AP language and Compostion Terms Flashcards
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| 7215503967 | Abstract Diction | Language that describes qualities that cannot be perceived with the five senses. For instance, calling something pleasant or pleasing is abstract | 0 | |
| 7215510084 | Active Voice | When the verb of a sentence is in the active voice, the subject is doing the acting, as in the sentence "Sandra hit the wall." Sandra (the subject of the sentence) acts in relation to the wall. | 1 | |
| 7215512923 | Adage | a traditional saying expressing a common experience or observation; proverb. | 2 | |
| 7215515434 | Ad Hominem | (an argument or reaction) directed against a person rather than the position they are maintaining. "vicious ad hominem attacks" | 3 | |
| 7215517988 | Allegory | a story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one. | 4 | |
| 7215520458 | Alliteration | the occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words. | 5 | |
| 7215522308 | Allusion | an expression designed to call something to mind without mentioning it explicitly; an indirect or passing reference. "an allusion to Rousseau" | 6 | |
| 7215526971 | Ampersand | the sign &(and) | 7 | |
| 7215530424 | Analogy | a comparison between two things, typically for the purpose of explanation or clarification. "an analogy between the workings of nature and those of human societies" | 8 | |
| 7215532313 | Anaphora | the use of a word referring to or replacing a word used earlier in a sentence, to avoid repetition, such as do in I like it and so do they. | 9 | |
| 7215533765 | Anecdote | a short and amusing or interesting story about a real incident or person. "told anecdotes about him, when he was young" | 10 | |
| 7215536446 | Annotation | a note of explanation or comment added to a text or diagram. "marginal annotations" | 11 | |
| 7215538426 | Antecedent | a thing or event that existed before or logically precedes another. "some antecedents to the African novel might exist in Africa's oral traditions" | 12 | |
| 7215540674 | Antithesis | a person or thing that is the direct opposite of someone or something else. "love is the antithesis of selfishness" | 13 | |
| 7215542009 | Aphorism | a pithy observation that contains a general truth, such as, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it.". | 14 | |
| 7215543400 | Apostrophe | a punctuation mark ( ' ) used to indicate either possession (e.g., Lucy's book ; girls' coats ) or the omission of letters or numbers (e.g., can't ; he's ; class of '99 ). | 15 | |
| 7215546700 | Appeal to Authority | Using an authority as evidence in your argument when the authority is not really an authority on the facts relevant to the argument. | 16 | |
| 7215549268 | Appeal to Bandwagon | The argument that since something is popular or everybody is doing it, so should you. | 17 | |
| 7215551301 | Appositive | a word or phrase in apposition | 18 | |
| 7215554184 | Archetype | a very typical example of a certain person or thing. "the book is a perfect archetype of the genre" | 19 | |
| 7215555894 | Argumentation | the action or process of reasoning systematically in support of an idea, action, or theory. "lines of argumentation used to support his thesis" | 20 | |
| 7215557478 | Assonance | in poetry, the repetition of the sound of a vowel or diphthong in nonrhyming stressed syllables near enough to each other for the echo to be discernible (e.g., penitence, reticence ). | 21 | |
| 7215559371 | Asyndeton | the omission or absence of a conjunction between parts of a sentence. | 22 | |
| 7215561669 | Auditory Imagerie | is a form of mental imagery that is used to organize and analyze sounds when there is no external auditory stimulus present | 23 | |
| 7215565010 | Balanced sentence | is a sentence that employs parallel structures of approximately the same length and importance. | 24 | |
| 7215566093 | Burlesque | an absurd or comically exaggerated imitation of something, especially in a literary or dramatic work; a parody. "the funniest burlesque of opera" | 25 | |
| 7215568357 | Cacophony | a harsh, discordant mixture of sounds. "a cacophony of deafening alarm bells" | 26 | |
| 7215569008 | Caricature | a picture, description, or imitation of a person or thing in which certain striking characteristics are exaggerated in order to create a comic or grotesque effect. "a caricature of Jimmy Durante" | 27 | |
| 7215570194 | Chiasmus | a rhetorical or literary figure in which words, grammatical constructions, or concepts are repeated in reverse order, in the same or a modified form; e.g. 'Poetry is the record of the best and happiest moments of the happiest and best minds.'. | 28 | |
| 7215572256 | Colloquialism | a word or phrase that is not formal or literary, typically one used in ordinary or familiar conversation. the use of ordinary or familiar words or phrases. | 29 | |
