AP Literature literary terms Flashcards

13640150681	allegory	The device of using character and/or story elements symbolically to represent an abstraction in addition to the literal meaning	0
13640150682	alliteration	The repetition of sounds, especially initial consonant sounds in two or more neighboring words	1
13640150683	allusion	A direct or indirect reference to something which is presumably commonly known, such as an event, book, myth, place, or work of art	2
13640150684	ambiguity	The multiple meanings, either intentional or unintentional, of a word, phase, sentence, or passage	3
13640150685	anachronism	a thing belonging or appropriate to a period other than that in which it exists, esp. a thing that is conspicuously old-fashioned	4
13640150686	analogy	a similarity or comparison between two different things or the relationship between them	5
13640150687	anaphora	a sub-type of parallelism, when the exact repetition of words or phrases at the beginning of successive lines or sentences	6
13640150688	anecdote	a short narrative account of an amusing, unusual, revealing, or interesting event	7
13640150689	antecedent	The word, phase, or clause referred to be a pronoun.	8
13640150690	antithesis	The opposition or contrast of ideas	9
13640150691	aphorism	A terse statement of known authorship which expresses a general truth or a moral principle	10
13640150692	apostrophe	A figure of speech that directly addresses an absent or imaginary person or a personified abstraction, such as liberty or love	11
13640150693	assonance	The use of similar vowel sounds in stresses syllables that end with different consonant sounds.	12
13640150694	asyndeton	a form of verbal compression which consists of the omission of connecting words (usually conjunctions) between clauses.	13
13640150695	atmosphere	The emotional nod 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	14
13640150696	caricature	a verbal description, the purpose of which is to exaggerate or distort, for comic effect, a person's distinctive physical features or other characteristics.	15
13640150697	chiasmus	The figure of speech in which two or more clauses are related to each other through a reversal of structures in order to make a larger point; that is, the clauses display inverted parallelism	16
13640150698	clause	A grammatical unit that contains both a subject and a verb	17
13640150699	colloquial/ colloquialism	The use of slang or informalities in speech or writing	18
13640150700	conceit	A fanciful expression, usually in the form of an extended metaphor or surprising analogy between seemingly dissimilar objects	19
13640150701	connotation	The non-literal, associate meaning of a word; the implied, suggested meaning	20
13640150702	consonance	The use at the ends of VERSES of words in which the final consonants in the stressed syllables agree, but the vowel sounds that precede them differ	21
13640150703	denotation	The strict, literal, dictionary definition of a word, devoid of any emotion, attitude, or color	22
13640150704	diction	Related to style, diction refers to the writer's word choices, especially with regard to their correctness, clearness, or effectiveness	23
13640150705	didactic	From the Greek, meaning teaching	24
13640150706	epigram	(1) An inscription in verse or prose on a building, tomb, or coin (2) A short verse or motto appearing at the beginning of a longer poem or the title page of a novel, at the heading of a new section or paragraph of an essay or other literary work to establish mood or raise thematic concerns (3) A short, humorous poem, often written in couplets, that makes a satiric point	25
13640150707	epilogue	A conclusion added to literary work such as a novel, play, or long poem	26
13640150708	epitaph	Refers literally to an inscription on a gravestone. In a more general sense, epitaph is the final statement spoken by a character before his death	27
13640150709	epithet	A short, poetic nickname— often in the form of an adjective or adjectival phrase— attached to the normal name	28
13640150710	euphemism	A more agreeable or less offensive substitute for a generally unpleasant word or concept	29
13640150711	extended metaphor	A metaphor developed a great length, occurring frequently in or throughout a work	30
13640150712	figurative language	Writings or speech that is not intended to carry literal meaning and is usually meant to be imaginative and vivid	31
13640150713	figure of speech	A device used to produce figurative language	32
13640150714	generic conventions	This term describes traditions for each genre	33
13640150715	genre	The major category into which a literary work fits	34
13640150716	homily	This term means "sermon", but more informally, it can include any serious talk, speech, or lecture involving moral or spiritual advice	35
13640150717	hyperbole	A figure of speech using deliberate exaggeration or overstatement	36
13640150718	hypozeuxis	The use of a series of parallel clauses, each of which has a subject and a predicate, as in "I came, I saw, I conquered"	37
13640150719	idiolect	The language or speech pattern unique to one individual at a particular period of his or her life	38