AP English Terms Flashcards
Terms : Hide Images [1]
| 4374909808 | metaphor | comparison of two seemingly unlike things | 0 | |
| 4374913401 | simile | comparison using like or as | 1 | |
| 4374915733 | personification | characteristics of humans given to non-humans | 2 | |
| 4374917887 | synecdoche | giving the part for the whole | 3 | |
| 4374921164 | metonymy | substitution of associated word for word itself | 4 | |
| 4374924303 | allusion | reference to well-known being or event | 5 | |
| 4374926585 | symbol | is what it is and something more | ![]() | 6 |
| 4374928008 | image | sensory detail | 7 | |
| 4374928009 | archetype | recurrent image that touches collective subconscious, appears in cultures around the world | 8 | |
| 4374935105 | abstract | language that represents emotions or experiences with no physical parallel | 9 | |
| 4374937385 | concrete | language that describes sensory images | 10 | |
| 4374969226 | motif | recurrent image, idea, or theme in a specific piece of literature | 11 | |
| 4374972568 | verbal irony | say one thing, mean another | 12 | |
| 4374974238 | dramatic irony | audience knows, character doesn't | ![]() | 13 |
| 4374975938 | situational irony | unexpected result | 14 | |
| 4374978850 | understatement | making big things seem small/saying less than you mean | 15 | |
| 4374978870 | hyperbole | exaggeration | ![]() | 16 |
| 4374980978 | paradox | an apparent or seeming contradiction, that is somehow true- long style | 17 | |
| 4374985645 | oxymoron | an apparent or seeming contradiction, that is somehow true- short style | ![]() | 18 |
| 4374987864 | litotes | affirmation from negative | 19 | |
| 4374990055 | ambiguity | purposeful multiple meanings as in pun and double entendre | 20 | |
| 4374993940 | diction | word choice | 21 | |
| 4374996293 | syntax | sentence and phrase structure | 22 | |
| 4374998156 | antithesis | balancing of contrasting ideas | 23 | |
| 4375000363 | polysyndeton | stringing a sentence out with conjunctions | 24 | |
| 4375002447 | anacoluthon | breaking off a sentence... | 25 | |
| 4375004436 | parallelism | repetition of similar syntactical structure | 26 | |
| 4375023451 | point of view | narrative perspective- 1st, 2nd, or 3rd person | 27 | |
| 4375030469 | apostrophe | addressing a person or entity not present | 28 | |
| 4375032247 | analogy | extended comparison of similar things | 29 | |
| 4375035578 | colloquialism | informal diction | 30 | |
| 4375037695 | alliteration | repetition of consonant sound in initial position | 31 | |
| 4375041190 | assonance | repetition of vowel sound | 32 | |
| 4375058087 | consonance | repetition of consonant sound in any position | 33 | |
| 4375059880 | euphony | soft, pleasing sounds | 34 | |
| 4375061852 | cacophony | harsh sounds | 35 | |
| 4375061854 | onomatopoeia | word whose sound suggests meaning | 36 | |
| 4375064191 | metric feet | iamb, trochee, anapest, dactyl, pyrrhic, spondee | 37 | |
| 4375068430 | amphibrach | unaccented, accented, unaccented, syllable | 38 | |
| 4375094255 | metric lines | lines in a poem that can be divided into feet: eg. hexameter, pentameter | 39 | |
| 4375097014 | stanzas | The division of lines in a poem. Some examples are couplet, quatrain, octave | 40 | |
| 4375099961 | ballad stanza | abcb, alternating tetrameter and trimeter | 41 | |
| 4375101818 | rhyme scheme | end rhyme expressed alphabetically (ex. abbacdcd) | 42 | |
| 4375108848 | naturalism | extreme realism in literature | 43 | |
| 4375110984 | existentialism | a form of literature where humans inadequate to explain complex world | 44 | |
| 4375112753 | magical realism | a form of literature that begins real, gets weird | 45 | |
| 4375114715 | expressionism | a form of literature that objectifies inner experience | ![]() | 46 |
| 4375116126 | tragedy | a story that starts good, gets bad, hero destroyed | ![]() | 47 |
| 4375118114 | comedy | a story that starts bad, gets good, hero triumphs | ![]() | 48 |
| 4375120220 | comedy of manners | elevated, often satirical, piece of literature from Restoration Period | 49 | |
| 4375122924 | farce | crude, often obscene, work of literature | 50 | |
| 4375125293 | melodrama | an excessive appeal to emotions | 51 | |
| 4375127288 | bildungsroman | novel about young person's maturation- Coming of Age | 52 | |
| 4375129821 | allegory | persons equated with meanings beyond the narrative | 53 | |
| 4375132333 | satire | improving human conditions through exaggeration, comedy | 54 | |
| 4375134191 | novel | extended fictional narrative | 55 | |
| 4375138244 | novella | Fictional narrative longer than a short story | 56 | |
| 5046068669 | novelette | fictional narrative longer than a short story | 57 | |
| 4375138245 | parody | ridicule of a serious work by exaggerated imitation | ![]() | 58 |
| 4375142874 | Picaresque Novel | The life story of a rascal or scoundrel | ![]() | 59 |
| 4375385209 | short story | brief fictional narrative in prose | 60 | |
| 4375385221 | essay | prose discussion of a limited topic | 61 | |
| 4375387928 | Horatian Satire | gentle ridicule | 62 | |
| 4375391271 | Juvenalian Satire | Angry ridicule | 63 | |
| 4375424255 | Myth | traditional story explaining natural phenomena or cultural practice | 64 | |
