The Glossary of Literary Terms for the AP English Literature and Composition Test
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| 7035242806 | Abstract | Complex, discusses intangible qualities like good and evil, seldom uses examples to support its points. | 0 | |
| 7035242807 | Academic | Dry and rhetorical writing; sucking all the life out of its subject with analysis. | 1 | |
| 7035242808 | Accent | In poetry, the stressed portion of a word. | 2 | |
| 7035242810 | Allegory | A story in which each aspect of the story has a symbolic meaning outside the tale itself. | 3 | |
| 7035242811 | Alliteration | The repetition of initial consonant sounds. | 4 | |
| 7035242812 | Allusion | A reference to another work or famous figure. | 5 | |
| 7035242813 | Anachronism | "Misplaced in time." An aspect of a story that doesn't belong in its supposed time setting. | 6 | |
| 7035242814 | Analogy | A comparison, usually involving two or more symbolic parts, employed to clarify an action or a relationship. | 7 | |
| 7035242815 | Anecdote | A Short Narrative | 8 | |
| 7035242816 | Antecedent | The word, phrase, or clause that determines what a pronoun refers to. | 9 | |
| 7035242817 | Anthropomorphism | When inanimate objects are given human characteristics. Often confused with personification. | 10 | |
| 7035242818 | Anticlimax | Occurs when an action produces far smaller results than one had been led to expect. | 11 | |
| 7035242819 | Antihero | A protagonist who is markedly unheroic: morally weak, cowardly, dishonest, or any number of other unsavory qualities. | 12 | |
| 7035242820 | Aphorism | A short and usually witty saying. | 13 | |
| 7035242821 | Apostrophe | A figure of speech wherein the speaker talks directly to something that is nonhuman. | 14 | |
| 7035242822 | Archaism | The use of deliberately old-fashioned language. | 15 | |
| 7035242823 | Aside | A speech (usually just a short comment) made by an actor to the audience, as though momentarily stepping outside of the action on stage. | 16 | |
| 7035242825 | Assonance | The repeated use of vowel sounds: "Old king Cole was a merry old soul." | 17 | |
| 7035242826 | Atmosphere | The emotional tone or background that surrounds a scene | 18 | |
| 7035242829 | Pathos | Writing evokes feelings of dignified pity and sympathy. | 19 | |
| 7035242833 | Cacophony | In poetry, using deliberately harsh, awkward sounds. | 20 | |
| 7035242834 | Cadence | The beat or rhythm or poetry in a general sense. | 21 | |
| 7035242836 | Caricature | A portrait (verbal or otherwise) that exaggerates a facet of personality. | 22 | |
| 7035242837 | Catharsis | Drawn from Aristotle's writings on tragedy. Refers to the "cleansing" of emotion an audience member experiences during a play | 23 | |
| 7035242838 | Chorus | In Greek drama, the group of citizens who stand outside the main action on stage and comment on it. | 24 | |
| 7035242839 | Classic | Typical, or an accepted masterpiece. | 25 | |
| 7035242840 | Coinage (neologism) | A new word, usually one invented on the spot. | 26 | |
| 7035242841 | Colloquialism | A word or phrase used in everyday conversational English that isn't a part of accepted "school-book" English. | 27 | |
| 7035242844 | Denotation | A word's literal meaning. | 28 | |
| 7035242845 | Connotation | Everything other than the literal meaning that a word suggests or implies. | 29 | |
| 7035242846 | Consonance | The repetition of consonant sounds within words (rather than at their beginnings) | 30 | |
| 7035242847 | Couplet | A pair of lines that end in rhyme | 31 | |
| 7035242848 | Decorum | A character's speech must be styled according to her social station, and in accordance to the situation. | 32 | |
| 7035242849 | Diction | The words an author chooses to use. | 33 | |
| 7035242850 | Syntax | The ordering and structuring of words. | 34 | |
| 7035242852 | Dissonance | Refers to the grating of incompatible sounds. | 35 | |
| 7035242854 | Dramatic Irony | When the audience knows something that the characters in the drama do not | 36 | |
| 7035242855 | Dramatic Monologue | When a single speaker in literature says something to a silent audience. | 37 | |
| 7035242856 | Elegy | A type of poem that meditates on death or mortality in a serious, thoughtful manner. | 38 | |
| 7035242859 | Epic | A very long narrative poem on a serious theme in a dignified style; typically deal with glorious or profound subject matter. | 39 | |
| 7035242860 | Epitaph | Lines that commemorate the dead at their burial place. | 40 | |
| 7035242861 | Euphemism | A word or phrase that takes the place of a harsh, unpleasant, or impolite reality. | 41 | |
| 7035242862 | Euphony | When sounds blend harmoniously. | 42 | |
| 7035242863 | Explicit | To say or write something directly and clearly. | 43 | |
| 7035242866 | Foil | A secondary character whose purpose is to highlight the characteristics of a main character, usually by contrast. | 44 | |
| 7035242868 | Foreshadowing | An event of statement in a narrative that in miniature suggests a larger event that comes later. | 45 | |
| 7035242870 | Genre | A sub-category of literature. | 46 | |
| 7035242871 | Gothic | A sensibility that includes such features as dark, gloomy castles and weird screams from the attic each night. | 47 | |
