6281250737 | Alliteration | repeating consonant sound in close proximity to others | 0 | |
6281253607 | Allusion | a casual reference in literature to a person, place, or event in another passage of literature | 1 | |
6281257219 | Anapest | a foot or unit of poetry consisting of two light syllables followed by a single stressed syllable | 2 | |
6281260834 | Apostrophe | act of addressing some abstraction or personification that is not physically present | 3 | |
6281264114 | Assonance | repeating identical or similar vowels in nearby words | 4 | |
6281266405 | Ballad | a narrative poem consisting of quatrains of iambic tetrameter alternating with iambic trimeter | 5 | |
6281270834 | Blank verse | unrhymed lines of ten syllables each with the even numbered syllables bearing accents | 6 | |
6281273930 | Bildungsroman | German term for a coming of age story | 7 | |
6281275599 | Caesura | a pause separating phrases within lines of poetry | 8 | |
6281278215 | Colloquialism | a word or phrase used in plain and relaxed speech but rarely found in formal writing | 9 | |
6332927738 | Conceit | an elaborate or unusual comparison using unlikely metaphors, simile, hyperbole, or contradiction | 10 | |
6332929378 | Connotation | additional meaning a word carries beyond its strict definition | 11 | |
6332929379 | Consonance | alliteration in which the repeated consonants are marked by changes in intervening vowels | 12 | |
6332931961 | Convention | a common feature that has become traditional or unexpected | 13 | |
6332931962 | Couplet | two lines of the same metrical length that end in a rhyme to form a complete unit | 14 | |
6332937608 | Dactyl | a three syllable foot consisting of a heavy stress and two light stresses | 15 | |
6332939641 | Denotation | the minimal, strict definition of a word as found in a dictionary | 16 | |
6332944141 | Diction | the choice of a particular word as opposed to others | 17 | |
6332944142 | Didactic | writing that seeks to overtly convince a reader of a particular point or lesson | 18 | |
6332948017 | Dramatic Monologue | a poem in which a poetic speaker addresses either the reader or an internal listener | 19 | |
6345904534 | Dramatic Poem | a poem containing emotional, spiritual, and detailed elements | 20 | |
6345904535 | Elegy | a poem dealing with the subject matter common to early Greco Roman poems | 21 | |
6345904536 | Epiphany | a sudden flare into revelation of an ordinary object or scene | 22 | |
6345904537 | Explication | the act of making clear or removing obscurity from the meaning of a word or symbol | 23 | |
6345904538 | Figurative Language | the use of something other than the literal meaning of words to express an idea | 24 | |
6345904539 | Foil | a character that serves by contrast to highlight or emphasize opposing traits in another character | 25 | |
6384735024 | Foot | a basic unit of meter consisting of a set number of strong stresses and light stresses | 26 | |
6384735025 | Formulaic | constituting or containing a verbal formula or set form of words | 27 | |
6384736042 | Free Verse | poetry based on the natural rhythms of phrases and normal pauses rather than constraints of meter | 28 | |
6384736043 | Hubris | implying arrogance or excessive self-pride | 29 | |
6400070324 | Hyperbole | exaggeration or overstatement | 30 | |
6400070325 | Iamb | a unit or foot of poetry that consists of a lightly stressed syllable followed by a heavily stressed syllable | 31 | |
6400070981 | Iambic pentameter | a lightly stressed syllable followed by a heavily stressed syllable, five feet long | 32 | |
6400070982 | Imagery | sensory perceptions referred to through description, allusion, simile, and metaphor | 33 | |
6400071585 | Internal rhyme | poetic device in which a word in the middle of a line rhymes with a word at the end | 34 | |
6400071586 | Intrusive narrator | an omniscient narrator who reports on the events of a story and further, comments on it | 35 | |
6400072351 | Irony | saying one thing and meaning another, verbal, dramatic, and situational irony | 36 | |
6400073094 | Leitmotif | used to designate a musical theme associated with a particular object, character or emotion | 37 | |
6400073095 | Literal | a passage, story, or text intended only as a factual account of a real historical event | 38 | |
6400073675 | Litotes | a form of understatement using a negative statement | 39 | |
6483253153 | Lyric | a short poem often only a dozen lines long, often designed to be set to music | 40 | |
6483257172 | Metaphor | a comparison or analogy state in a way as to imply that one object is another one | 41 | |
