The Glossary of Literary Terms for the AP English Literature and Composition Test
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| 7269191000 | Abstract | Complex, discusses intangible qualities like good and evil, seldom uses examples to support its points. | 0 | |
| 7269191003 | Aesthetic | Appealing to the senses; a coherent sense of taste. | 1 | |
| 7269191004 | Allegory | A story in which each aspect of the story has a symbolic meaning outside the tale itself. | 2 | |
| 7269191005 | Alliteration | The repetition of initial consonant sounds. | 3 | |
| 7269191006 | Allusion | A reference to another work or famous figure. | 4 | |
| 7269191008 | Analogy | A comparison, usually involving two or more symbolic parts, employed to clarify an action or a relationship. | 5 | |
| 7269191009 | Anecdote | A Short Narrative | 6 | |
| 7269191010 | Antecedent | The word, phrase, or clause that determines what a pronoun refers to. | 7 | |
| 7269191012 | Anticlimax | Occurs when an action produces far smaller results than one had been led to expect. | 8 | |
| 7269191014 | Aphorism | A short and usually witty saying. | 9 | |
| 7269191015 | Apostrophe | A figure of speech wherein the speaker talks directly to something that is nonhuman. | 10 | |
| 7269191017 | 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. | 11 | |
| 7269191019 | Assonance | The repeated use of vowel sounds: "Old king Cole was a merry old soul." | 12 | |
| 7269191024 | Black humor | The use of disturbing themes in comedy. | 13 | |
| 7269191035 | Colloquialism | A word or phrase used in everyday conversational English that isn't a part of accepted "school-book" English. | 14 | |
| 7269191039 | Connotation | Everything other than the literal meaning that a word suggests or implies. | 15 | |
| 7269191040 | Consonance | The repetition of consonant sounds within words (rather than at their beginnings) | 16 | |
| 7269191038 | Denotation | A word's literal meaning. | 17 | |
| 7269191043 | Diction | The words an author chooses to use. | 18 | |
| 7269191048 | Dramatic Irony | When the audience knows something that the characters in the drama do not | 19 | |
| 7269191053 | Epic | A very long narrative poem on a serious theme in a dignified style; typically deal with glorious or profound subject matter. | 20 | |
| 7269191055 | Euphemism | A word or phrase that takes the place of a harsh, unpleasant, or impolite reality. | 21 | |
| 7269191057 | Explicit | To say or write something directly and clearly. | 22 | |
| 7277346082 | Ethos | Communication that creates legitimacy for the speaker and connection with the audience. | 23 | |
| 7269191060 | Foil | A secondary character whose purpose is to highlight the characteristics of a main character, usually by contrast. | 24 | |
| 7269191062 | Foreshadowing | An event of statement in a narrative that in miniature suggests a larger event that comes later. | 25 | |
| 7269191064 | Genre | A sub-category of literature. | 26 | |
| 7269191066 | Hubris | The excessive pride or ambition that leads to the main character's downfall | 27 | |
| 7269191067 | Hyperbole | Exaggeration or deliberate overstatement. | 28 | |
| 7269191068 | Implicit | To say or write something that suggests and implies but never says it directly or clearly. | 29 | |
| 7269191069 | In media res | Latin for "in the midst of things," i.e. beginning an epic poem in the middle of the action. | 30 | |
| 7269191072 | Irony | An outcome of events contrary to what was, or might have been, expected. | 31 | |
| 7277347994 | Logos | Communication that connects using logic and reason. | 32 | |
| 7269191081 | Metaphor | A comparison or analogy that states one thing IS another. | 33 | |
| 7269191082 | Simile | A comparison or analogy that typically uses like or as. | 34 | |
| 7269191083 | Metonymy | A word that is used to stand for something else that it has attributes of or is associated with. | 35 | |
| 7269191084 | Nemesis | The protagonist's arch enemy or supreme and persistent difficulty. | 36 | |
| 7269191085 | Objectivity | Treatment of subject matter in an impersonal manner or from an outside view. | 37 | |
| 7269191023 | Pathos | Writing evokes feelings of dignified pity and sympathy. | 38 | |
| 7269191086 | 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. | 39 | |
| 7269191087 | Onomatopoeia | Words that sound like what they mean | 40 | |
| 7269191089 | Oxymoron | Two seemingly contradictory words appear together | 41 | |
| 7269191090 | Parable | A story that instructs. | 42 | |
| 7269191091 | Paradox | A situation or statement that seems to contradict itself, but on closer inspection, does not. | 43 | |
| 7269191092 | Parallelism | Repeated syntactical similarities used for effect. | 44 | |
| 7269191093 | Paraphrase | To restate phrases and sentences in your own words. | 45 | |
| 7269191094 | Parenthetical phrase | A phrase set off by commas that interrupts the flow of a sentence with some commentary or added detail. | 46 | |
| 7269191095 | Parody | The work that results when a specific work is exaggerated to ridiculousness. | 47 | |
| 7269191097 | Persona | The narrator in a non first-person novel. | 48 | |
| 7269191098 | Personification | When an inanimate object takes on human shape. | 49 | |
| 7269191100 | Point of View | The perspective from which the action of a novel is presented. | 50 | |
| 7269191101 | Omniscient POV | A third person narrator who sees into each character's mind and understands all the action going on. | 51 | |
| 7269191102 | Limited Omniscient POV | A Third person narrator who generally reports only what one character sees, and who only reports the thoughts of that one privileged character. | 52 | |
| 7269191103 | Objective POV | A thrid 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. | 53 | |
| 7269191104 | First person POV | A narrator who is a character in the story and tells the tale from his or her point of view. | 54 | |
| 7269191105 | 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. | 55 | |
| 7269191107 | Protagonist | The main character of a novel or play | 56 | |
| 7269191108 | Pun | The usually humorous use of a word in such a way to suggest two or more meanings | 57 | |
| 7269191112 | Rhetorical question | A question that suggests an answer. | 58 | |
| 7269191113 | Satire | Ridiculing foolish ideas through the use of literature, graphic and performing arts, with the intent of improving society. | 59 | |
| 7269191114 | 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. | 60 | |
| 7269191116 | Stock characters | Standard or cliched character types. | 61 | |
| 7269191118 | Suggest | To imply, infer, indicate. | 62 | |
| 7269191119 | Summary | A simple retelling of what you've just read. | 63 | |
| 7269191121 | Symbolism | A device in literature where an object represents an idea. | 64 | |
| 7269191044 | Syntax | The ordering and structuring of words. | 65 | |
| 7269191123 | Theme | The main idea of the overall work; the central idea. | 66 | |
| 7269191124 | Thesis | The main position of an argument. The central contention that will be supported. | 67 | |
| 7269191125 | 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. | 68 | |
| 7269191128 | Unreliable narrator | When the first person narrator is crazy, a liar, very young, or for some reason not entirely credible | 69 |
