Definitions of the terms used in the AP Literature Exam
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| 165863943 | asyndeton | commas used w/o conjunction to separate a series of words (i.e. X,Y,Z, not X,Y, & Z) | 0 | |
| 165863944 | apostrophe | calling out to an object or an abstract idea (i.e. the wind) | 1 | |
| 165863945 | assonance | repetition of vowel sounds | 2 | |
| 165863946 | apposition | when elements that are an explanation of the something stated are listed (i.e. my loves: Theo, bunnies, and chocolate) | 3 | |
| 165863947 | juxtaposition | placing two unassociated elements side by side to present a comparison or contrast | 4 | |
| 165863948 | enjambment | the continuation of meaning, without pause or break, from one line of poetry to the next | 5 | |
| 165863950 | restrained | constricted writing | 6 | |
| 165869866 | elegy | a lament over someone's death | 7 | |
| 165869867 | sonnet | a poem w/ a 14-line structure | 8 | |
| 165869868 | colloquialism | a word or phrase used in informal/everyday conversation | 9 | |
| 165869869 | petrarchan/italian rhyme | rhyme scheme of ABBA - ABBA - CDE - CDE | 10 | |
| 165869870 | deference | respectful or courteous regard | 11 | |
| 165869871 | iambic pentameter | a poetic meter that is made up of 5 stressed syllables each followed by an unstressed syllable | 12 | |
| 165869872 | verisimilitude | probability; likelihood | 13 | |
| 165869873 | simple sentences | a sentence having only one clause | 14 | |
| 165869875 | conceit | an elaborate metaphor that compares two things that are startlingly different | 15 | |
| 165869876 | synecdoche | a figure of speech in which a part is used for a whole (i.e. wheels = the whole car) | 16 | |
| 165869878 | couplet | two consecutive rhyming lines of poetry | 17 | |
| 165869879 | quatrains | groups of four lines in a poem | 18 | |
| 165869881 | antithesis | the juxtaposition of contrasting words or ideas to give a feeling of balance | 19 | |
| 165869883 | syntactic fluency | ability to create a variety of sentence structures | 20 | |
| 165869884 | pragmatic | guided by practical experience and observation rather than theory | 21 | |
| 165869885 | laudable | praiseworthy; commendable | 22 | |
| 165869886 | rationalization | the process of making something seem consistent with or based on reason | 23 | |
| 165869887 | onomatopoeia | a word that imitates the sound it's referencing | 24 | |
| 165869888 | idiom | speech or phrase specific to a particular language or group of people | 25 | |
| 165869889 | in medias res | occurring in the middle of an event/action | 26 | |
| 165869890 | anaphora | repetition of the same word at the beginning of successive phrases | 27 | |
| 165881722 | invocation | calling out to a god or goddess | 28 | |
| 165886222 | allegory | a story or poem in which the characters represent abstract ideas (i.e. Animal Farm) | 29 | |
| 165886223 | allusion | reference to someone or something known from history or literature | 30 | |
| 165886224 | anastrophe | the reversal of the normal order of words for the purpose of rhythm | 31 | |
| 165886225 | anecdote | short story of an amusing or interesting event | 32 | |
| 165886226 | antagonist | villain; opponent against the hero | 33 | |
| 165886227 | antimetabole | repetition of words in successive clauses in reverse grammatical order (i.e. "One should eat to live, not live to eat.") | 34 | |
| 165886228 | antihero | central character who lacks all the qualities traditionally associated with heroes | 35 | |
| 165886229 | anthropomorphism | attributing human characteristics to an animal | 36 | |
| 165886230 | aphorism | a brief, cleverly worded statement that makes a wise observation about life | 37 | |
| 165886231 | static character | one who does not change throughout the story | 38 | |
| 165900024 | chiasmus | a statement consisting of two parallel parts in which the second part is structurally reversed (i.e. Flowers are lovely, love is flowerlike) | 39 | |
| 165900025 | connotation | the associations and emotional overtones that are attached to a word or phrase | 40 | |
| 165900026 | dialect | a way of speaking that is characteristic of a certain group | 41 | |
| 165900027 | diction | a writer's choice of words | 42 | |