6483260611 | Meter | a recognizable, varying patter of stresses syllables alternating with syllables of less stress | 42 | |
6483266809 | Metonymy/synecdoche | a specific physical object used as a vague, suggestive symbol for a more general idea | 43 | |
6483270185 | Monologue | a character speaking aloud to himself, narrating an account for the audience alone | 44 | |
6483275323 | Mood | feeling, emotional state, or disposition of mind | 45 | |
6483277988 | Motif | a conspicuous recurring element such as an incident, device, reference, or verbal formula | 46 | |
6483279711 | Narrative Poem | a poem that has a plot including epics, ballads, idylls, and lays | 47 | |
6483279712 | Narrator | the voice that speaks or tells a story | 48 | |
6483281367 | Octave | a set of eight lines that rhyme according to the pattern ABBAABBA | 49 | |
6771628390 | Ode | a long, elaborate poem of varying lines with a serious subject matter | 50 | |
6771628391 | Onomatopoeia | the use of sounds that are similar to the noise they represent for a rhetorical or artistic effect | 51 | |
6771628392 | Oxymoron | a figure of speech that produces an incongruous seemingly self-contradictory effect | 52 | |
6771628393 | Parable | a story of short narrative designed to reveal allegorically some religious principle, lesson, or truth | 53 | |
6771628394 | Paradox | using contradiction in a manner that oddly makes sense of a deeper level | 54 | |
6771628395 | Paraphrase | a brief restatement in one's own words of all or part of a literary or critical work | 55 | |
6771628396 | Parody | imitates the manner and characteristic features of a particular work in order to mock it | 56 | |
6771628397 | Pathos | elements used to inspire an emotional reaction | 57 | |
6771628398 | Persona | an external representation of oneself which might or might not accurately reflect one's inner self | 58 | |
6771628399 | Personification | a device through which animals, ideas, and inanimate objects are given human characteristics | 59 | |
6839046195 | Prosody | the mechanics of verse poetry-sounds, rhythms, scansion, meter, stanzaic form, alliteration, rhyme | 60 | |
6839046196 | Pun | a play on two words similar in sound but different in meaning | 61 | |
6839047532 | Quatrain | a stanza of four lines, often rhyming in an ABAB pattern | 62 | |
6839047533 | Refrain | a line or set of lines at the end of a stanza or section of a longer poem, repeated at regular intervals | 63 | |
6839047534 | Rhyme | a matching similarity of sounds in two or more words | 64 | |
6839049500 | Rhyme scheme | the pattern of rhyme | 65 | |
6839049501 | Rhythm | the varying speed, loudness, pitch, elevation, intensity, and expressiveness of speech or poetry | 66 | |
6839049502 | Satire | an attack on or criticism of any stupidity or vice in the form of scathing humor or critique | 67 | |
6839050918 | Scansion | the act of scanning a poem to determine its meter | 68 | |
6839050919 | Sestet | six lines that rhyme with a varying pattern such as CDECDE or CDCCDC | 69 | |
6891903148 | Soliloquy | a monologue spoken by an actor at a point in a play when the character believes to be alone | 70 | |
6891903149 | Sonnet | a lyric poem of fourteen lines, usually in iambic pentameter, with rhymes arranged according to pattern | 71 | |
6891903150 | Spondee | a metrical foot consisting of two successive strong beats | 72 | |
6891903721 | Stanza | an arrangement of lines of verse in a pattern usually repeated throughout the poem | 73 | |
6891903722 | Stress | the emphasis, length and loudness that mark on syllable as more pronounced than another | 74 | |
6891903723 | Style | the author's words and the characteristic way that writer uses language to achieve certain effects | 75 | |
6891904603 | Subplot | a minor or subordinate secondary plot | 76 | |
6891904604 | Symbol | a word, place, character, or object that means something beyond what it is on a literal level | 77 | |
6891904605 | Symbolism | the use of symbols to represent ideas or qualities | 78 | |
6891905200 | Syntax | the standard word order and sentence structure of a language | 79 | |
6942972314 | End rhyme | rhyme in which the last word at the end of each verse is the word that rhymes | 80 | |
6942977293 | Theme | a central idea or statement that unifies and controls an entire literary work | 81 | |
6942977294 | Tone | the means of creating a relationship or conveying an attitude or mood | 82 | |
6942978448 | Trochee | a two-syllable unit or foot of poetry consisting of a heavy stress followed by light stresses | 83 | |
6942980001 | Verse | a line of metrical writing, a stanza, or composition written in meter | 84 |
AP Literature Terms 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!