AP Literature terms Flashcards
Terms : Hide Images [1]
| 5835412119 | Ad hominem | An attack on a person rather than on a person's ideas | 0 | |
| 5835412120 | Allegory | A work in which everything stands for something else (i.e. "the pilgrim's progress") | 1 | |
| 5835412121 | Alliteration | The repetition of initial sounds ("such sweet thunder") | 2 | |
| 5835412122 | Allusion | A reference to history, the Bible, literature, mythology | 3 | |
| 5835412123 | Ambiguity | The multiple meanings of a word, phrase, sentence, or passage | 4 | |
| 5835412124 | Amplification | Repeating a word or expression while adding more detail to it, in order to emphasize what otherwise might be passed over | 5 | |
| 5835412125 | Analogy | A type of comparison between to similar things, frequently used to explain the unfamiliar with the familiar | 6 | |
| 5835412126 | Anaphora | The repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive phrases, clauses, or lines; "And Brutus is an honourable man." | 7 | |
| 5835420982 | Anecdote | A story or brief episode told by the writer or a character to illustrate a point. | 8 | |
| 5835422371 | Antiphrasis | One word irony, established by context; "I did mark/How he did shake/'tis true this god did shake." | 9 | |
| 5835423966 | Aphorism | A terse statement expressing a general truth or moral principle; "power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." | 10 | |
| 5835425457 | Apophasis | Asserting something by pointedly seeming over to pass over, ignore, or deny it; "we won't even discuss his past crimes." | 11 | |
| 5835426633 | Aporia | A feigned expression of doubt; "what's in a name? that which we call a rose/by any other name would smell as sweet." | 12 | |
| 5835436582 | Aposiopesis | When a speaker comes to an abrupt halt, seemingly overcome by passion or modesty; "I can speak no more." | 13 | |
| 5835439517 | Apostrophe | A figure of speech that directly addresses an absent/imaginary person or personified abstraction; "Death, be not proud." | 14 | |
| 5835441494 | Appositive | A noun or noun substitute placed next to another noun to be described or defined by the appositive; "Architect Frank Lloyd Wright..." | 15 | |
| 5835443850 | Archaism | Use of an older or obsolete form; "Methinks it's time for lunch." | 16 | |
| 5835445231 | Assonance | Repetition of the same vowel sound in words close together; "He gives his harness bells a shake" | 17 | |
| 5835449308 | Asyndeton | Lack of conjunctions between coordinate phrases, clauses, or words; "I came, I saw, I conquered." | 18 | |
| 5835451196 | Atmosphere | The emotional mood created by the entirety of a literary work, established partly by the setting and partly by the author's choice of objects that are described. | 19 | |
| 5835452601 | Attitude | The relationship an author has towards his subject and/or to his audience. | 20 | |
| 5835467465 | Cacophony | Harsh and discordant sounds in a line or passage in a literary work; "With throats unslaked, with black lips baked/ Agape they heard me call." | 21 | |
| 5835471130 | Cliché | An overused common expression; "honesty is the best policy." | 22 | |
| 5835482134 | Climax | Arrangement of words, phrases, or clauses in an order of ascending power. | 23 | |
| 5835500405 | Colloquial | The use of slang in writing, often to create local color and to provide an informal tone; "I wasn't born yesterday." | 24 | |
| 5835501710 | Comic Relief | The inclusion of humorous character or scene to contrast with the tragic elements of a work, thereby intensifying the next event. | 25 | |
| 5835504327 | Conceit | A fanciful expression, usually in the form of an extended metaphor or surprising comparison between seemingly dissimilar objects. | 26 | |
| 5835505672 | Concrete | Words that describe things that exist and can be experienced through the senses. | 27 | |
| 5835506826 | Connotation | The interpretive level of a word based on its associated images rather than its literal meaning. | 28 | |
| 5835507918 | Deduction | The process of moving from a general rule to a specific example | 29 | |
| 5835510513 | Denotation | The literal meaning of a word. | 30 | |
| 5835511999 | Diacope | The repetition of a word or phrase after an intervening word or phrase; "I am dying, Egypt, dying." | 31 | |
| 5835513302 | Dialect | The recreation of regional spoken language. | 32 | |
| 5835516514 | Diction | The choice of words used in speaking and writing; divided into four categories: formal, informal, colloquial, and slang. | 33 | |
| 5835517353 | Didactic | Works designed to teach or instruct; usually try to impart some moral or ethical lesson. | 34 | |
| 5835522697 | Distinctio | An explicit reference to a particular meaning or to the various meanings of a word, in order to remove or prevent ambiguity; "that is to say,..." | 35 | |
| 5835546079 | Elizabethan | Referring to English culture, politics, and literature during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558 - 1603) | 36 | |
| 5835546785 | Ellipsis | a series of three periods indicating that some material has been omitted from a given text. | 37 | |
| 5835548179 | Epanalepsis | The repetition of the beginning word of a clause at the end of that clause; "nothing can be created out of nothing." | 38 | |
| 5835550638 | Epigraph | The use of a quotation at the beginning of a work that hints at its theme. | 39 | |
| 5835553133 | Epithet | An adjective/adjective phrase qualifying a subject by naming an important characteristic of that subject; "Richard the Lion-Hearted" | 40 | |
| 5835554252 | Epizeuxis | The repetition of one word for emphasis; "tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow" | 41 | |
| 5835555741 | Euphemism | A more pleasant way of saying something that might be inappropriate or uncomfortable. | 42 | |
| 5835557316 | Pun | A play on the meaning and sounds of words; "If he be Mr. Hyde, I shall be Mr. Seek." | 43 |