ap lit terms ap english st
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| 4358269804 | Active voice | One of the two "voices" of verbs ( see also passive voice). When the verb of a sentence is in the activevoice, the subject is doing the acting, as in the sentence "Kevin hit the ball." Kevin (the subject of thesentence) acts in relation to the ball. | 0 | |
| 4358269805 | Allegory | a story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one (i.e. the Crucible is an allegory for McCarthyism) | 1 | |
| 4358269806 | Alliteration | the use of the same letter or sound at the beginning of words in a sentence, especially in poetry | 2 | |
| 4358269807 | Allusion | a brief and indirect reference to a person, place, thing or idea of historical, cultural, literary or political significance. It does not describe in detail the person or thing to which it refers. It is just a passing comment and the writer expects the reader to possess enough knowledge to spot the allusion and grasp its importance in a text. | 3 | |
| 4358269808 | For instance, you make a literary allusion the moment you say, "I do not approve of this quixotic idea," Quixotic means stupid and impractical derived from Cervantes's "Don Quixote", a story of a foolish knight and his misadventures. | ... | 4 | |
| 4358269809 | Analogy | a comparison between two situations, processes, things etc. that is intended to show that the two are similar | 5 | |
| 4358269810 | Anaphora | repetition of a word or expression at the beginning of successive phrases, clauses, sentences, or verses especially for rhetorical or poetic effect | 6 | |
| 4358269811 | Apostrophe | In literature, apostrophe is a figure of speech sometimes represented by exclamation "O". A writer or a speaker, using an apostrophe, detaches himself from the reality and addresses an imaginary character in his speech. | 7 | |
| 4358269812 | Assonance | Assonance takes place when two or more words close to one another repeat the same vowel sound but start with different consonant sounds. | 8 | |
| 4358269815 | Asyndeton | Asyndeton is derived from a Greek word asyndeton which means unconnected. It is a stylistic device used in literature and poetry to intentionally eliminate conjunctions between the phrases and in the sentence, yet maintain the grammatical accuracy. This literary tool helps in reducing the indirect meaning of the phrase and presents it in a concise form. | 9 | |
| 4358269816 | Bildungsroman | a novel about the early years of somebody's life, exploring the development of his or her character and personality; a "coming of age tale" | 10 | |
| 4358269817 | Blank verse | Blank verse is a literary device defined as un-rhyming verse written in iambic pentameter. In poetry and prose, it has a consistent meter with 10 syllables in each line (pentameter); where, unstressed syllables are followed by stressed ones and five of which are stressed but do not rhyme. It is also known as un-rhymed iambic pentameter. | 11 | |
| 4358269818 | Caesura | in modern prosody : a usually rhetorical break in the flow of sound in the middle of a line of verse; Greek & Latin prosody : a break in the flow of sound in a verse caused by the ending of a word within a foot | 12 | |
| 4358269823 | Connotation | an additional sense or senses associated with or suggested by a word or phrase. | 13 | |
| 4358269824 | Conceit | an imaginative poetic image, or writing that contains such an image, especially a comparison that is extreme or far-fetched | 14 | |
| 4358269825 | Consonance | refers to repetitive sounds produced by consonants within a sentence or phrase. This repetition often takes place in quick succession such as in pitter, patter | 15 | |
| 4358269826 | Couplet | two lines of poetry that are next to each other | 16 | |
| 4358269827 | Denotation | literal or dictionary meanings of a word in contrast to its connotative or associated meanings. | 17 | |
| 4358269828 | Dialect | The language used by the people of a specific area, class, district or any other group of people. | 18 | |
| 4358269829 | Diction | word choice of the speaker or author | 19 | |
| 4358269830 | Ellipses | The deliberate ommission of a word or words readily implied by context | 20 | |
| 4358269831 | Epistrophe | a stylistic device that can be defined as the repetition of phrases or words at the end of the clauses or sentences. It is also called epiphora. | 21 | |
| 4358269832 | Epistolary novel | An epistolary novel is a novel written as a series of documents. The usual form is letters, although diary entries, newspaper clippings and other documents are sometimes used. | 22 | |
| 4358269833 | Euphemism | a word or phrase used in place of a term that might be considered too direct, harsh, unpleasant, or offensive | 23 | |
| 4358269834 | Farce | a play or movie in which people get involved in silly or unlikely situations that are intended to make you laugh | 24 | |
| 4358269835 | Foil | a character that shows qualities that are in contrast with the qualities of another character with the objective to highlight the traits of the other character. The term foil, though generally being applied for a contrasting character, may also be used for any comparison that is drawn to portray a difference between two things. | 25 | |
| 4358269836 | Foot | a basic unit of rhythm in poetry, made up of a fixed combination of stressed and unstressed or long and short syllables | 26 | |
| 4358269837 | Free verse | poetry that is free from limitations of regular meter or rhythm and does not rhyme with fixed forms | 27 | |
| 4358269838 | Hyperbole | a figure of speech, which involves an exaggeration of ideas for the sake of emphasis | 28 | |
| 4358269839 | Imagery | to use figurative language to represent objects, actions and ideas in such a way that it appeals to our physical senses. | 29 | |
| 4358269841 | Irony | a figure of speech in which words are used in such a way that their intended meaning is different from the actual meaning of the words. It may also be a situation that may end up in quite a different way than what is generally anticipated. In simple words, it is a difference between the appearance and the reality | 30 | |
| 4358269842 | Verbal irony- Usually figure of speech, where what is said is the opposite of what is meant. | ... | 31 | |
