AP English Terms for Pre-AP Flashcards
Terms : Hide Images [1]
| 7076901011 | metaphor | comparison of two seemingly unlike things | 0 | |
| 7076901012 | simile | comparison using like or as | 1 | |
| 7076901013 | personification | characteristics of humans given to non-humans | 2 | |
| 7076901014 | synecdoche | giving the part for the whole | 3 | |
| 7076901015 | metonymy | substitution of associated word for word itself | 4 | |
| 7076901016 | allusion | reference to well-known being or event | 5 | |
| 7076901017 | symbol | is what it is and something more | ![]() | 6 |
| 7076901018 | image | sensory detail | 7 | |
| 7076901019 | archetype | recurrent image that touches collective subconscious, appears in cultures around the world | 8 | |
| 7076901020 | abstract | language that represents emotions or experiences with no physical parallel | 9 | |
| 7076901021 | concrete | language that describes sensory images | 10 | |
| 7076901022 | motif | recurrent image, idea, or theme in a specific piece of literature | 11 | |
| 7076901023 | verbal irony | say one thing, mean another | 12 | |
| 7076901024 | dramatic irony | audience knows, character doesn't | ![]() | 13 |
| 7076901025 | situational irony | unexpected result | 14 | |
| 7076901026 | understatement | making big things seem small/saying less than you mean | 15 | |
| 7076901027 | hyperbole | exaggeration | ![]() | 16 |
| 7076901028 | paradox | an apparent or seeming contradiction, that is somehow true- long style | 17 | |
| 7076901029 | oxymoron | an apparent or seeming contradiction, that is somehow true- short style | ![]() | 18 |
| 7076901030 | litotes | affirmation from negative | 19 | |
| 7076901031 | ambiguity | purposeful multiple meanings as in pun and double entendre | 20 | |
| 7076901032 | diction | word choice | 21 | |
| 7076901033 | syntax | sentence and phrase structure | 22 | |
| 7076901034 | antithesis | balancing of contrasting ideas | 23 | |
| 7076901035 | polysyndeton | stringing a sentence out with conjunctions | 24 | |
| 7076901036 | anacoluthon | breaking off a sentence... | 25 | |
| 7076901037 | parallelism | repetition of similar syntactical structure | 26 | |
| 7076901038 | point of view | narrative perspective- 1st, 2nd, or 3rd person | 27 | |
| 7076901039 | apostrophe | addressing a person or entity not present | 28 | |
| 7076901040 | analogy | extended comparison of similar things | 29 | |
| 7076901041 | colloquialism | informal diction | 30 | |
| 7076901042 | alliteration | repetition of consonant sound in initial position | 31 | |
| 7076901043 | assonance | repetition of vowel sound | 32 | |
| 7076901044 | consonance | repetition of consonant sound in any position | 33 | |
| 7076901045 | euphony | soft, pleasing sounds | 34 | |
| 7076901046 | cacophony | harsh sounds | 35 | |
| 7076901047 | onomatopoeia | word whose sound suggests meaning | 36 | |
| 7076901048 | metric feet | iamb, trochee, anapest, dactyl, pyrrhic, spondee | 37 | |
| 7076901049 | amphibrach | unaccented, accented, unaccented, syllable | 38 | |
| 7076901050 | metric lines | lines in a poem that can be divided into feet: eg. hexameter, pentameter | 39 | |
| 7076901051 | stanzas | The division of lines in a poem. Some examples are couplet, quatrain, octave | 40 | |
| 7076901052 | ballad stanza | abcb, alternating tetrameter and trimeter | 41 | |
| 7076901053 | rhyme scheme | end rhyme expressed alphabetically (ex. abbacdcd) | 42 | |
| 7076901054 | naturalism | extreme realism in literature | 43 | |
| 7076901055 | existentialism | a form of literature where humans inadequate to explain complex world | 44 | |
| 7076901056 | magical realism | a form of literature that begins real, gets weird | 45 | |
| 7076901057 | expressionism | a form of literature that objectifies inner experience | ![]() | 46 |
| 7076901058 | tragedy | a story that starts good, gets bad, hero destroyed | ![]() | 47 |
| 7076901059 | comedy | a story that starts bad, gets good, hero triumphs | ![]() | 48 |
| 7076901060 | comedy of manners | elevated, often satirical, piece of literature from Restoration Period | 49 | |
| 7076901061 | farce | crude, often obscene, work of literature | 50 | |
| 7076901062 | melodrama | an excessive appeal to emotions | 51 | |
| 7076901063 | bildungsroman | novel about young person's maturation- Coming of Age | 52 | |
| 7076901064 | allegory | persons equated with meanings beyond the narrative | 53 | |
| 7076901065 | satire | improving human conditions through exaggeration, comedy | 54 | |
| 7076901066 | novel | extended fictional narrative | 55 | |
| 7076901067 | novella | Fictional narrative longer than a short story | 56 | |
| 7076901068 | novelette | fictional narrative longer than a short story | 57 | |
| 7076901069 | parody | ridicule of a serious work by exaggerated imitation | ![]() | 58 |
| 7076901070 | Picaresque Novel | The life story of a rascal or scoundrel | ![]() | 59 |
| 7076901071 | short story | brief fictional narrative in prose | 60 | |
| 7076901072 | essay | prose discussion of a limited topic | 61 | |
| 7076901073 | Horatian Satire | gentle ridicule | 62 | |
| 7076901074 | Juvenalian Satire | Angry ridicule | 63 | |
| 7076901075 | Myth | traditional story explaining natural phenomena or cultural practice | 64 | |
