AP English Language and Composition Flashcards

6799932628	Allegory	The device of using character and/or story elements symbolically.	0
6799932629	Antecedent	Word, phrase, or clause referred to by a pronoun.	1
6799932630	Antithesis	Opposition or contrast of ideas through parallelism.	2
6799932631	Aphorism	a short, proverbial saying of general truth	3
6799932632	Apostrophe	when a character in a literary work speaks to an object, an idea, or someone who doesn't exist as if it is a living person	4
6799932633	Colloquialism (colloquial)	The use of slang or informalities in speech or writing.	5
6799932634	Conceit	A fanciful expression, usually in the form of an extended metaphor.	6
6799932635	Euphemism	a mild or pleasant word or phrase that is used instead of one that is unpleasant or offensive	7
6799932636	Homily	This term literally means "sermon," but more informally, it can include any serious talk, speech, or lecture involving moral or spiritual advice.	8
6799932637	Invective	An emotionally violent, verbal denunciation or attack using strong, abusive language.	9
6799932638	Metonymy	figure of speech in which something is represented by another that is related to it; WHOLE STANDS FOR PART	10
6799932639	Anaphora	The exact repetition of words or phrases at the beginning of successive lines or sentences.	11
6799932640	Pedantic	An adjective that describes words, phrases, or general tone that is overly scholarly, academic, or bookish	12
6799932641	Prose	one of the major divisions of genre; refers to fiction and nonfiction, including all its forms	13
6799932642	Semantics	The branch of linguistics that studies the meaning of words.	14
6799932643	Syllogism	A deductive system of formal logic that presents two premises that inevitably lead to a sound conclusion.	15
6799932644	Synecdoche	A figure of speech in which a part of something is used to represent the whole.	16
6799932645	Synesthesia	When one kind of sensory stimulus evokes the subjective experience of another.	17
6799932646	Apologia	A written or spoken defense of one's beliefs and actions.	18
6799932647	Epigram	A brief witty statement.	19
6799932648	Digression	The use of material unrelated to the subject of a work.	20
6799932649	Ellipsis	The omission of a word or several words.	21
6799932650	Ad Hominem	Attacking a speaker's character instead of to their argument.	22
6799932651	Anachronism	A person, scene, event or other element that fails to correspond with the appropriate time or era.	23
6799932652	Didactic	Having an instructive purpose; intending to convey information to teach a lesson usually in a dry, pompous manner.	24
6799932653	Fallacy	An incorrect belief or supposition based on faulty data, defective evidence, or false information.	25
6799932654	Hubris	Excessive pride that often brings about one's fall.	26
6799932655	Alliteration	Repetition of consonant sounds, usually at the beginnings of words	27
6799932656	Litotes	A form of understatement in which the negative of the contrary is used to achieve emphasis or intensity.	28
6799932657	Paradox	A statement or idea that seems contradictory but is in fact true.	29
6799932658	Non Sequitur	A statement or idea that fails to follow logically from the one before.	30
6799932659	Anecdote	A short and amusing or interesting story about a real incident or person.	31
6799932660	Jargon	Special words or expressions that are used by a particular profession or group.	32
6799932661	Taciturn	Not talking much, reserved; silent, holding back in conversation.	33
6799932662	Dogmatic	Inclined to lay down principles as incontrovertibly true.	34
6799932663	Pernicious	Having a harmful effect, especially in a gradual or subtle way.	35
6799932664	Bellicose	Demonstrating aggression and willingness to fight.	36
6799932665	Voracious	Craving or consuming large quantities of food.	37
6799932666	Zealous	Having or showing zeal.	38
6799932667	Tacit	Understood or implied without being stated.	39
6799932668	Innuendo	An allusive or oblique remark or hint, typically a suggestive or disparaging one.	40
6799932669	Lackadaisical	Displaying or having a disinclination for physical exertion or effort; slow and relaxed.	41
6799932670	Consecrate	Make or declare (something, typically a church) sacred; dedicate formally to a religious or divine purpose.	42
6799932671	Chiasmus	A type of parallelism in which elements are reversed. "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country."	43
6799932672	Loose	A sentence in which the subject and verb come at the front of the sentence.	44
6799932673	Petulant	Childishly sulky or bad-tempered.	45
6799932674	Periodic Sentence	A sentence in which the subject and verb come toward the end of the sentence.	46
6799932675	Exhort	Strongly encourage or urge someone to do something.	47
6799932676	Cloistered	Kept away from the outside world; sheltered.	48
6799932677	Sarcasm	Caustic, bitter language--iterally means "to tear the flesh."	49
6799932678	Independent Clause	A complete sentence.	50
6799932679	Dependent Clause	Includes a subordinate conjunction, such as because, while, etc.	51
