14525881683 | Allegory | a story or poem in which characters, settings and events stand for other people or events or abstract ideas or qualities | 0 | |
14525887516 | Alliteration | repetition of the same or similar consonant sounds in words that are close together | 1 | |
14525894306 | Allusion | reference to someone or something that is known from history, literature, religion, politics, sports, science, or another branch of culture. An indirect reference to something. | 2 | |
14529990447 | Ambiguity | deliberately suggesting two or more different, and sometimes conflicting, meanings in a work. An event or situation that may be interpreted in more than one way- - this is done on purpose by the author, when it is not done on purpose, it is vagueness, and detracts from the work. | 3 | |
14529992525 | Analogy | A comparison of two different things that are similar in some way | 4 | |
14529995426 | Anaphora | Repetition of a word, phrase, or clause at the beginning of two or more sentences in a row. This is a deliberate form of repetition and helps make the writer's point more coherent. | 5 | |
14530055172 | Anastrophe | Inversion of the usual, normal, or logical order of the parts of a sentence. Purpose is rhythm or emphasis or euphony. It is a fancy word for inversion. | 6 | |
14530061645 | Anecdote | Brief story, told to illustrate a point or serve as an example of something, often shows character of an individual | 7 | |
14530070562 | Antagonist | Opponent who struggles against or blocks the hero, or protagonist, in a story. | 8 | |
14530074255 | Antimetoble | repetition of words, in successive clauses, in reverse grammatical order | 9 | |
14530087533 | Antithesis | Balancing words, phrases, or ideas that are strongly contrasted, often by means of grammatical structure | 10 | |
14530089805 | Antihero | Central character who lacks all the qualities traditionally associated with heroes. may lack courage, grace, intelligence, or moral scruples. | 11 | |
14530091694 | Anthropomorphism | the attribution of human characteristics or behavior to a god, animal, or object. | 12 | |
14530100054 | Aphorism | A brief, cleverly worded statement that makes a wise observation about life, or accepted general truth. | 13 | |
14530111338 | Apostrophe | calling out to an imaginary, dead, or absent person, or to a place or thing, or a personified abstract idea | 14 | |
14530114273 | Apposition | Placing in immediately succeeding order of two or more coordinate elements, the latter of which is an explanation, qualification, or modification of the first (often set off by a colon). | 15 | |
14530118609 | Assonance | the repetition of similar vowels sounds followed by different consonant sounds especially in words that are together | 16 | |
14530137569 | Asyndeton | commas used without conjunction to separate a series of words, thus emphasizing the parts equally | 17 | |
14530263174 | Blalance | Constructing a sentence so that both halves are about the same length and importance. Sentences can be unbalanced to serve a special effect as well. | 18 | |
14530267630 | Characterization | the process by which the writer reveals the personality of a character | 19 | |
14530268391 | indirect characterization | the author reveals to the reader what the character is like by describing how the character looks and dresses, by letting the reader hear what the character says, by revealing the character's private thoughts and feelings, by revealing the characters effect on other people (showing how other characters feel or behave toward the character), or by showing the character in action. Common in modern literature | 20 | |
14530278909 | direct characterization | the author tells us directly what the character is like: sneaky, generous, mean to pets and so on. Romantic style literature relied more heavily on this form. | 21 | |
14530293908 | static character | is one who does not change much in the course of a story. | 22 | |
14530294540 | dynamic character | is one who changes in some important way as a result of the story's action. | 23 | |
14530308755 | flat character | has only one or two personality traits. They are one dimensional, like a piece of cardboard. They can be summed up in one phrase. | 24 | |
14530311709 | round character | has more dimensions to their personalities---they are complex, just a real people are. | 25 | |
14530314115 | Chiamus | In poetry, a type of rhetorical balance in which the second part is syntactically balanced against the first, but with the parts reversed. | 26 | |
14530316629 | cliche | is a word or phrase, often a figure of speech, that has become lifeless because of overuse. | 27 | |
14530333847 | Colloquialism | a word or phrase in everyday use in conversation and informal writing but is inappropriate for formal situation . | 28 | |
14530346829 | comedy | in general, a story that ends with a happy resolution of the conflicts faced by the main character of characters. | 29 | |