| 7035242872 | Hubris | The excessive pride or ambition that leads to the main character's downfall | 48 | |
| 7035242873 | Hyperbole | Exaggeration or deliberate overstatement. | 49 | |
| 7035242874 | Implicit | To say or write something that suggests and implies but never says it directly or clearly. | 50 | |
| 7035242875 | In media res | Latin for "in the midst of things," i.e. beginning an epic poem in the middle of the action. | 51 | |
| 7035242876 | Interior Monologue | Refers to writing that records the mental talking that goes on inside a character's head; tends to be coherent. | 52 | |
| 7035242877 | Inversion | Switching the customary order of elements in a sentence or phrase. | 53 | |
| 7035242878 | Irony | 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. | 54 | |
| 7035242879 | Lament | A poem of sadness or grief over the death of a loved one or over some other intense loss. | 55 | |
| 7035242883 | Lyric | A type of poetry that explores the poet's personal interpretation of and feelings about the world. | 56 | |
| 7035242886 | Melodrama | A form of cheesy theater in which the hero is very, very good, the villain mean and rotten, and the heroine oh-so-pure. | 57 | |
| 7035242887 | Metaphor | A comparison or analogy that states one thing IS another. | 58 | |
| 7035242888 | Simile | A comparison or analogy that typically uses like or as. | 59 | |
| 7035242889 | Metonymy | A word that is used to stand for something else that it has attributes of or is associated with. | 60 | |
| 7035242890 | Nemesis | The protagonist's arch enemy or supreme and persistent difficulty. | 61 | |
| 7035242891 | Objectivity | Treatment of subject matter in an impersonal manner or from an outside view. | 62 | |
| 7035242892 | Subjectivity | 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. | 63 | |
| 7035242893 | Onomatopoeia | Words that sound like what they mean | 64 | |
| 7035242894 | Opposition | A pairing of images whereby each becomes more striking and informative because it's placed in contrast to the other one. | 65 | |
| 7035242895 | Oxymoron | A phrase composed of opposites; a contradiction. | 66 | |
| 7035242896 | Parable | A story that instructs. | 67 | |
| 7035242897 | Paradox | A situation or statement that seems to contradict itself, but on closer inspection, does not. | 68 | |
| 7035242898 | Parallelism | Repeated syntactical similarities used for effect. | 69 | |
| 7035242899 | Paraphrase | To restate phrases and sentences in your own words. | 70 | |
| 7035242900 | Parenthetical phrase | A phrase set off by commas that interrupts the flow of a sentence with some commentary or added detail. | 71 | |
| 7035242901 | Parody | The work that results when a specific work is exaggerated to ridiculousness. | 72 | |
| 7035242902 | Pastoral | A poem set in tranquil nature or even more specifically, one about shepherds. | 73 | |
| 7035242904 | Personification | When an inanimate object takes on human shape. | 74 | |
| 7035242906 | Point of View | The perspective from which the action of a novel is presented. | 75 | |
| 7035242907 | Omniscient | A third person narrator who sees into each character's mind and understands all the action going on. | 76 | |
| 7035242908 | Limited Omniscient | A Third person narrator who generally reports only what one character sees, and who only reports the thoughts of that one privileged character. | 77 | |
| 7035242909 | Objective | A third person narrator who only reports on what would be visible to a camera. Does not know what the character is thinking unless the character speaks it. | 78 | |
| 7035242910 | First person | A narrator who is a character in the story and tells the tale from his or her point of view. | 79 | |
| 7035242911 | Stream of Consciousness | Author places the reader inside the main character's head and makes the reader privy to all of the character's thoughts as they scroll through her consciousness. | 80 | |
| 7035242912 | Prelude | An introductory poem to a longer work of verse | 81 | |
| 7035242913 | Protagonist | The main character of a novel or play | 82 | |
| 7035242914 | Pun | The usually humorous use of a word in such a way to suggest two or more meanings | 83 | |
| 7035242915 | Refrain | A line or set of lines repeated several times over the course of a poem. | 84 | |
| 7035242918 | Rhetorical question | A question that suggests an answer. | 85 | |
| 7035242919 | Satire | Attempts to improve things by pointing out people's mistakes in the hope that once exposed, such behavior will become less common. | 86 | |
| 7035242920 | Soliloquy | A speech spoken by a character alone on stage, meant to convey the impression that the audience is listening to the character's thoughts. | 87 | |
| 7035242922 | Stock characters | Standard or cliched character types. | 88 | |
| 7035242926 | Suspension of disbelief | The demand made of a theater audience to accept the limitations of staging and supply the details with their imagination. | 89 | |
| 7035242927 | Symbolism | A device in literature where an object represents an idea. | 90 | |
| 7035242928 | Technique | The methods and tools of the author. | 91 | |
| 7035242929 | Theme | The main idea of the overall work; the central idea. | 92 | |