| 7215574920 | Concrete Diction | words that stimulate some kind of sensory response in the reader: as we read the words, we can imaginatively use our senses to experience what the words represent. | 30 | |
| 7215577298 | Connotation | an idea or feeling that a word invokes in addition to its literal or primary meaning. "the word "discipline" has unhappy connotations of punishment and repression" | 31 | |
| 7215578598 | Consonance | agreement or compatibility between opinions or actions. "consonance between conservation measures and existing agricultural practice" | 32 | |
| 7215580547 | Concession | a thing that is granted, especially in response to demands; a thing conceded. "the strikers returned to work having won some concessions" | 33 | |
| 7215582388 | Conditional Statement | symbolized by p q, is an if-then statement in which p is a hypothesis and q is a conclusion. The logical connector in a conditional statement is denoted by the symbol . The conditional is defined to be true unless a true hypothesis leads to a false conclusion. | 34 | |
| 7215584735 | Counterargument | an argument or set of reasons put forward to oppose an idea or theory developed in another argument. "the obvious counterargument to that dire prediction is that the recession has depressed earnings" | 35 | |
| 7215586352 | Cumulative sentence | is an independent clause followed by a series of subordinate constructions (phrases or clauses) that gather details about a person, place, event, or idea. Contrast with periodic sentence. | 36 | |
| 7215589651 | Denotation | the literal or primary meaning of a word, in contrast to the feelings or ideas that the word suggests. "beyond their immediate denotation, the words have a connotative power" | 37 | |
| 7215592662 | Deduction | the action of deducting or subtracting something. "the dividend will be paid without deduction of tax" | 38 | |
| 7215593171 | Diction | the choice and use of words and phrases in speech or writing. "Wordsworth campaigned against exaggerated poetic diction" | 39 | |
| 7215594547 | Discourse | written or spoken communication or debate. "the language of political discourse" | 40 | |
| 7215596696 | Dramatic Irony | he expression of one's meaning by using language that normally signifies the opposite, typically for humorous or emphatic effect. ""Don't go overboard with the gratitude," he rejoined with heavy irony" | 41 | |
| 7215597247 | Ellipsis | the omission from speech or writing of a word or words that are superfluous or able to be understood from contextual clues. | 42 | |
| 7215599482 | Ethos | the characteristic spirit of a culture, era, or community as manifested in its beliefs and aspirations. "a challenge to the ethos of the 1960s" | 43 | |
| 7215600864 | Epigraph | the characteristic spirit of a culture, era, or community as manifested in its beliefs and aspirations. "a challenge to the ethos of the 1960s" | 44 | |
| 7215602233 | Epanalepsis | is a figure of speech defined by the repetition of the initial word (or words) of a clause or sentence at the end of that same clause or sentence. | 45 | |
| 7215605582 | Euphemism | a mild or indirect word or expression substituted for one considered to be too harsh or blunt when referring to something unpleasant or embarrassing. ""downsizing" as a euphemism for cuts" | 46 | |
| 7215606701 | Euphony | the quality of being pleasing to the ear, especially through a harmonious combination of words. the tendency to make phonetic change for ease of pronunciation. | 47 | |
| 7215608394 | Explication | the process of analyzing and developing an idea or principle in detail. "this term is meaningless without further explication and analysis" | 48 | |
| 7215608395 | Exposition | a comprehensive description and explanation of an idea or theory. "the exposition and defense of his ethics" | 49 | |
| 7215610924 | Extended Metaphore | a comparison between two unlike things that continues throughout a series of sentences in a paragraph, or lines in a poem. It is often comprised of more than one sentence, and sometimes consists of a full paragraph. | 50 | |
| 7215610925 | False Anology | is an informal fallacy. It applies to inductive arguments. It is an informal fallacy because the error is about what the argument is about, and not the argument itself. An analogy proposes that two concepts which are similar (A and B) have a common relationship to some property. | 51 | |
| 7215614499 | Foreshadowing | be a warning or indication of (a future event). "it foreshadowed my preoccupation with jazz" | 52 | |
| 7215614500 | Generalization | a general statement or concept obtained by inference from specific cases. "he was making sweeping generalizations" | 53 | |
| 7215617831 | Genre | a category of artistic composition, as in music or literature, characterized by similarities in form, style, or subject matter. | 54 | |
| 7215617832 | Gustatory Imagery | refers to imagery related to the sense of taste. In other words, gustatory imagery refers to words, descriptions or pictures in your brain that make you think of taste. | 55 | |