6799932680	Allusion	A reference to something (e.g., a book, a movie, an historical event) that is presumed to be well known to the audience.	52
6799932681	Satire	A work that pokes fun human vices and follies in order to call attention to a larger problem.	53
6799932682	Parody	A work that closely imitates the style or content of another with the specific aim of comic effect and/or ridicule.	54
6799932683	Coup de Grace	The "death blow"--the culminating event in a bad situation.	55
6799932684	Coup d'Etat	Literally "blow to the state"--a violent overthrow.	56
6799932685	Faux Pas	A social misstep or inappropriate action.	57
6799932686	Laissez-Faire	Literally "allow to do"--letting things run their natural course; hands off.	58
6799932687	En Masse	In a body as a whole; as a group.	59
6799932688	Proprietary	Characteristic of an owner of property; constituting property.	60
6799932689	Propriety	The quality of behaving in a proper manner; obeying rules and customs.	61
6799932690	Imminent	About to happen.	62
6799932691	Eminent	Famous, outstanding, distinguished.	63
6799932692	Ego	According to Freud, the decision-making component of personality that operates according to the reality principle.	64
6799932693	Superego	According to Freud, that facet of the psyche that represents the internalized ideals and values of one's parents and society	65
6799932694	Id	Literally the "It"--our base impulses, driven by selfishness and greed, for example.	66
6799932695	Hamartia	A character's error in judgment that contributes to one's downfall.	67
6799932696	Orwellian	The manipulation of language and ideas to control and obstruct the truth.	68
6799932697	Autonomos	Independent, self-governing, not under the control of something or someone else.	69
6812477418	Polemic	an aggressive argument that tries to establish the superiority of one opinion over all others; generally do not concede that opposing opinions have any merit	70
6812482060	Ambivalent	having mixed feeling about someone or something; being unable to choose between two (usually opposing) courses of action	71
6812489637	Explicit	fully and clearly expressed, spelled out with no room for confusion	72
6812495151	Denotation	dictionary definition of a word	73
6812495152	Asyndeton	the intentional omission of conjunctions between coordinate words, phrases, or clauses	74
6812499087	Overstatement/Hyperbole	deliberate exaggeration used for emphasis or to produce a comic or ironic effect	75
6812501791	Juxtaposition	placement of two things closely together to emphasize similarities or differences	76
6812504656	Analogy	a comparison between two seemingly dissimilar things; often uses something simple or familiar to describe something complex or unfamiliar	77
6812506634	Parenthesis	insertion of some verbal unit in a position that interrupts the normal syntactical flow of the sentence; MUST be in the middle of a sentence, not at the end	78
6812509355	Polysyndeton	the deliberate use of multiple conjunctions between coordinate words, phrases, or clauses	79
6812513182	Antimetabole	repetition of words in reverse order	80
6812515375	Epistrophe	the repetition of a word at the ends of successive phrases, clauses, or sentences	81
6812517800	Visceral	obtained through instinct rather than from reasoning or observation; gut feeling	82
6812538800	Scheme	artful syntax; a deviation from the normal order of words	83
6812561923	Verbal	verb forms which act as another part of speech in a sentence (participle, gerund, infinitive)	84
6812565049	Gerund	form of a verb that ends in -ing and functions as a noun	85
6812567244	Participle	form of a verb that functions as an adjective (-ing, -ed)	86
6812572270	Coordinating Conjunction	connects equal words or word groups (FANBOYS)	87
6812574301	Dependent Word (relative pronoun, subordinating conjunction)	provides necessary transition between two ideas in a sentence (indicates time, place, or cause and effect relationship); reduces importance of the clause it introduces, so readers know the main clause is more important	88
6812576167	Infinitive	base form of a verb with "to", usually functions as a noun but can also function as an adjective or adverb	89
6812579620	Preposition	relates a noun or pronoun that appears with it to another word in the sentence	90
6813109838	Aesthetic	the study or philosophy of beauty in art, literature and nature	91
6813112278	Ambiguity	having more than one meaning, used in verbal, written, and nonverbal communication	92
6813117250	Antihero	a protagonist who is particularly graceless, inept, stupid, or dishonest	93
6813123485	Archetype	a recurrent symbol or motif in literature, art, or mythology	94
6813127642	Bildungsroman	a coming of age novel, the story of a person's development	95
6813131209	Canon	an accepted list of literary works commonly taught in schools and universities	96
6813134416	Catharsis	a moral and spiritual cleansing you receive when watching a protagonist overcome great odds to survive	97
6813138432	Concrete	opposite of abstract, tangible, quantifiable	98