14530351107 | Conciet | an elaborate metaphor that compares two things that are startlingly different. Often an extend a metaphor. | 30 | |
14530358519 | Confessional Poetry | a twentieth century term used to describe poetry that uses intimate material from the poet's life. | 31 | |
14530392743 | Conflict | the struggle between opposing forces or characters in a story | 32 | |
14530395602 | external conflict | conflicts can exist between two people, between a person and nature or a machine or between a person a whole society. | 33 | |
14530400920 | internal conflict | a conflict can be internal, involving opposing forces within a person's mind. | 34 | |
14530401935 | Connotation | the associations and emotional overtones that have become attached to a word or phrase, in addition to its strict dictionary definition | 35 | |
14530402661 | Couplet | two consecutive rhyming lines of poetry | 36 | |
14530403793 | Dialect | a way of speaking that is characteristic of a certain social group or of the inhabitants of a certain geographical area | 37 | |
14530406901 | Diction | a speaker or writer's choice of words | 38 | |
14530407667 | didactic | form of fiction or nonfiction that teaches a specific lesson or moral or provides a model of correct behavior or thinking | 39 | |
14530417000 | elegy | a poem of mourning, usually about someone who has died | 40 | |
14530418938 | Epanalepsis | device of repetition in which the same expression (single word or phrase) is repeated both at the beginning and at the end of the line, clause, or sentence. Voltaire: "Common sense is not so common." | 41 | |
14530420323 | Epic | A long narrative poem, written in heightened language, which recounts the deeds of a heroic character who embodies the values of a particular society | 42 | |
14530432636 | Epigraph | a quotation or aphorism at the beginning of a literary work suggestive of the theme. | 43 | |
14530448609 | Epistrophe | Device of repetition in which the same expression (single word or phrase) is repeated at the end of two or more lines, clauses, or sentences (it is the opposite of anaphora). | 44 | |
14530452950 | Epithet | an adjective or adjective phrase applied to a person or thing that is frequently used to emphasize a characteristic quality | 45 | |
14530455040 | essay | a short piece of nonfiction prose in which the writer discusses some aspect of a subject | 46 | |
14530477470 | Argumentation | one of the four forms of discourse which uses logic, ethics, and emotional appeals (logos, ethos, pathos) to develop an effective means to convince the reader to think or act in a certain way. | 47 | |
14530492706 | Persuasion | relies more on emotional appeals than on facts | 48 | |
14530529584 | argument | form of persuasion that appeals to reason instead of emotion to convince an audience to think or act in a certain way | 49 | |
14530532566 | casual relationship | Form of argumentation in which the writer claims that one thing results from another, often used as part of a logical argument. | 50 | |
14530601794 | description | a form of discourse that uses the language to create a mood or emotion. | 51 | |
14530764346 | Exposition | one of the four major forms of discourse, in which something is explained or "set forth" | 52 | |
14530765504 | Narrative | the form of discourage that tells about a series of events. | 53 | |
14530771285 | Explication | act of interpreting or discovering the meaning of a text, usually involves close reading and special attention to figurative language. | 54 | |
14530774164 | Fable | a very short story told in prose or poetry that teaches a practical lesson about how to succeed in life. | 55 | |
14530810009 | farce | a type of comedy in which ridiculous and often stereotyped characters are involved in silly, far-fetched situations | 56 | |
14530820683 | figurative language | Words which are inaccurate if interpreted literally, but are used to describe. Similes and metaphors are common forms. | 57 | |
14530826322 | Flashback | A scene that interrupts the normal chronological sequence of events in a story to depict something that happened at an earlier time | 58 | |
14530848283 | Foil | A character who acts as a contrast to another character. Often a funny side kick to the dashing hero, or a villain contrasting | 59 | |
14530932915 | Forshadowing | the use of clues to hint at events that will occur later in the plot | 60 | |
14530933918 | free verse | Poetry that does not have a regular meter or rhyme scheme | 61 | |
14530934534 | Hyperbole | A figure of speech that uses incredible exaggeration or overstatement, for effect. | 62 | |
14530941313 | Hypoactic | sentence marked by the use of connecting words between clauses or sentences, explicitly showing the logical or other relationships between them. | 63 | |
14530946229 | Imagery | the use of language to evoke a picture or a concrete sensation of a person, a thing, a place, or an experience | 64 | |
