument | 48 | |
7906698077 | Description | a form of discourse that uses language to create a mood or emotion | 49 | |
7906734408 | Exposition | one of the four major forms of discourse in which something is explained or "set forth" | 50 | |
7916321725 | Narrative | the form of discourse that tells about a series of events | 51 | |
8156337740 | Explication | 52 | ||
8156337741 | Fable | a very short story told in prose or poetry that teaches a practical lesson about how to succeed in life | 53 | |
8156342440 | Farce | a type of comedy in which ridiculous and often stereotyped characters are involved | 54 | |
8156345081 | Figurative Language | 55 | ||
8156345082 | Flashback | 56 | ||
8156349410 | Foil | 57 | ||
8156349411 | Foreshadowing | the use of hints and clues to suggest what will happen later in a plot | 58 | |
8156354116 | Free Verse | poetry that does not conform to a regular meter or rhyme scheme | 59 | |
8156354117 | Hyperbole | exaggeration | 60 | |
8156359360 | Hypotactic | sentence marked by the use of connecting words between clauses or sentences, explicitly showing the logical or other relationships between them | 61 | |
8240263986 | Imagery | the use of language to evoke a picture or a concrete sensation of a person, a thing, a place, or an experience | 62 | |
8240291625 | Inversion | the reversal of the normal word | 63 | |
8240291626 | Irony | the use of words to convey a meaning that is the opposite of its literal meaning | 64 | |
8240299426 | Verbal irony | occurs when someone says one thing but really means something else | 65 | |
8240313341 | Situational irony | takes place when there is a discrepancy between what is expected to happen, or what would be appropriate to happen, and what really does happen | 66 | |
8240335341 | Dramatic irony | is so called because it is often used on stage. A character in the play or story thinks one thing is true, but the audience or reader knows better | 67 | |
8240367460 | Juxtaposition | a form of contrast by which writers call attention to dissimilar ideas or images or metaphors | 68 | |
8240383105 | Litotes | a form of understatement in which the positive form is emphasized through the negation of a negative form | 69 | |
8240404518 | Local color | a term applied to fiction or poetry which tends to place special emphasis on a particular setting, including its customs, clothing, dialect and landscape | 70 | |
8240432413 | Loose sentence | one in which the main clause comes first, followed by further dependent grammatical units | 71 |
AP Literature Flashcards
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