6813142357	Confidant (male)/ Confidante (female)	A person who partakes little in the action, is very close to the protagonist, and hears all of the intimate secrets of the protagonist	99
6813146058	Controlling Image	an image or metaphor which runs throughout the work	100
6813149169	Crisis	The point of the highest clash	101
6813156208	Cumulative Sentence	an independent clause followed by subordinate clauses or phrases that supply additional detail	102
6813158927	Deductive	reasoning from the general to the specific	103
6813161219	Deus Ex Machina	it applies to anytime the hero is saved by a miraculous or improbable event, literally "God in the machine," this is a Greek idea from when the gods would come on stage to rescue the hero,	104
6813169845	Dystopia	An imaginary world which was constructed to be perfect yet failed. Present tendencies are carried out to their intensely unpleasant end	105
6813172096	Elegiac	mournful over what has passed or been lost; often used to describe tone	106
6813174440	Epiphany	a sudden understanding or realization which prior to this was thought of or understood	107
6813179041	Expository	a mode of writing which is used to explain something	108
6813186946	In Medias Res	this is starting a story in the middle of the action -- the first part will be revealed later; meaning "in the midst of things,"	109
6813192735	Inductive	reasoning from the specific to the general	110
6813195202	Inversion	a sentence in which the verb precedes the subject	111
6813198317	Kitsch	shallow flashy art designed to have a mass appeal	112
6813203830	Microcosm	representing an entire idea through a small situation or conflict	113
6813210403	Motif	a simple device that serves as a basis for an expanded narrative, it is a recurring feature in the work	114
6813212886	Nominalizaton	turning a verb or adjective into a noun	115
6813215418	Objective	a tone of fairness and even discussion of a subject, it usually suggests that there is distance between the author and the subject being discussed. Be careful, this tone can also be cold and impersonal.	116
6813217884	Oxymoron	a self‐contradictory combination or words	117
6813223332	Persona	the speaker, voice, or character assumed by the author of a piece of writing	118
6813226677	Plagiarism	literary theft -- using someone's ideas and style and passing the off as your own	119
6813231704	Predicate Adjective	an adjective in the predicate which modifies the subject of the sentence, the predicate adjective must follow a linking verb, and "tall" is an adjective modifying the subject "She".	120
6813234189	Predicate Nominative	a noun in the predicate which renames the subject, It must follow a linking verb. Ex. He is President. "President" renames the subject.	121
6813239910	Major and minor premise	two parts of a syllogism: the concluding sentence of a syllogism takes its predicate from the major premise. Major premise: All mammals are warm‐blooded. Minor premise: All horses are mammals. Conclusion: All horses are warm‐blooded.	122
6813243627	Propaganda	A negative term for writing designed to sway opinion rather than present information	123
6813249082	Spatial	the distance between characters, ideas, and things within the story. Careful, a character can be close physically to a person, but emotionally distant.	124
6813251346	Subjective	expressing in a personal manner your convictions, beliefs, and ideas; likely to be emotional.	125
6813253197	Subplot	a secondary story within a story,	126
6813255598	Synopsis	a summary of the main points of a story or essay	127
6813258883	Synthesis	the joining of two or more ideas, arguments, abstracts to create a new idea, argument, or product	128
6813261431	Tenor and Vehicle	terms used when referring to a symbol: the abstraction; the physical thing or person	129
6813264326	Transcendental	reliance upon conscience and intuition, a form of idealism, romanticism	130
6813266110	Trope	artful diction; the use of language in a non-literal way; also called a figure of speech	131
6813269220	Utopia	a perfect world	132
6813271118	Zeugma	a construction in which one word (usually a verb) modifies or governs two or more words in a sentence; often in different, sometimes incongruent ways	133
6813280640	Idiom	an expression whose meaning is not predictable from the usual meanings of its constituent elements	134
6820203264	Analogy	Explaining something complex by comparing it to something more simple.	135
6820203265	Argument	The combination of reasons, evidence, etc that an author uses to convince an audience of their position; Too comprehensive a concept for a single example! In effective rhetoric, every phrase serves to further build the argument.	136
6820203266	Aristotelian appeals	Three different methods of appealing to an audience to convince them—ethos, logos, and pathos.	137
6820203267	Attitude	The writer's personal views or feelings about the subject at hand;Difficult to convey in a short example, but something like "the deplorable state of this school" would convey that the author has a negative attitude towards the school.	138