| 165900028 | didactic | a story that teaches a specific lesson or moral | 43 | |
| 165900029 | epanalepsis | device of repetition in which the same word is repeated at the beginning in end of a line (i.e. common sense is not so common) | 44 | |
| 165900030 | epic | poem which recounts the deeds of a hero | 45 | |
| 165900031 | epigraph | quotation at the beginning of a literary work suggestive of the theme | 46 | |
| 165900032 | exposition | writing that is intended to make clear explanation about something | 47 | |
| 165900033 | farce | a type of comedy in which ridiculous and often stereotyped characters are involved in far-fetched situations | 48 | |
| 165900034 | hypotactic | a sentence using connecting words btw clauses or sentences to show the relationship btw them (i.e. I am tired b/c it is hot) | 49 | |
| 165900035 | inversion | the reversal of the normal word order in a sentence or phrase | 50 | |
| 165900036 | irony | discrepancy btw appearances & reality | 51 | |
| 165900037 | metonymy | substitution of the name of an attribute or feature for the name of the thing itself (i.e. they counted heads; heads = people) | 52 | |
| 165900038 | motif | a recurring image, word, or idea throughout a work | 53 | |
| 165900039 | parable | a short story that teaches a moral lesson about how to lead a good life | 54 | |
| 165900040 | paradox | a self-contradictory statement that actually contains some truth | 55 | |
| 165900041 | parallel structure/parallelism | the repetition of words or phrases that have similar grammatical structures (i.e. I like running, swimming, and jumping.) | 56 | |
| 165900042 | parody | a work that makes fun of another by imitating some aspect of the writer's style | 57 | |
| 165900043 | polysyndeton | sentence that uses a conjunction w/ no commas to separate the items of the series (i.e. X and Y and Z) | 58 | |
| 165900044 | protagonist | central character of a story | 59 | |
| 165900045 | pun | play on words based on the multiple meanings on words that sound alike but mean different things | 60 | |
| 165900046 | refrain | a word or phrase that is repeated several times in a poem for effect | 61 | |
| 165900047 | rhetoric | art of effective communication, especially persuasive discourse | 62 | |
| 165900048 | satire | the use of humor to emphasize human weaknesses or imperfections in social institutions | 63 | |
| 165900049 | soliloquy | a long speech made by a character who is alone on stage | 64 | |
| 165900050 | syntactic permutation | sentence structures that are extremely complex, often difficult for a reader to follow | 65 | |
| 165900051 | telegraphic sentence | a sentence shorter than five words in length | 66 | |
| 165900052 | vernacular | the language spoken by the people who live in a particular place | 67 | |
| 165904963 | impressionism | a 19th century movement; recorded the artist's personal impressions of the world | 68 | |
| 165904964 | rationalism | movement that began in the 17th century; truth can be obtained through reason, not the church/religion | 69 | |
| 165904965 | transcendentalism | a 19th century movement; every individual can reach ultimate truths through spiritual intuition | 70 | |
| 165904966 | denotation | the dictionary meaning of a word, as opposed to connotation | 71 | |
| 165904967 | digression | use of material unrelated to the subject of work | 72 | |
| 165904968 | reliability | the quality of some fictional narrators that the reader can trust | 73 | |
| 165904969 | syllogism | a form or reasoning in which two statements are made and a conclusion is drawn from them (i.e. micro, macro, thus: all tragedies end unhappily; Hamlet is a tragedy; Hamlet ends unhappily" | 74 | |
| 165904970 | blank verse | unrhymed iambic pentameter | 75 | |
| 165904971 | dactyl | a metrical foot of three syllables: an accented syllable followed by two unaccented syllables | 76 | |
| 165904972 | free verse | poetry not written in traditional meter but is still rhythmical | 77 | |
| 165904973 | iamb | a two-syllable foot with an unaccented syllable followed by an accented syllable | 78 | |
| 165904974 | English/Shakespearean Rhyme | rhyme scheme of ABAB - CDCD - EFEF - GG | 79 | |
| 165906062 | imperative | the mood of a verb that gives an order (i.e. "Eat your spinach!") | 80 |
