These are AP literature terms and their definitions, accompanied by examples. Most examples are from lyrics or music related but unfortunately some are not. :/
Terms : Hide Images
| 4622139237 | Abstract | existing in thought or idea but not having a physical or concrete existence; "Sittin' round in my abstract car, this abstract thing goin' abstract far." | 0 | |
| 4622139238 | Adage | proverb or short statement expressing a general truth; "And when a hitta go as the old adage go 'you die rich or you die disgraced'" | 1 | |
| 4622139239 | Allegory | story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning; "Southern trees bear a strange fruit... Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees." | 2 | |
| 4622139240 | Alliteration | repetition of the same sound at the beginning of words; "Bicken Back Being Bool" | 3 | |
| 4622139241 | Allusion | expression designed to call something to mind without mentioning it explicitly; "A void in your place, I twitch and tweak in allusion." | 4 | |
| 4622139242 | Ambiguity | lack of clarity meant to evoke multiple meanings and interpretation; "Cause I speak of the pompitous of love" | 5 | |
| 4622139243 | Anachronism | person, scene, or event in literature that fails to correspond with the time or era of the work; ex: No Church In The Wild makes The Great Gatsby feel less 'Roaring Twenties.' | 6 | |
| 4622139244 | Analogy | comparison between two things for the purpose of clarification; "You've ever seen a newborn baby kill a grown man? That's analogy for the way the world make me react." | 7 | |
| 4622182249 | Anecdote | short story about a real incident or person; "I'd say this is the darkest song I ever wrote, no hint of a smile or the usual quirky anecdote." | 8 | |
| 4622248144 | Antagonist | person who actively opposes someone or something; ex: Hank Schrader | 9 | |
| 4622248145 | Antithesis | rhetorical device in which two opposite ideas are put together to achieve contrasting effect; "We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools." | 10 | |
| 4622248146 | Aphorism | statement that embodies a general truth or widely held opinion; "All that glitters is not gold." | 11 | |
| 4622248147 | Apostrophe | rhetorical device in which speaker addresses a person or personified thing not present; "Feet, don't fail me now." | 12 | |
| 4622248148 | Archetype | character, action, or situation that seems to represent human nature; ex: Harry Potter is the hero archetype. | 13 | |
| 4622248149 | Assonance | repitition of the vowel sound; "I'm expressing with my full capabilities, now I'm livin' in correctional facilities." | 14 | |
| 4622339888 | Ballad | poem or song narrating a story; "This is the ballad of Dorothy." | 15 | |
| 4622339889 | Bathos | change of tone usually from the sublime to the ridiculous; "His voice is warm and husky like dark melted chocolate fudge caramel... or something." | 16 | |
| 4622339890 | Blank Verse | type of poetry with no rhyme but still carries a musical quality; "To be, or not to be- that is the question" | 17 | |
| 4622339891 | Caesura | pause in a line of poetry that is formed by the rhythms of natural speech; "Hey Jude || don't make it bad Take a sad song || and make it better" | 18 | |
| 4622339892 | Canon | works widely read and studied; ex: Shakespearean plays | 19 | |
| 4622339893 | Caricature | character who is given oversimplified and exaggerated characteristics and features; ex: Political cartoonists draw caricatures. | 20 | |
| 4622339894 | Climax | most intense or important point of something; "Going nowhere fast we've reached the climax" | 21 | |
| 4622339895 | Colloquial | use of informal words, phrases or even slang in a piece of writing; "Dont'cha wish your girlfriend was a freak like me?" | 22 | |
| 4622339896 | Conceit | figure of speech in which two vastly different objects are likened together with the help of similes or metaphors; "My life is like a free online game, people seem to be playing with it." | 23 | |
| 4622339897 | Connotation | suggested or implied meaning of a word or phrase; "'Oh my god is that a black card?' 'Why yes but I prefer the term African American Express.'" | 24 | |
| 4622339898 | Consonance | repitition of sounds produced by consonants; "King Kunta, everybody wanna cut the legs off him, Kunta" | 25 | |
| 4622384756 | Couplet | two successive rhyming lines in a verse; "You ever wonder what it all really mean? You wonder if you'll ever find your dreams?" | 26 | |
| 4622384757 | Diction | use of words and phrases in speech or writing; "This is body language and deep diction." | 27 | |
| 4622384758 | Deus Ex Machina | concept or character brought into the story to make the conflict in the story resolve; ex: Tyrannosaurus rex charges in and kills the velociraptors in Jurassic Park. | 28 | |
| 4622384759 | Eulogy | mournful poem usually written in remembrance of a lost one; "It's kinda hard with you not around, know you in heaven smilin' down." | 29 | |
| 4622384760 | Ellipsis | omission of a word or series of words; "So...what happened?" | 30 | |
| 4622384761 | Enjambment | running lines of poetry from one to the next without using any kind of punctuation; "I can't let these people play me Name one genius that ain't crazy" | 31 | |
