AP Language & Composition Tropes List Flashcards

8455746184	Metaphor	An implied comparison between two things of unlike nature that yet have something in common	0
8455746185	Simile	An explicit comparison between two things of unlike nature that yet have something in common; a comparison of two things using either "like" or "as"	1
8455746186	Synechdoche	A figure of speech in which the part stands for the whole Example: All hands on deck.	2
8455746187	Metonymy	Substitution of some attributive or suggestive word for what is actually meant Example: In Europe, we gave the cold shoulder to De Gaulle, and the warm hand to Mao Tse-tung. (Richard Nixon, 1960)	3
8455746188	Zeugma	a figure of speech in which a word, usually a verb or an adjective, applies to more than one noun, blending together grammatically and logically different ideas Example: He maintained a flourishing business and racehorse.	4
8455746189	Personification	investing abstractions or inanimate objects with human qualities or abilities. Example: He glanced at the dew covered grass, and it winked back at him.	5
8455746190	Apostrophe	Addressing an absent person or a personified abstraction. This imbues the subject with an emotional charge. Example: Death, thou shalt die (John Donne)	6
8455746191	Hyperbole	the use of exaggerated terms for the purpose of emphasis or heightened effect. Example: It's really ironical...I have gray hair. I really do. The one side of my head--the right side--is full of millions of gray hairs (Holden Caulfield in The Catcher in the Rye)	7
8455746192	Litotes	Deliberate use of understatement, not to deceive someone but to enhance the impressiveness of what is stated Example: Last week I saw a woman flayed, and you will hardly believe how much it altered her appearance for the worse (Jonathan Swift, A Tale of a Tub)	8
8455746193	Rhetorical Question	Asking a question, not for the purpose of eliciting an answer but for the purpose of asserting or denying something obliquely.	9
8455746194	Sarcasm	Witty language used to convey insults or scorn. Example: Ugliness is in a way superior to beauty because it lasts (Serge Gainsbourg)	10
8455746195	Onomatopoiea	Use of words whose sound echoes the sense Example: Strong gongs groaning as the guns boom far (G.K. Chesterton, Lepanto)	11
8455746196	Oxymoron	The yoking of two terms that are ordinarily contradictory, thus creating a startling effect. Involves a turn of meaning of juxtaposed words. Example: Sweet pain, cheerful pessimist, cruel kindness, thunderous silence.	12
8455746197	Paradox	An apparently contradictory statement that nevertheless contains a measure of truth. Involves a turn of meaning in the whole statement. Art is a form of lying to tell the truth (Pablo Picasso)	13