This is the set of AP English Language & Composition terms that I had to know for the semester and final exams. It was comprehensive when I took the class at Katy High School in 2009-2010.
Leave a comment if it was helpful, and good luck!
Terms : Hide Images
| 10655762190 | Allegory | symbolic story that has a second meaning beneath the surface one | 0 | |
| 10655762191 | Alliteration | repetition of initial consonant sounds in words | 1 | |
| 10655762192 | Allusion | indirect reference to famous events or characters from history, literature, or mythology | 2 | |
| 10655762196 | Antithesis | juxtaposition of two contrasting ideas | 3 | |
| 10655762197 | Ethos | appeals to the audience's sense of morals or principles | 4 | |
| 10655762198 | Logos | appeals to the audience's sense of logic and reasoning | 5 | |
| 10655762199 | Pathos | appeals to the audience's emotions | 6 | |
| 10655762200 | Apostrophe | address to the dead as though they were living; to the inanimate as if animate; to the absent as if present | 7 | |
| 10655762202 | Archetype | stereotype of literature | 8 | |
| 10655762210 | Cliche | expression so often used its freshness and originality have worn off | 9 | |
| 10655762213 | Connotation | emotions associated with a word | 10 | |
| 10655762217 | Denotation | dictionary definition of a word | 11 | |
| 10655762230 | Foreshadowing | method used to build suspense by providing hints of what is to come | 12 | |
| 10655762234 | Genre | major category into which a literary work fits | 13 | |
| 10655762236 | Hyperbole | overstatement or exaggeration of facts | 14 | |
| 10655762237 | Idiom | use of words or grammatical construction peculiar to a given language, or an expression that cannot be translated literally into a second language | 15 | |
| 10655762238 | Imagery | use of language to represent sense experience | 16 | |
| 10655762246 | Situational Irony | contrast between what is normally expected and what actually occurs | 17 | |
| 10655762247 | Dramatic Irony | reader or audience knows more about the events of a story than the character in the story | 18 | |
| 10655762248 | Verbal Irony | what is said is the opposite of what is meant | 19 | |
| 10655762253 | Metonymy | designation of one thing with something closely associated with it | 20 | |
| 10655762254 | Mood | atmosphere or feeling created by a literary work | 21 | |
| 10655762257 | Onomatopoeia | word whose sound suggests its meaning | 22 | |
| 10655762258 | Oxymoron | paradox that combines terms normally seen as opposites | 23 | |
| 10655762260 | Paradox | statement that appears contradictory yet expresses a truth when viewed from another angle | 24 | |
| 10655762261 | Parody | comic imitation of another work often for ridicule | 25 | |
| 10655762266 | Personification | attribution of human qualities to inanimate objects or abstract concepts | 26 | |
| 10655762267 | Pun | play on words that utilizes a word's multiple meanings | 27 | |
| 10655762273 | Satire | used to arouse laughter at targets such as people or groups to expose human folly | 28 | |
| 10655762274 | Simile | comparison using "like" or "as" | 29 | |
| 10655762284 | Symbol | character, object, or event in literature that represents something larger than itself | 30 | |
| 10655762285 | Synecdoche | figure of speech in which a part of something is used to represent the whole | 31 | |
| 10655762288 | Theme | main idea that the author expresses in a literary work | 32 | |
| 10655809846 | Anecdote | a short and amusing or interesting story about a real incident or person | 33 | |
| 10655812034 | Analogy | A comparison of two different things that are similar in some way | 34 | |
| 10655819155 | 1st person point of view | The narrator is a character in the story. ( I, me, my, we, our ) | 35 | |
| 10655820989 | 3rd person limited point of view | the narrator only knows the thoughts and feelings of one character | 36 | |
| 10655820990 | 3rd person omniscient point of view | The narrator is considered to be "all knowing" and can see/hear everything in the story and can tell the reader what each characters are thinking and feeling | 37 | |
| 10655824100 | pathetic fallacy | The attribution of human emotions or characteristics to inanimate objects or to nature; for example angry clouds; a cruel wind. | 38 | |
| 10655825661 | Synesthesia | describing one kind of sensation in terms of another ("a loud color", "a sweet sound") | 39 | |
| 10655871202 | Soliloquy | A long speech expressing the thoughts of a character alone on stage | 40 | |
| 10655871204 | Monologue | A long speech made by one performer or by one person in a group. | 41 | |
| 10655872696 | Aside | a line spoken by an actor to the audience but not intended for others on the stage | 42 | |
| 10655877233 | Understatement | the presentation of something as being smaller, worse, or less important than it actually is. | 43 | |
| 10655878857 | Setting | The time and place of a story | 44 |