| 4358269843 | Dramatic irony-The audience knows something that the character does not. | ... | 32 | |
| 4358269844 | Situational irony- Something happens in a situation that is different from what was expected. | ... | 33 | |
| 4358269845 | Jargon | a use of specific phrases and words by writers in a particular situation, profession or trade. These specialized terms are used to convey hidden meanings accepted and understood in that field. | 34 | |
| 4358269846 | Juxtaposition | a literary technique in which two or more ideas, places, characters and their actions are placed side by side in a narrative or a poem for the purpose of developing comparisons and contrasts | 35 | |
| 4358269847 | Lyric (poem)- a poem with musical elements | ... | 36 | |
| 4358269848 | Malapropism | a use of an incorrect word in place of a similar sounding word that results in a nonsensical and humorous expression. | 37 | |
| 4358269849 | Metaphor | a figure of speech which makes an implicit, implied or hidden comparison between two things or objects that are poles apart from each other but have some characteristics common between them. | 38 | |
| 4358269850 | Meter | a rhythm of accented and unaccented syllables which are organized into patterns, called feet. | 39 | |
| 4358269851 | Metonymy | a figure of speech that replaces the name of a thing with the name of something else with which it is closely associated. | 40 | |
| 4358269852 | Metric line | a line named according to the number of feet composing it (such as iambic) | 41 | |
| 4358269853 | Motif | an object or idea that repeats itself throughout a literary work | 42 | |
| 4358269854 | Octave- eight poetic lines | ... | 43 | |
| 4358269855 | Ode | a poem written for or about a particular person, thing, or event (Ode to Joy) | 44 | |
| 4358269856 | Onomatopoeia | a word, which imitates the natural sounds of a thing. It creates a sound effect that mimics the thing described, making the description more expressive and interesting | 45 | |
| 4358269857 | Paradox | a statement that appears to be self-contradictory or silly but may include a latent truth | 46 | |
| 4358269858 | Parallelism | the use of components in a sentence that are grammatically the same; or similar in their construction, sound, meaning or meter | 47 | |
| 4358269859 | Panegyric | extravagant praise delivered in formal speech or writing | 48 | |
| 4358269860 | Parody | an imitation of a particular writer, artist or a genre, exaggerating it deliberately to produce a comic effect | 49 | |
| 4358269861 | Pastoral | Pastoral poems are set in beautiful rural landscapes | 50 | |
| 4358269862 | Personification | giving non-human things human characteristics | 51 | |
| 4358269864 | Point of view | the mode of narration that an author employs to let the readers "hear" and "see" what takes place in a story, poem, essay etc. | 52 | |
| 4358269865 | Polysyndeton | a stylistic device in which several coordinating conjunctions are used in succession in order to achieve an artistic effect; example: "And Joshua, and all of Israel with him, took Achan the son of Zerah, and the silver, and the garment, and the wedge of gold, and his sons, and his daughters, and his oxen, and his asses, and his sheep, and his tent, and all that he had." (The Bible) | 53 | |
| 4358269866 | Pun | a play on words in which a humorous effect is produced by using a word that suggests two or more meanings or by exploiting similar sounding words having different meanings | 54 | |
| 4358269867 | Refrain | a repeated line in a poem or song at regular intervals | 55 | |
| 4358269868 | Repetition | self-explanatory | 56 | |
| 4358269869 | Rhythm | a literary device which demonstrates the long and short patterns through stressed and unstressed syllables particularly in verse form. | 57 | |
| 4358269870 | Satire | a technique employed by writers to expose and criticize foolishness and corruption of an individual or a society by using humor, irony, exaggeration or ridicule | 58 | |
| 4358269871 | Sestet | last 6 lines of a sonnet | 59 | |
| 4358269872 | Sestina | a poem with six stanzas of six lines and a final triplet, all stanzas having the same six words at the line-ends in six different sequences that follow a fixed pattern, and with all six words appearing in the closing three-line envoi | 60 | |
| 4358269873 | Setting | where a story, poem, or other work takes place | 61 | |
| 4358269874 | (Rhetorical) Shift | the change of attitude when using words in a conversation | 62 | |
| 4358269875 | Simile | a figure of speech that makes a comparison, showing similarities between two different things. Unlike a metaphor, a simile draws resemblance with the help of the words "like" or "as". Therefore, it is a direct comparison. | 63 | |
| 4358269876 | Soliloquy | a popular literary device often used in drama to reveal the innermost thoughts of a character. It is a great technique used to convey the progress of action of the play by means of expressing a character's thoughts about a certain character or past, present or upcoming event while talking to himself without acknowledging the presence of any other person. (Hamlet) | 64 | |
| 4358269877 | Sonnet | 14 line poem | 65 | |
| 4358269878 | The Italian sonnet uses two rhymes for the octave - the pattern is either a-b-a-b, a-b-a-b or a-b-b-a, a-b-b-a - and two or three rhymes for the sestet - the pattern is either c-d-e, c-d-e or c-d-c-d-c-d or c-d-c, c-d-c. | ... | 66 | |
| 4358269879 | The Shakespearean or English sonnet follows the pattern | a-b-a-b, c-d-c-d, e-f-e-f, g-g. | 67 | |
| 4358269880 | The Spenserian sonnet follows the pattern | a-b-a-b, b-c-b-c, c-d-c-d, e-e. | 68 | |
| 4358269881 | Stanza | a stanza is a division of four or more lines having a fixed length, meter or rhyming scheme. | 69 | |
| 4358269882 | Symbol | represents something else in literature | 70 | |
| 4358269883 | Synecdoche | a literary device in which a part of something represents the whole or it may use a whole to represent a part. | 71 | |
| 4358269884 | Theme | a main idea or an underlying meaning of a literary work which may be stated directly or indirectly. | 72 | |
| 4358269885 | Verse | single line of poetry | 73 |