14530948245 | Inversion | the reversal of the normal word order in a sentence or phrase | 65 | |
14530954813 | Irony | a discrepancy between appearances and reality | 66 | |
14530981955 | verbal irony | occurs when someone says one thing but really means something else | 67 | |
14530982483 | situational irony | takes place when there is a discrepancy between what is expected to happen, or what would be appropriate to happen, and what really does happen. | 68 | |
14530984407 | dramatic irony | is so called because it is often used on stage. A character in the play or story thinks one thing is true, but the audience or reader knows better. | 69 | |
14530984977 | Juxtaposition | poetic and rhetorical device in which normally unassociated ideas, words, or phrases are placed next to one another, creating an effect of surprise and wit | 70 | |
14530987386 | Litotes | is a form of understatement in which the positive form is emphasized through the negation of a negative form. | 71 | |
14530991480 | local color | a term applied to fiction or poetry which tends to place special emphasis on a particular setting, including its customs, clothing, dialect and landscape. | 72 | |
14530992573 | loose sentence | one in which the main clause comes first, followed by further dependent grammatical units | 73 | |
14530994107 | lyric poem | a poem that does not tell a story but expresses the personal feelings or thoughts of a speaker | 74 | |
14530995270 | Metaphor | a figure of speech that makes a comparison between two unlike things without the use of like, as, than, or resemble. | 75 | |
14531003558 | implied metaphor | does not state explicitly the two terms of the comparison | 76 | |
14531005241 | Extened Metaphor | is a metaphor that is extended or developed as far as the writer wants to take it. | 77 | |
14531302813 | dead metaphor | is a metaphor that has been used so often that the comparison is no longer vivid: "The head of the house", "the seat of the government", "a knotty problem" are all dead metaphors. | 78 | |
14531307050 | mixed metaphor | figure of speech in which two or more unrelated things are compared and combined (running on empty, the soccer player plowed through the match) | 79 | |
14531315412 | Metonymy | A figure of speech in which something is referred to by using the name of something that is associated with it | 80 | |
14531317010 | Mood | An atmosphere created by a writer's diction and the details selected. | 81 | |
14535789218 | Motif | A recurring theme, subject, idea, image, or a situation used throughout a work. | 82 | |
14536015475 | Motivation | the reasons for a character's behavior | 83 | |
14536017167 | Onomatopoeia | the use of words whose sounds echo their sense | 84 | |
14536018707 | Oxymoron | A figure of speech that combines opposite or contradictory terms in a brief phrase. | 85 | |
14536054795 | Parable | a relatively short story that teaches a moral, or lesson about how to lead a good life. | 86 | |
14536055461 | Paradox | A statement that appears self-contradictory, but that reveals a kind of truth | 87 | |
14536056580 | Koan | is a paradox used in Zen Buddhism to gain intuitive knowledge. | 88 | |
14536060447 | parallel structure (parallelism) | the repetition of words or phrases that have similar grammatical structures | 89 | |
14536062847 | Paratactic Sentence | simply juxtaposes clauses or sentences. I am tired: it is hot. | 90 | |
14536066817 | Paradoy | a work that makes fun of another work by imitating some aspect of the writers style. | 91 | |
14536070749 | periodic | Sentence that places the main idea or central complete thought at the end of the sentence, after all introductory elements. | 92 | |
14536075260 | Personification | A figure of speech in which an object or animal is given human feelings, thoughts, or attitudes | 93 | |
14536075261 | Plot | the series of related events in a story or play, sometimes called the storyline. | 94 | |
14536091120 | rising action | complications in conflict and situations (may introduce new ones as well) | 95 | |
14536152065 | Climax | that point in a plot that creates the greatest intensity, suspense, or interest. Also called "turning point" | 96 | |
14536163323 | Resolution | the conclusion of a story, when all or most of the conflicts have been settled; often called the denouement. | 97 | |
14536166193 | point of view | the vantage point from which a story is told | 98 | |
14536169878 | first person point of view | one of the characters tells the story | 99 | |
14536171302 | third person point of view | an unknown narrator, tells the story, but this narrator zooms in to focus on the thoughts and feelings of only one character. | 100 | |
14536177423 | omniscient point of view | 101 | ||
14541476628 | lpok,. | 102 |
AP Literature Terms Flashcards
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