6820203268	Audience	Who the author is directing his or her message towards	139
6820203269	Compare and contrast	Discussing the similarities and differences between two things to some persuasive or illustrative purpose; "Hybrid cars have a much smaller carbon footprint than traditional midsize vehicles."	140
6820203270	Connotation	The implied meaning of a word; words can broadly have positive, negative, or neutral connotations.	141
6820203271	Context	The extra-textual environment in which the text is being delivered. If I am delivering a congratulatory speech to awards recipients, the immediate context might be the awards presentation ceremony; the broader context might be the purpose or significance of the awards themselves.	142
6820203272	Counterargument	The argument(s) against the author's position.	143
6820203273	Deductive reasoning	If all planets orbit a star, and Theta II is a planet, then it must orbit a star.	144
6820203274	Denotation	The literal, dictionary-definition meaning of a word.	145
6820203275	Diction	The style of language used; generally tailored to be appropriate to the audience and situation; You might say "What's up, loser?" to your little brother, but you would probably say "How are you doing today?" to your principal.	146
6820203276	Ethos	Setting up a source as credible and trustworthy. "Given my PhD in the subject and years of experience in the field" is an appeal to ...	147
6820203277	Evidence	The information presented meant to persuade the audience of the author's position; If I were arguing that Anne is a good student, I might reference her straight-A report card and her 1500 SAT score as pieces of .	148
6820203278	Figurative language	The use of language in a non-literal way; i.e. metaphor, simile, etc. "The sky's like a jewel box tonight!"	149
6820203279	Genre	The specific type of work being presented.	150
6820203280	Imagery	Any descriptive language used to evoke a vivid sense or image of something; includes figurative language. "The water was a pearl-studded sea of azure tipped with turquoise."	151
6820203281	Implication	When something is suggested without being concretely stated. "Watch your wallet around Paul," implies that Paul is a thief without coming out and saying "Paul is a thief."	152
6820203282	Inductive reasoning	Making a generalization based on specific evidence at hand.All of the planets in this solar system orbit a star, so all planets probably orbit stars.	153
6820203283	Irony	At the most basic sense, saying the opposite of what you mean; also used to describe situations in which the results of an action are dramatically different than intended.	154
6820203284	Juxtaposition	"There they stood together, the beggars and the lords, the princesses and the washerwoman, all crowding into the square."	155
6820203285	Logos	Appealing to someone's sense of concrete facts and logic. Citing peer-reviewed scientific studies is an appeal to .	156
6820203286	Occasion	The reason or moment for writing or speaking.	157
6820203287	Organization	How the different parts of an argument are arranged in a piece of writing or speech.	158
6820203288	Pathos	An Aristotelian appeal. Involves appealing to someone's emotions. Animal shelters ads with pictures of cute sad animals and dramatic music are using .	159
6820203289	Purpose	The author's persuasive intention.	160
6820203290	Repetition	Re-using a word or phrase repeatedly for effect or emphasis. "We run, and we run, and we run, like rats on a wheel."	161
6820203291	Rhetoric	The use of spoken or written word (or a visual medium) to convey your ideas and convince an audience.	162
6820203292	Rhetorical triangle	The relationship between the author, the audience, the text/message, and the context. The author communicates to the reader via the text; and the reader and text are surrounded by context.	163
6820203293	Speaker	The persona adopted by the author to deliver his or her message; may or may not actually be the same person as the author. Similar to the difference between author and narrator in a work of fiction.	164
6820203294	Style	The author's own personal approach to rhetoric in the piece; similar to voice. We might say the Taylor Swift's songwriting is straightforward and emotive.	165
6820203295	Symbolism	Using a symbol to refer to an idea or concept.	166
6820203296	Syntax	The way sentences are grammatically constructed.	167
6820203297	Synthesis	Combining sources or ideas in a coherent way in the purpose of a larger point.	168
6820203298	Themes	Overarching ideas or driving premises of a work; leaving behind a legacy, moving into the great unknown, becoming an adult, and changing the world.	169
6820203299	Tone	The use of stylistic devices to reveal an author's attitude toward a subject. Only a narrow distinction from attitude. The phrase "the deplorable state of this school" reveals a negative attitude, but the word choice of "deplorable" is part of the author's tone.	170
6820203300	Voice	An author's unique sound. Similar to style. Think of the way that you can recognize a pop singer on the radio without hearing who it is first.	171