| 7215621220 | Hasty Generalization | is a fallacy in which a conclusion is not logically justified by sufficient or unbiased evidence. Also called insufficient sample, converse accident, faulty generalization, biased generalization, jumping to a conclusion, secundum quid, and neglect of qualifications | 56 | |
| 7215621221 | Hyperbole | exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally. | 57 | |
| 7215625347 | Hypophora | is a figure of speech in which a writer raises a question and then immediately provides an answer to that question. Commonly, a question is asked in the first paragraph and then the paragraph is used to answer the question. It is also known as antipophora or anthypophora. | 58 | |
| 7215625348 | Idiom | a group of words established by usage as having a meaning not deducible from those of the individual words (e.g., rain cats and dogs, see the light ). | 59 | |
| 7215627619 | Induction | the action or process of inducting someone to a position or organization. "the league's induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame" | 60 | |
| 7215627620 | Inference | a conclusion reached on the basis of evidence and reasoning. | 61 | |
| 7215630932 | Inversion | the action of inverting something or the state of being inverted. "the inversion of the normal domestic arrangement" | 62 | |
| 7215630933 | Isocolon | is a rhetorical device that involves a succession of sentences, phrases and clauses of grammatically equal length. In this figure of speech, a sentence has a parallel structure that is made up of words, clauses or phrases of equal length, sound, meter and rhythm. | 63 | |
| 7215634025 | Jargon | special words or expressions that are used by a particular profession or group and are difficult for others to understand. "legal jargon" | 64 | |
| 7215634026 | Juxtaposition | the fact of two things being seen or placed close together with contrasting effect. "the juxtaposition of these two images" | 65 | |
| 7215636475 | Kinesthetic Imagery | It also refers to tension along with the movement. Since the word kinetic means motion or movement, therefore, kinesthetic imagery is the representation of the actions and movements of an object or a character. | 66 | |
| 7215636476 | 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 ). | 67 | |
| 7215639593 | Logical fallacy | A logical fallacy is an error in reasoning that renders an argument invalid. | 68 | |
| 7215639594 | loose sentence | is a type of sentence in which the main idea (independent clause) is elaborated by the successive addition of modifying clauses or phrases. | 69 | |
| 7215643577 | Logos | the Word of God, or principle of divine reason and creative order, identified in the Gospel of John with the second person of the Trinity incarnate in Jesus Christ. | 70 | |
| 7215644275 | Metaphor | a figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable. ""I had fallen through a trapdoor of depression," said Mark, who was fond of theatrical metaphors" | 71 | |
| 7215647001 | Metonymy | a figure of speech that consists of the use of the name of one object or concept for that of another to which it is related, or of which it is a part, as "scepter" for "sovereignty," or "the bottle" for "strong drink," or "count heads (or noses)" for "count people.". Origin of metonymy. | 72 | |
| 7215647002 | Mood | a temporary state of mind or feeling. "he appeared to be in a very good mood about something" | 73 | |
| 7215649060 | Motif | a decorative design or pattern. "T-shirts featuring spiral motifs" | 74 | |
| 7215650579 | Non-sequitur | a conclusion or statement that does not logically follow from the previous argument or statement. | 75 | |
| 7215653508 | Objectivity | the quality of being objective. "the piece lacked any objectivity" | 76 | |
| 7215654017 | Olfactory Imagery | pertains to odors, scents, or the sense of smell. Gustatory imagery pertains to flavors or the sense of taste. Tactile imagery pertains to physical textures or the sense of touch. | 77 | |
| 7215657035 | Onomatopeia | the formation of a word from a sound associated with what is named (e.g., cuckoo, sizzle ). | 78 | |
| 7215657036 | Oxymoron | a figure of speech in which apparently contradictory terms appear in conjunction (e.g., faith unfaithful kept him falsely true ). | 79 | |
| 7215659734 | Parable | a simple story used to illustrate a moral or spiritual lesson, as told by Jesus in the Gospels. | 80 | |
| 7215659735 | Paradox | a seemingly absurd or self-contradictory statement or proposition that when investigated or explained may prove to be well founded or true. "in a paradox, he has discovered that stepping back from his job has increased the rewards he gleans from it" | 81 | |
| 7215662295 | Parallelism | the state of being parallel or of corresponding in some way | 82 | |