| 7035242930 | Claim | The main position of an argument. The central contention that will be supported. | 93 | |
| 7035242931 | Tragic flaw | In a tragedy, this is the weakness of a character in an otherwise good (or even great) individual that ultimately leads to his demise. | 94 | |
| 7035242932 | Travesty | A grotesque parody | 95 | |
| 7035242934 | Unreliable narrator | When the first person narrator is crazy, a liar, very young, or for some reason not entirely credible | 96 | |
| 7035242935 | Utopia | An idealized place. Imaginary communities in which people are able to live in happiness, prosperity, and peace. | 97 | |
| 7035242936 | Zeugma | The use of a word to modify two or more words, but used for different meanings. He closed the door and his heart on his lost love. | 98 | |
| 7657163227 | Tone | the general character or attitude of a place, piece of writing, situation, etc. | 99 | |
| 7657167246 | Imagery | visually descriptive or figurative language, especially in a literary work | 100 | |
| 7657177217 | Figurative Language | language that uses words or expressions with a meaning that is different from the literal interpretation | 101 | |
| 7657179861 | Shift | A change in mood accompanied by a change in nuance | 102 | |
| 7657194447 | Setting | the place or type of surroundings where something is positioned or where an event takes place | 103 | |
| 7657204784 | Detail | Details are items or parts that make up a larger picture or story | 104 | |
| 7657213707 | Plot Structure | Plot is a literary term used to describe the events that make up a story or the main part of a story. These events relate to each other in a pattern or a sequence | 105 | |
| 7657226370 | Characterization | the creation or construction of a fictional character | 106 | |
| 7657242952 | Anaphora | the repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses | 107 | |
| 7657282806 | Antithesis | a person or thing that is the direct opposite of someone or something else | 108 | |
| 7657292260 | Asyndeton | the omission or absence of a conjunction between parts of a sentence | 109 | |
| 7657303647 | Chiasmus | two or more clauses are balanced against each other by the reversal of their structures in order to produce an artistic effect | 110 | |
| 7657309624 | Conceit | two vastly different objects are likened together with the help of similes or metaphors (Author's purpose to convince audience of likeness) | 111 | |
| 7657319676 | Loose Sentence | the main idea (independent clause) is elaborated by the successive addition of modifying clauses or phrases | 112 | |
| 7657324641 | Didactic | intended to teach, particularly in having moral instruction as an ulterior motive | 113 | |
| 7657332107 | Ellipses | the omission from writing or a speech | 114 | |
| 7657341341 | Epiphany | a usually sudden manifestation or perception of the essential nature or meaning of something. | 115 | |
| 7657345591 | Ethos | Appealing to the spirit of a culture, era, or community as manifested in its beliefs and aspirations | 116 | |
| 7659708677 | Homily | a tedious moralizing discourse | 117 | |
| 7659713569 | Invective | insulting, abusive, or highly critical language | 118 | |
| 7659717397 | Litotes | ironic understatement in which an affirmative is expressed by the negative of its contrary (e.g., you won't be sorry, meaning you'll be glad) | 119 | |
| 7659733863 | Logos | the principle of reason and judgment | 120 | |
| 7659775888 | Motif | a distinctive feature or dominant idea in an artistic or literary composition | 121 | |
| 7659780851 | Non Sequitur | a conclusion or statement that does not logically follow from the previous argument or statement. | 122 | |
| 7659821150 | Pedantic | an adjective that describes words, phrases, or general tone that is overly scholarly, academic | 123 | |
| 7659872992 | Periodic Sentence | a sentence that presents its central meaning in a main clause at the end | 124 | |
| 7659881733 | Polysyndeton | a stylistic device in which several coordinating conjunctions are used in succession in order to achieve an artistic effect | 125 | |
| 7659886589 | Repetition | the recurrence of an action, event, or writing | 126 | |
| 7659892032 | Sarcasm | the use of irony to mock or convey contempt | 127 | |
| 7659896176 | Syllepsis | a figure of speech in which a word is applied to two others in different senses | 128 | |
| 7659906878 | Syllogism | Deductive reasoning to arrive at a conclusion based on two or more premises | 129 | |
| 7659928176 | Synecdoche | A figure of speech in which a term for a part of something refers to the whole of something or vice versa (subclass to metonymy) | 130 | |
| 7659944288 | Style | Describes the ways that the author uses words — the author's word choice, sentence structure, figurative language, and sentence arrangement all work together to establish mood, images, and meaning in the text. | 131 | |
| 7659944350 | Tautology | Repetitive use of phrases or words which have similar meanings (redundant phrases/expressions) Example: "Repeat that again" | 132 | |
| 7659948702 | Understatement | A figure of speech employed by writers or speakers to intentionally make a situation seem less important than it really is. | 133 |
