AP Literature Literary Terms Flashcards

2916281173	Allegory	literary work in which charaters, settings, and events stand for other people/events/ideas on a one-for-one basis (i.e. Animal Farm, Dante's Inferno)	0
2916281174	Alliteration	Repeated consonant sounds at the beginning of words placed near each other	1
2916281175	Allusion	A brief and indirect reference to a person, place, thing or idea of historical, cultural, literary or political significance.	2
2916281176	Analogy	A comparison that points out similarities between two dissimilar things.	3
2916281177	Anaphora	The repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses	4
2916283159	Anecdote	A story or brief episode told by the writer or a character to illustrate a point.	5
2916283160	Aphorism	A brief, cleverly worded statement that makes a wise observation about life.	6
2916284759	Apostrophe	A figure of speech that directly addresses an absent or imaginary person or a personified abstraction (i.e. liberty, love)	7
2916352444	Ellipsis	in a sentence, the omission of a word or words replaced by three periods	8
2916354559	Epigraph	a quotation or aphorism at the beginning of a literary work suggestive of the theme.	9
2916356459	Euphemism	A polite or vague word or phrase used to replace another word or phrase that is thought of as too direct or rude.	10
2916356460	Foreshadowing	A narrative device that hints at coming events; often builds suspense or anxiety in the reader.	11
2916358219	Hyperbole	A figure of speech that uses exaggeration to express strong emotion, make a point, or evoke humor	12
2916358220	Irony	A contrast between expectation and reality (verbal, situational, and dramatic)	13
2916361092	Malapropism	an act or habit of misusing words ridiculously, especially by the confusion of words that are similar in sound.	14
2916377031	Metaphor	A comparison of two unlike things without using the word like or as.	15
2916377032	Metonymy	A figure of speech in which one word or phrase is substituted for another with which it is closely associated (such as "crown" for "royalty").	16
2916379613	Neologism	a new word, expression, or usage; the creation or use of new words or senses	17
2916379614	Non-Sequitur	Latin for "it does not follow." When one statement isn't logically connected to another	18
2916387845	Onomatopoeia	A word that imitates the sound it represents.	19
2916387846	Oxymoron	A figure of speech that combines opposite or contradictory terms in a brief phrase.	20
2916387847	Palindrome	any word, phrase, or sentence that reads the same backward or forward	21
2916387848	Paradox	A statement or proposition that seems self-contradictory or absurd but in reality expresses a possible truth.	22
2916387849	Parallelism	Phrases or sentences of a similar construction/meaning placed side by side, balancing each other	23
2916390744	Personification	A figure of speech in which the author presents or describes concepts, animals, or inanimate objects by endowing them with human attributes or emotions.	24
2916390745	Rhetorical Question	A question asked merely for rhetorical effect and not requiring an answer	25
2916392660	Similie	A comparison between two unlike things using "like" or "as"	26
2916392661	Symbol	A thing that represents or stands for something else, especially a material object representing something abstract.	27
2916395126	Synecdoche	using one part of an object to represent the entire object (for example, referring to a car simply as "wheels")	28
2916398248	Understatement	A figure of speech in which a writer or speaker says less than what he or she means; the opposite of exaggeration.	29