| 7215662296 | Parody | an imitation of the style of a particular writer, artist, or genre with deliberate exaggeration for comic effect. "the movie is a parody of the horror genre" | 83 | |
| 7215667674 | Passive Voice | A verb is in the passive voice when the subject of the sentence is acted on by the verb. For example, in "The ball was thrown by the pitcher," the ball (the subject) receives the action of the verb, and was thrown is in the passive voice. | 84 | |
| 7215670467 | Parenthetical Idea | A parenthetical statement is one that explains or qualifies something. You can call such a statement a parenthetical, (especially when it's in parentheses). | 85 | |
| 7215671867 | Pathos | a quality that evokes pity or sadness. "the actor injects his customary humor and pathos into the role" | 86 | |
| 7215671868 | Periodic sentence | A periodic sentence has the main clause or predicate at the end. This is used for emphasis and can be persuasive by putting reasons for something at the beginning before the final point is made. It can also create suspense or interest for the reader. | 87 | |
| 7215674072 | Personification | the attribution of a personal nature or human characteristics to something nonhuman, or the representation of an abstract quality in human form. | 88 | |
| 7215674073 | Point of view | a particular attitude or way of considering a matter. "I'm trying to get Matthew to change his point of view" | 89 | |
| 7215677941 | First person | is a point of view (who is telling a story) where the story is narrated by one character at a time. This character may be speaking about him or herself or sharing events that he or she is experiencing. First person can be recognized by the use of I or we. | 90 | |
| 7215679446 | Stream of consciousness | a person's thoughts and conscious reactions to events, perceived as a continuous flow. The term was introduced by William James in his Principles of Psychology (1890). | 91 | |
| 7215681789 | Ominiscient | knowing everything. "the story is told by an omniscient narrator" | 92 | |
| 7215682472 | Limited Ominiscient | In third person limited the narrator only knows the thoughts and feelings of one character. All characters are described using pronouns, such as 'they', 'he', and 'she'. But, one character is closely followed throughout the story, and it is typically a main character. | 93 | |
| 7215684915 | Third person | In third person limited the narrator only knows the thoughts and feelings of one character. All characters are described using pronouns, such as 'they', 'he', and 'she'. But, one character is closely followed throughout the story, and it is typically a main character. | 94 | |
| 7215687112 | Polysyndeton | is the use of several conjunctions in close succession, especially where some could otherwise be omitted (as in "he ran and jumped and laughed for joy"). | 95 | |
| 7215688773 | Premise | a previous statement or proposition from which another is inferred or follows as a conclusion. "if the premise is true, then the conclusion must be true" | 96 | |
| 7215688774 | Pun | a joke exploiting the different possible meanings of a word or the fact that there are words that sound alike but have different meanings. "the pigs were a squeal (if you'll forgive the pun)" | 97 | |
| 7215692381 | Qualifier | a person or team that qualifies for a competition or its final rounds. "he is now 14 and trying to become the youngest qualifier for a PGA Tour event" | 98 | |
| 7215692382 | Rebuttal | a refutation or contradiction. | 99 | |
| 7215695016 | Red Herring | a dried smoked herring, which is turned red by the smoke. | 100 | |
| 7215695017 | Regionalism | the theory or practice of regional rather than central systems of administration or economic, cultural, or political affiliation. "a strong expression of regionalism" | 101 | |
| 7215698383 | Rhetoric | the art of effective or persuasive speaking or writing, especially the use of figures of speech and other compositional techniques. | 102 | |
| 7215698384 | Rhetorical Modes | describe the variety, conventions, and purposes of the major kinds of language-based communication, particularly writing and speaking. Four of the most common rhetorical modes and their purpose are narration, description, exposition, and argumentation. | 103 | |
| 7215703211 | Rhetorical Question | a question asked in order to create a dramatic effect or to make a point rather than to get an answer. "the presentation was characterized by impossibly long sentences and a succession of rhetorical questions" | 104 | |
| 7215704581 | Sarcasm | the use of irony to mock or convey contempt. "his voice, hardened by sarcasm, could not hide his resentment" | 105 | |
| 7215704582 | Satire | the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues. | 106 | |
| 7215706632 | Setting | the place or type of surroundings where something is positioned or where an event takes place. "cozy waterfront cottage in a peaceful country setting" | 107 | |