| 7076901076 | didactic literature | a work on literature that seeks to instruct | 65 | |
| 7076901077 | hook | initial attention grabber | 66 | |
| 7076901078 | central idea | core of a writer's assertion | 67 | |
| 7076901079 | thesis | outline of writer's proofs | 68 | |
| 7076901080 | topic sentence | focus of paragraph | 69 | |
| 7076901081 | structure | introduction, body and conclusion | 70 | |
| 7076901082 | expository essay | presentation of information, facts, ideas | 71 | |
| 7076901083 | persuasive essay | presentation to convince reader | 72 | |
| 7076901084 | descriptive essay | single clear picture of person, place, thing or idea | 73 | |
| 7076901085 | narrative essay | tells a story | 74 | |
| 7076901086 | literary criticism | analyzes and comments on literature | 75 | |
| 7076901087 | formalist criticism | emphasizes the work as an independent creation utilizing personal response and close examination of the work. | 76 | |
| 7076901088 | deconstructive criticism | opposite of formalist criticism; seeks to reveal author's social, cultural, or philosophical assumptions by close examination of the text | 77 | |
| 7076901089 | historical criticism | works are studies within historical context | 78 | |
| 7076901090 | psychological criticism | utilizes Freudian theories and psychoanalytic interpretations | 79 | |
| 7076901091 | gender criticism | feminist and gay criticism reflecting cultural framework | 80 | |
| 7076901092 | blank verse | unrhymed iambic pentameter | 81 | |
| 7076901093 | free verse | poetry with no regular rhyme or rhythm | 82 | |
| 7076901094 | heroic couplet | two rhymed lines in iambic pentameter- a complete thought | 83 | |
| 7076901095 | lyric poetry | short verse stressing emotional over story | 84 | |
| 7076901096 | epic poetry | long story in verse | 85 | |
| 7076901097 | canto | A division within a long poem- made up of multiple stanzas | 86 | |
| 7076901098 | English sonnet | fourteen line poem with three quatrains and a couplet | 87 | |
| 7076901099 | Italian sonnet | fourteen line poem with octave and sestet | 88 | |
| 7076901100 | epigram | witty poem or saying | ![]() | 89 |
| 7076901101 | epitaph | memorial poem (on gravestone sometimes) | 90 | |
| 7076901102 | enjambment | running over of a sentence from one line or stanza to another | ![]() | 91 |
| 7076901103 | refrain | repetition of line or phrase at regular intervals | 92 | |
| 7076901104 | atmosphere | effect of physical environment | 93 | |
| 7076901105 | tone | author or speaker's attitude | 94 | |
| 7076901106 | conflict | interplay of oppssing forces | 95 | |
| 7076901107 | comic relief | lightens narrative | 96 | |
| 7076901108 | complication | plot reversals | 97 | |
| 7076901109 | Deus ex Machina | contrived ending- ending where a supernatural force helps the hero | ![]() | 98 |
| 7076901110 | epiphany | sudden awareness | 99 | |
| 7076901111 | flashback | device to supply background | 100 | |
| 7076901112 | foreshadowing | hints at coming events | 101 | |
| 7076901113 | stream of consciousness | thoughts and feelings recorded as they occur | 102 | |
| 7076901114 | theme | central idea | 103 | |
| 7076901115 | plot | exposition, rising action, climax, falling action | 104 | |
| 7076901116 | denouement | resolution, outcome replicating thought | 105 | |
| 7076901117 | in media res | beginning in the middle of things | 106 | |
| 7076901118 | Round character | complex, multi=faceted, not predictable | 107 | |
| 7076901119 | flat character | recognizable type; lacks complexity | 108 | |
| 7076901120 | confidant | protagonists's intimate | 109 | |
| 7076901121 | foil | character's illuminator through contrast | 110 | |
| 7076901122 | protagonist | character around which the action is centered | 111 | |
| 7076901123 | antagonist | person or force working against the protagonist | 112 | |
| 7076901124 | omniscience | narrator knows all about everyone | 113 | |
| 7076901125 | limited omniscience | narrator knows all about one character | 114 | |
| 7076901126 | dramatic perspective/objective | narrator presents just the facts | 115 | |
| 7076901127 | doppelganger | mysterious double of a character | 116 | |
| 7076901128 | antihero | an ordinary, modern man/woman groping through life | 117 | |
| 7076901129 | Renaissance Period of Literature | 14th through 17th century, rebirth of humanism | ![]() | 118 |
| 7076901130 | Neoclassicism Period of Literature | Restoration to 18th century, order and reason | ![]() | 119 |
| 7076901131 | Romanticism Period of Literature | 18th and 19th century, imagination over reason | ![]() | 120 |
| 7076901132 | Realism Period of Literture | Verisimilitude- truth | ![]() | 121 |
| 7076901133 | Denotation | The Dictionary definition of a word | 122 | |
| 7076901134 | Connotation | The meaning beyond the dictionary meaning | 123 | |
| 7076901135 | Figurative Language | language that cannot be taken literally- metaphors, similes, symbols, etc. | 124 | |
| 7076901136 | caesura | pauses within a line | 125 | |
| 7076901137 | Truncation | the omission of an unaccented syllable at eaiter end of a line | 126 | |
| 7076901138 | villanelle | 19 lines of rhymed poetry divided into 5 3-line stanzas (tercets0 | 127 |
