| 4622384762 | Epic | long poem narrating heroic or legendary figures; "I just had an epic dream like Dr. King." | 32 | |
| 4622384763 | Epigram | a memorable, brief, interesting and surprising satirical statement; "I'm starting with the man in the mirror." | 33 | |
| 4622384764 | Euphemism | indirect expression or word substituted for one considered to be too blunt; "Is hip hop just a euphemism for a new religion?" | 34 | |
| 4622457597 | Exposition | introduces backround information to the audience or readers; ex: act one in a five-act play | 35 | |
| 4622457598 | Fable | story where a lesson is given through characters as animals; ex: Animal Farm | 36 | |
| 4622457599 | Falling Action | parts of a story after the climax; act four in a five-act play | 37 | |
| 4622457600 | Farce | comedy that centers around a ridiculous plot that usually involves exaggerated and improbable events; ex: The Hangover | 38 | |
| 4622457601 | First Person Narrative | story is narrated by one character at a time; Diary of a Wimpy Kid | 39 | |
| 4622457602 | Flashback | a scene set in a time earlier than the main story; "I remember back one year when daddy had no money" | 40 | |
| 4622457603 | Foil | character who serves to highlight attributes of another character; Draco Malfoy is a foil to Harry Potter. | 41 | |
| 4622457604 | Foreshadowing | be a warning or indication of a future event; "Started a label, the album is comin' September, just wait on it" | 42 | |
| 4622457605 | Free Verse | type of poetry that does not contain patterns of rhyme or meter; "I usually play the background, you know clean cut Soft spoken, well dressed, dipped out straight chillin'" | 43 | |
| 4622457606 | Genre | type of art, literature or music; ex: poetry, drama, fiction, non-fiction | 44 | |
| 4622457607 | Hyperbole | exaggerated statement not meant to be taken literally; "It's raining men, hallelujah!" | 45 | |
| 4627732318 | Imagery | visually descriptive or figurative language; "Hey Mona Lisa, come home, you know you can't roam without Caesar." | 46 | |
| 4627792064 | In Medias Res | narrative that starts not at the beginning of events but at some other critical point; ex: The Odyssey | 47 | |
| 4627792065 | Irony | expression of one's meaning by using language that normally signifies the opposite; "Ready to Die" is ironic because The Notorious B.I.G. actually died 3 years after it was released. | 48 | |
| 4627792066 | Juxtapose | ideas, places, characters and their actions placed side by side for comparisons and contrasts; "I'm up at Brooklyn, now I'm down in Tribeca" | 49 | |
| 4627792067 | Litotes | an understatement in which the negative of the contrary is used to achieve emphasis; "She ain't the sharpest knife in the drawer." | 50 | |
| 4627792068 | Lyric | expressing the writer's emotions or the words of a song; "Never was much of a romantic, I could never take the intimacy." | 51 | |
| 4627792069 | Metaphor | figure of speech comparing unlike objects; "Mayonnaise-colored Benz, I push Miracle Whips" | 52 | |
| 4627842987 | Meter | the rhythm of syllables in a line of verse or in a stanza of a poem; "Can't you see, you're like a book of poetry, Maya Angelou, Nikki Giovanni, turn one page and there's my mommy" | 53 | |
| 4627842988 | Metonymy | substitution of the name of one object for that of another to which it is related; "If you liked it then you should've put a ring on it." | 54 | |
| 4627842989 | Mood | emotional feeling or atmosphere that a work of literature produces in a reader; encouraging mood = "Reach for the stars so if you fall you'll land on a cloud." | 55 | |
| 4627842990 | Motif | element with symbolic meaning that repeats throughout a work of literature; ex: MLK repeats "I have a dream" in his speech. | 56 | |
| 4627842991 | Narrator | person who narrates something; Snoop Dogg narrates his drive-by experience in Murder Was The Case. | 57 | |
| 4627842992 | Ode | lyrical stanza written in praise for a person, event, or thing; ex: Kanye West's "Hey Mama" is an ode to his mom. | 58 | |
| 4627842993 | Omniscient POV | narrator knows the thoughts and feelings of all characters; The Scarlet Letter | 59 | |
| 4630987908 | Onomatopoeia | formation of a word from a sound associated with what is named; "Boom clap, boom de clap de clap, boom-boom clap" | 60 | |
| 4630995276 | Oxymoron | figure of speech that puts together opposite elements; "Swimming through sick lullabies, choking on your alibis" | 61 | |
| 4631012763 | Parable | a short story typically with a moral lesson at the end; Biz Markie's story in his song "Just a Friend" teaches us to never talk to a girl who says she just has a friend. | 62 | |
| 4631014869 | Paradox | statement that contradicts itself and yet might be true; "You're hot then you're cold, you're yes then you're no." | 63 | |
| 4631014870 | Parody | imitation of the style of a particular writer, artist, or genre; "Back to back like my terms in office, they couldn't get me." - Obama | 64 | |
| 4631715893 | Pastoral | work of literature all about glorifying the simple life, the rural life, the country life; ex: Idylls | 65 | |