| 7215706633 | Simile | a figure of speech involving the comparison of one thing with another thing of a different kind, used to make a description more emphatic or vivid (e.g., as brave as a lion, crazy like a fox ). | 108 | |
| 7215708532 | Situational Irony | is a literary device that you can easily identify in literary works. Simply, it occurs when incongruity appears between expectations of something to happen, and what actually happens instead. ... It is also known as irony of situations that generally include sharp contrasts and contradictions. | 109 | |
| 7215708533 | Speaker | a person who speaks. | 110 | |
| 7215710514 | Stereotype | a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing. "the stereotype of the woman as the carer" | 111 | |
| 7215710515 | Straw man | an intentionally misrepresented proposition that is set up because it is easier to defeat than an opponent's real argument. "her familiar procedure of creating a straw man by exaggerating their approach" | 112 | |
| 7215713040 | Style | a manner of doing something. "different styles of management" | 113 | |
| 7215713041 | Sillogism | an instance of a form of reasoning in which a conclusion is drawn (whether validly or not) from two given or assumed propositions (premises), each of which shares a term with the conclusion, and shares a common or middle term not present in the conclusion (e.g., all dogs are animals; all animals have four legs; therefore all dogs have four legs ). | 114 | |
| 7215715366 | Symbolism | the use of symbols to represent ideas or qualities. "he has always believed in the importance of symbolism in garden art" | 115 | |
| 7215716274 | Synecdoche | a figure of speech in which a part is made to represent the whole or vice versa, as in Cleveland won by six runs (meaning "Cleveland's baseball team"). | 116 | |
| 7215718566 | Synesthesia | the production of a sense impression relating to one sense or part of the body by stimulation of another sense or part of the body. | 117 | |
| 7215718567 | Syntax | the arrangement of words and phrases to create well-formed sentences in a language. "the syntax of English" | 118 | |
| 7215721802 | Tactile imagery | tactile imagery pertains to physical textures or the sense of touch. | 119 | |
| 7215721803 | Telegraphic sentence | s a concise sentence typically containing five words or less. Named for the type of short sentences commonly found in telegrams, the term was coined in the early 1960s by Roger Brown and Colin Fraser. | 120 | |
| 7215725168 | Theme | the subject of a talk, a piece of writing, a person's thoughts, or an exhibition; a topic. "the theme of the sermon was reverence" | 121 | |
| 7215725169 | Thermal imagery | the technique of using the heat given off by an object to produce an image of it or locate it. | 122 | |
| 7215729400 | Thesis Statement | a short statement, usually one sentence, that summarizes the main point or claim of an essay, research paper, etc., and is developed, supported, and explained in the text by means of examples and evidence. | 123 | |
| 7215729401 | Tone | a musical or vocal sound with reference to its pitch, quality, and strength. "the piano tone appears monochrome or lacking in warmth" | 124 | |
| 7215732673 | Tricolon | is a rhetorical term that consists of three parallel clauses, phrases, or words, which happen to come in quick succession without any interruption. The origin of this rhetorical device is traced to the Greek word tricolon, meaning "section of a sentence." | 125 | |
| 7215732674 | Understatement | the presentation of something as being smaller, worse, or less important than it actually is. "a master of English understatement" | 126 | |
| 7215735695 | Unreliable narrator | is a narrator, whether in literature, film, or theatre, whose credibility has been seriously compromised. The term was coined in 1961 by Wayne C. Booth in The Rhetoric of Fiction. ... Sometimes the narrator's unreliability is made immediately evident. | 127 | |
| 7215735706 | Verbal irony | irony in which a person says or writes one thing and means another, or uses words to convey a meaning that is the opposite of the literal meaning. ... The verbal irony in the story would have played well in the first century. | 128 | |
| 7215738808 | Vernacular | the language or dialect spoken by the ordinary people in a particular country or region. "he wrote in the vernacular to reach a larger audience" | 129 | |
| 7215738809 | Visual imagery | is a memory technique that involves constructing mental images when learning new information in order to be able to better recall the information later. ... When reading try visualizing the story or concepts in your mind and see if this technique works for you. | 130 | |
| 7215741146 | Zeugma | a figure of speech in which a word applies to two others in different senses (e.g., John and his license expired last week ) or to two others of which it semantically suits only one (e.g., with weeping eyes and hearts ). | 131 |
