The Glossary of Literary Terms for the AP English Literature and Composition Test
Terms : Hide Images
| 9968625862 | Abstract | 1 | 0 | |
| 9968625863 | Complex, discusses intangible qualities like good and evil, seldom uses examples to support its points. | 1 | 1 | |
| 9968625864 | Accent | 2 | 2 | |
| 9968625865 | In poetry, the stressed portion of a word. | 2 | 3 | |
| 9968625866 | Allegory | 3 | 4 | |
| 9968625867 | A story in which each aspect of the story has a symbolic meaning outside the tale itself. | 3 | 5 | |
| 9968625868 | Allusion | 4 | 6 | |
| 9968625869 | A reference to another work or famous figure. | 4 | 7 | |
| 9968625870 | Analogy | 5 | 8 | |
| 9968625871 | A comparison, usually involving two or more symbolic parts, employed to clarify an action or a relationship. | 5 | 9 | |
| 9968625872 | Antecedent | 6 | 10 | |
| 9968625873 | The word, phrase, or clause that determines what a pronoun refers to. | 6 | 11 | |
| 9968625874 | Anticlimax | 7 | 12 | |
| 9968625875 | Occurs when an action produces far smaller results than one had been led to expect. | 7 | 13 | |
| 9968625876 | Aphorism | 8 | 14 | |
| 9968625877 | A short and usually witty saying. | 8 | 15 | |
| 9968625878 | Archaism | 9 | 16 | |
| 9968625879 | The use of deliberately old-fashioned language. | 9 | 17 | |
| 9968625880 | Aspect | 10 | 18 | |
| 9968625881 | A trait or characteristic | 10 | 19 | |
| 9968625882 | Atmosphere | 11 | 20 | |
| 9968625883 | The emotional tone or background that surrounds a scene | 11 | 21 | |
| 9968625884 | Bathos | 12 | 22 | |
| 9968625885 | an effect of anticlimax created by an unintentional lapse in mood from the sublime to the trivial or ridiculous. | 12 | 23 | |
| 9968625886 | Black humor | 13 | 24 | |
| 9968625887 | The use of disturbing themes in comedy. | 13 | 25 | |
| 9968625888 | Burlesque | 14 | 26 | |
| 9968625889 | Broad parody, one that takes a style or form and exaggerates it into ridiculousness. | 14 | 27 | |
| 9968625890 | Cadence | 15 | 28 | |
| 9968625891 | The beat or rhythm or poetry in a general sense. | 15 | 29 | |
| 9968625892 | Caricature | 16 | 30 | |
| 9968625893 | A portrait (verbal or otherwise) that exaggerates a facet of personality. | 16 | 31 | |
| 9968625894 | Chorus | 17 | 32 | |
| 9968625895 | In Greek drama, the group of citizens who stand outside the main action on stage and comment on it. | 17 | 33 | |
| 9968625896 | Coinage (neologism) | 18 | 34 | |
| 9968625897 | A new word, usually one invented on the spot. | 18 | 35 | |
| 9968625898 | Complex (Dense) | 19 | 36 | |
| 9968625899 | Suggesting that there is more than one possibility in the meaning of words; subtleties and variations; multiple layers of interpretation; meaning both explicit and implicit | 19 | 37 | |
| 9968625900 | Denotation | 20 | 38 | |
| 9968625901 | A word's literal meaning. | 20 | 39 | |
| 9968625902 | Consonance | 21 | 40 | |
| 9968625903 | The repetition of consonant sounds within words (rather than at their beginnings) | 21 | 41 | |
| 9968625904 | Decorum | 22 | 42 | |
| 9968625905 | A character's speech must be styled according to her social station, and in accordance to the situation. | 22 | 43 | |
| 9968625906 | Syntax | 23 | 44 | |
| 9968625907 | The ordering and structuring of words. | 23 | 45 | |
| 9968625908 | Dissonance | 24 | 46 | |
| 9968625909 | Refers to the grating of incompatible sounds. | 24 | 47 | |
| 9968625910 | Dramatic Irony | 25 | 48 | |
| 9968625911 | When the audience knows something that the characters in the drama do not | 25 | 49 | |
| 9968625912 | Elegy | 26 | 50 | |
| 9968625913 | A type of poem that meditates on death or mortality in a serious, thoughtful manner. | 26 | 51 | |
