AP Terms
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166008570 | Allegory | An extended metaphor which often takes the form of a tale in verse or prose in which characters, actions, or settings represent abstract ideas or moral qualities. | |
166008571 | Alliteration | The repetition of similar sounds, usually consonants or consonant clusters, in a group of words. Alliteration serves two important purposes. It is pleasing to the ear and it emphasizes the words in which it occurs. | |
166008572 | Allusion | A reference to a person, place, event, or a literary work that a writer expects the reader to recognize and respond to. | |
166008573 | Analogy | A comparison made between two things to show the similarities between them, usually used for illustration or for argument. The sea is to water what the beach is to sand. | |
166008574 | Antagonist | A person or force opposing the protagonist in a narrative, or a rival of the hero. | |
166008575 | Antithesis | The balancing of two contrasting ideas, words, phrases, or sentences often expressed in a balanced sentence: To err is human; to forgive, divine. | |
166008576 | Aphorism | A concise, pointed statement expressing a wise observation about life. Aphoristic is a great adjective to describe something that is pithy. | |
166008577 | Apostrophe | A figure of speech in which a dead or nonliving entity is addressed directly: Roll on, thou deep and dark blue Ocean—Roll. | |
166008578 | Assonance | The repetition of similar vowel sounds. | |
166008579 | Atmosphere | The mood of a literary work. | |
166008580 | Ballad | A story told in verse usually including incremental repetition and a refrain. | |
166008581 | Blank Verse | Unrhymed iambic pentameter. | |
166008582 | Connotation | All of the emotions associated with a word or phrase. | |
166008583 | Consonance | Repetition of similar consonant sounds. | |
166008584 | Couplet | Two consecutive lines of poetry that rhyme. | |
166008585 | Denouement | The outcome of a plot or play. | |
166008586 | Dissonance | A harsh or disagreeable combination of sounds. | |
166008587 | Elegy | A poem of mourning | |
166008588 | Emblematic Image | A verbal picture with a long history- think Madonna and child. | |
166008589 | Enjambment | Continuation of meaning, without pause or break, from one line of poetry to the next. | |
166008590 | Epic | A long narrative poem focusing on a hero. | |
166008591 | Epigram | A short, witty, pointed statement on the form of a poem. | |
166008592 | Epithet | A descriptive name or phrase used to characterize someone or something, such as "Catherine the Great" or "America the Beautiful". | |
166008593 | Fable | A brief story, featuring animals, teaching a lesson. | |
166008594 | Farce | A comedy based on a ridiculous situation | |
166008595 | Hyperbole | Exaggeration for the purpose of emphasis. | |
166008596 | Iambic Pentameter | A poetic line consisting of five verse feet—each foot containing an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable: At once as far as angels ken he views. | |
166008597 | Imagery | Words or phrases that create pictures. | |
166008598 | Maxim | A concise statement expressing a principle or rule. | |
166008599 | Metaphor | A comparison between two things that are basically dissimilar. | |
166008600 | Meter | A generally regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables. | |
166008601 | Metonymy | Something very closely associated with a thing is used to stand for or suggest the thing itself. Three sails came into the harbor, or the White House said. | |
166008602 | Motif | A recurring feature in a work of literature. | |
166008603 | Narrative Poem | A poem that tells a story. | |
166008604 | Novel | A book length fictional prose narrative. | |
166008605 | Octave | Eight line poem or stanza | |
166008606 | Ode | Complex and lengthy lyric poem written in a dignified style. | |
166008607 | Onomatopoeia | A word whose sound imitates its meaning: Roar. | |
166008608 | Oxymoron | Opposites or contradictory ideas like jumbo shrimp or education major. | |
166008609 | Paradox | A statement that reveals a kind of truth, although appearing at first to be self contradictory. | |
166008610 | Narrator | One who tells a story. | |
166008611 | Parallelism | The use of phrases, clauses or sentences that are similar or complimentary in form or meaning. | |
166008612 | Parody | Humorous imitation. | |
166008613 | Pastoral | A poem that idealizes nature. | |
166008614 | Pathos | The quality in a work of literature or art that arouses the reader's feelings of pity. | |
166008615 | Personification | Something nonhuman is given human qualities. | |
166008616 | Plot | The sequence of events in a novel or play-think conflict, exposition, crisis, rising and falling action. | |
166008617 | Point of View | Perspective from which a narrative is told-think first, third, omniscient, limited third person. | |
166008618 | Protagonist | The central character in a work of literature. | |
166008619 | Quatrain | A stanza or poem of four lines. | |
166008620 | Satire | A kind of writing that holds up to ridicule or contempt the weaknesses and wrongdoings of whatever is being ridiculed. | |
166008621 | Sestet | A six line stanza or poem. | |
166008622 | Setting | When and where a text takes place. | |
166008623 | Smilie | A comparison using like or as. | |
166008624 | Soliloquy | An extended speech delivered by a character alone on stage. | |
166008625 | Sonnet | 14 line lyric poem in a rhymed iambic pentameter. | |
166008626 | Symbol | An object that has meaning in itself. | |
166008627 | Synecdoche | A figure of speech that of speech that substitutes a part for a whole. | |
166008628 | Theme | General insight about life that a writer wishes to express. | |
166008629 | Tone | Author's attitude towards his subject. |