| 4375432654 | didactic literature | a work on literature that seeks to instruct | 65 | |
| 4375435513 | hook | initial attention grabber | 66 | |
| 4375435514 | central idea | core of a writer's assertion | 67 | |
| 4375438033 | thesis | outline of writer's proofs | 68 | |
| 4375440705 | topic sentence | focus of paragraph | 69 | |
| 4375442217 | structure | introduction, body and conclusion | 70 | |
| 4375444897 | expository essay | presentation of information, facts, ideas | 71 | |
| 4375619580 | persuasive essay | presentation to convince reader | 72 | |
| 4375624999 | descriptive essay | single clear picture of person, place, thing or idea | 73 | |
| 4375627586 | narrative essay | tells a story | 74 | |
| 4375629755 | literary criticism | analyzes and comments on literature | 75 | |
| 4375650204 | formalist criticism | emphasizes the work as an independent creation utilizing personal response and close examination of the work. | 76 | |
| 4375660759 | deconstructive criticism | opposite of formalist criticism; seeks to reveal author's social, cultural, or philosophical assumptions by close examination of the text | 77 | |
| 4375667177 | historical criticism | works are studies within historical context | 78 | |
| 4375669289 | psychological criticism | utilizes Freudian theories and psychoanalytic interpretations | 79 | |
| 4375677148 | gender criticism | feminist and gay criticism reflecting cultural framework | 80 | |
| 4375687473 | blank verse | unrhymed iambic pentameter | 81 | |
| 4375689118 | free verse | poetry with no regular rhyme or rhythm | 82 | |
| 4375694453 | heroic couplet | two rhymed lines in iambic pentameter- a complete thought | 83 | |
| 4375705614 | lyric poetry | short verse stressing emotional over story | 84 | |
| 4375708468 | epic poetry | long story in verse | 85 | |
| 4375708469 | canto | A division within a long poem- made up of multiple stanzas | 86 | |
| 4375710940 | English sonnet | fourteen line poem with three quatrains and a couplet | 87 | |
| 4375713495 | Italian sonnet | fourteen line poem with octave and sestet | 88 | |
| 4375716609 | epigram | witty poem or saying | ![]() | 89 |
| 4375719158 | epitaph | memorial poem (on gravestone sometimes) | 90 | |
| 4375721211 | enjambment | running over of a sentence from one line or stanza to another | ![]() | 91 |
| 4375723525 | refrain | repetition of line or phrase at regular intervals | 92 | |
| 4375743484 | atmosphere | effect of physical environment | 93 | |
| 4375743485 | tone | author or speaker's attitude | 94 | |
| 4375746386 | conflict | interplay of oppssing forces | 95 | |
| 4375749022 | comic relief | lightens narrative | 96 | |
| 4375749023 | complication | plot reversals | 97 | |
| 4375751251 | Deus ex Machina | contrived ending- ending where a supernatural force helps the hero | ![]() | 98 |
| 4375753572 | epiphany | sudden awareness | 99 | |
| 4375755999 | flashback | device to supply background | 100 | |
| 4375756003 | foreshadowing | hints at coming events | 101 | |
| 4375758521 | stream of consciousness | thoughts and feelings recorded as they occur | 102 | |
| 4375762196 | theme | central idea | 103 | |
| 4375764920 | plot | exposition, rising action, climax, falling action | 104 | |
| 4375771681 | denouement | resolution, outcome replicating thought | 105 | |
| 4375775856 | in media res | beginning in the middle of things | 106 | |
| 4375778270 | Round character | complex, multi=faceted, not predictable | 107 | |
| 4375780944 | flat character | recognizable type; lacks complexity | 108 | |
| 4375784279 | confidant | protagonists's intimate | 109 | |
| 4375786486 | foil | character's illuminator through contrast | 110 | |
| 4375789820 | protagonist | character around which the action is centered | 111 | |
| 4375795183 | antagonist | person or force working against the protagonist | 112 | |
| 4375798204 | omniscience | narrator knows all about everyone | 113 | |
| 4375800362 | limited omniscience | narrator knows all about one character | 114 | |
| 4375805897 | dramatic perspective/objective | narrator presents just the facts | 115 | |
| 4375807918 | doppelganger | mysterious double of a character | 116 | |
| 4375810271 | antihero | an ordinary, modern man/woman groping through life | 117 | |
| 4375814825 | Renaissance Period of Literature | 14th through 17th century, rebirth of humanism | ![]() | 118 |
| 4375818375 | Neoclassicism Period of Literature | Restoration to 18th century, order and reason | ![]() | 119 |
| 4375822108 | Romanticism Period of Literature | 18th and 19th century, imagination over reason | ![]() | 120 |
| 4375824961 | Realism Period of Literture | Verisimilitude- truth | ![]() | 121 |
| 6277738007 | Denotation | The Dictionary definition of a word | 122 | |
| 6277739661 | Connotation | The meaning beyond the dictionary meaning | 123 | |
| 6277745610 | Figurative Language | language that cannot be taken literally- metaphors, similes, symbols, etc. | 124 | |
| 6277779331 | caesura | pauses within a line | 125 | |
| 6277783735 | Truncation | the omission of an unaccented syllable at eaiter end of a line | 126 | |
| 6277794729 | villanelle | 19 lines of rhymed poetry divided into 5 3-line stanzas (tercets0 | 127 |
