| 9968625914 | Enjambment | 27 | 52 | |
| 9968625915 | The continuation of a syntactic unit from one line or couplet of a poem to the next with no pause. | 27 | 53 | |
| 9968625916 | Epitaph | 28 | 54 | |
| 9968625917 | Lines that commemorate the dead at their burial place. | 28 | 55 | |
| 9968625918 | Euphony | 29 | 56 | |
| 9968625919 | When sounds blend harmoniously. | 29 | 57 | |
| 9968625920 | Farce | 30 | 58 | |
| 9968625921 | Extremely broad humor; in earlier times, a funny play or a comedy. | 30 | 59 | |
| 9968625922 | Foil | 31 | 60 | |
| 9968625923 | A secondary character whose purpose is to highlight the characteristics of a main character, usually by contrast. | 31 | 61 | |
| 9968625924 | Foreshadowing | 32 | 62 | |
| 9968625925 | An event of statement in a narrative that in miniature suggests a larger event that comes later. | 32 | 63 | |
| 9968625926 | Genre | 33 | 64 | |
| 9968625927 | A sub-category of literature. | 33 | 65 | |
| 9968625928 | Hubris | 34 | 66 | |
| 9968625929 | The excessive pride or ambition that leads to the main character's downfall | 34 | 67 | |
| 9968625930 | Implicit | 35 | 68 | |
| 9968625931 | To say or write something that suggests and implies but never says it directly or clearly. | 35 | 69 | |
| 9968625932 | Interior Monologue | 36 | 70 | |
| 9968625933 | Refers to writing that records the mental talking that goes on inside a character's head; tends to be coherent. | 36 | 71 | |
| 9968625934 | Irony | 37 | 72 | |
| 9968625935 | A statement that means the opposite of what it seems to mean; uses an undertow of meaning, sliding against the literal a la Jane Austen. | 37 | 73 | |
| 9968625936 | Lampoon | 38 | 74 | |
| 9968625937 | A satire. | 38 | 75 | |
| 9968625938 | Periodic Sentence | 39 | 76 | |
| 9968625939 | A sentence that is not grammatically complete until it has reached it s final phrase: Despite Barbara's irritation at Jack, she loved him. | 39 | 77 | |
| 9968625940 | Masculine rhyme | 40 | 78 | |
| 9968625941 | A rhyme ending on the final stressed syllable (regular old rhyme) | 40 | 79 | |
| 9968625942 | Melodrama | 41 | 80 | |
| 9968625943 | A form of cheesy theater in which the hero is very, very good, the villain mean and rotten, and the heroine oh-so-pure. | 41 | 81 | |
| 9968625944 | Simile | 42 | 82 | |
| 9968625945 | A comparison or analogy that typically uses like or as. | 42 | 83 | |
| 9968625946 | Nemesis | 43 | 84 | |
| 9968625947 | The protagonist's arch enemy or supreme and persistent difficulty. | 43 | 85 | |
| 9968625948 | Subjectivity | 44 | 86 | |
| 9968625949 | A treatment of subject matter that uses the interior or personal view of a single observer and is typically colored with that observer's emotional responses. | 44 | 87 | |
| 9968625950 | Opposition | 45 | 88 | |
| 9968625951 | A pairing of images whereby each becomes more striking and informative because it's placed in contrast to the other one. | 45 | 89 | |
| 9968625952 | Parable | 46 | 90 | |
| 9968625953 | A story that instructs. | 46 | 91 | |
| 9968625954 | Parallelism | 47 | 92 | |
| 9968625955 | Repeated syntactical similarities used for effect. | 47 | 93 | |
| 9968625956 | Parenthetical phrase | 48 | 94 | |
| 9968625957 | A phrase set off by commas that interrupts the flow of a sentence with some commentary or added detail. | 48 | 95 | |
| 9968625958 | Pastoral | 49 | 96 | |
| 9968625959 | A poem set in tranquil nature or even more specifically, one about shepherds. | 49 | 97 | |
| 9968625960 | Personification | 50 | 98 | |
| 9968625961 | When an inanimate object takes on human shape. | 50 | 99 |