| 4631715894 | Pathos | appeal to the emotions of an audience; "How many brothers fell victim to the streets?" | 66 | |
| 4631715895 | Persona | character or figurative mask that an actor, writer, or singer takes on in order to perform; Lady Gaga = Jo Calderone, Beyonce = Sasha Fierce | 67 | |
| 4631715896 | Personification | attribution of a human chracteristic to something unhuman; "You start to freeze as horror looks you right between the eyes." | 68 | |
| 4631715897 | Plot | consists of the events that occur during the course of that story; The Cinderella story's plot is from rags-to-riches. | 69 | |
| 4631715898 | Protagonist | leading character of a fictional text; ex: Walter White | 70 | |
| 4631727686 | Quatrain | a verse or poem with four lines; "I'm well up, I'm way up, nothing but net, f*** the layup" | 71 | |
| 4631727687 | Realism | faithful representation of reality or representation of middle-class life; ex: Snoop Dogg's song Murder Was The Case | 72 | |
| 4631746567 | Refrain | verse, a line, a set, or a group of some lines that is often repeated; "I ain't sorry, I ain't sorry, I ain't sorry" | 73 | |
| 4631746568 | Rhetorical Question | question asked without expecting an answer; "Have you ever had shoes without shoe strings?" | 74 | |
| 4631746569 | Rhyme | repitition of similar sounds at regular intervals; "'Cause it's known to give a brother brain damage, and brain damage on the mic don't manage" | 75 | |
| 4638792494 | Rhythm | pattern of stressed and unstressed beats; "I've been waiting on this my whole life, these dreams be waking me up at night" - stresses every syllable | 76 | |
| 4631746570 | Rising Action | series of events build toward the climax; act two in a five-act play | 77 | |
| 4631785245 | Sarcasm | use of irony to mock or convey contempt; "I had a really bad dream. It lasted twenty years, seven months, and twenty-seven days | 78 | |
| 4631785246 | Satire | use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule, to expose people's stupidity; ex: Animal Farm characters are representations of Russian Revolution | 79 | |
| 4631785247 | Setting | time and place in which story takes place; "It was a clear black night, a clear white moon, Warren G was on the streets" | 80 | |
| 4631785248 | Shakespearean Sonnet | sonnet generally written with 10 syllables in each line; "Pity the world, or else this glutton be, To eat the world's due, by the grave and thee" | 81 | |
| 4631785249 | Simile | figure of speech comparing two things with the words "like" or "as;" "She acts like summer and walks like rain." | 82 | |
| 4631785250 | Soliloquy | a speech that a character makes to him or herself; "Sometimes I'll start a sentence and I don't even know where it's going. I just hope I find it along the way." | 83 | |
| 4631785251 | Stanza | a group of lines forming a poem or a verse; "I say f*** the police that's how I treat 'em. We buy our way out of jail but we can't buy freedom. We'll buy a lot of clothes but we don't really need them, things we buy to cover up what's inside." | 84 | |
| 4631785252 | Stereotype | oversimplified idea of a particular person or thing; ex: Like A Boy stereotypes men as players and cheaters. | 85 | |
| 4631785253 | Structure | the arrangement of a sentence, paragraph, or entire work; ex: beginning, middle, end | 86 | |
| 4631785254 | Style | many literary devices that an author employs to create a distinct feel for a work; Tupac raps his song "Changes" with a style similar to that of a preacher. | 87 | |
| 4631785255 | Syllogism | form of logical reasoning that joins two or more premises to arrive at a conclusion; Goats are cool. Logic is cool. Therefore, Logic is a GOAT. | 88 | |
| 4631785256 | Symbolism | the use of symbols to represent ideas; ex: Stairway To Heaven symbolizes the story of believing money can buy everything. | 89 | |
| 4633141150 | Synecdoche | substituted term to be either a part of the whole or a whole standing in for a part; "I woke up early this morning with a new state of mind, a creative way to rhyme without using knives and guns" (violence) | 90 | |
| 4633141151 | Syntax | arrangement of words into a sentence that make sense in a given language; ex: a proper grammatical sentence like "If I die before I wake, I pray the lord my soul to take." | 91 | |
| 4633141152 | Terza Rima | three lines of poetry usually in iambic pentameter; "New life begins to spring to life in spring Green shoots appear in the April showers Birds migrate back home and rest tired wings" | 92 | |
| 4633141153 | Theme | main idea or an underlying meaning of a literary work; ex: Nas' song "If I ruled the world" exercies the theme of utopianism. | 93 | |
| 4633141154 | Tone | attitude of a writer toward a subject or an audience; ex: Eminem's song "Cleanin' out my Closet" has a sarcastic tone. | 94 | |
| 4633141155 | Tragedy | drama that speaks in a serious style the terrible events encountered by a heroic individual; "almost had a thousand dollars, 'til someone broke in and stole it" | 95 | |
| 4633141156 | Voice | form through which narrators tell their stories; ex: Tupac raps "changes" in a stream of consciousness voice. | 96 |
