AP Language Terms Flashcards

14666199605	paradox	A statement or proposition that seems self-contradictory or absurd but in reality expresses a possible truth.	0
14666201287	eulogy	a commendatory oration or writing especially in honor of one deceased	1
14666204123	bildungsroman	a novel about the moral and psychological growth of the main character	2
14666206293	satire	literary work holding up human vices and follies to ridicule or scorn	3
14666210638	syllogism	deductive scheme of a formal argument consisting of a major and a minor premise and a conclusion	4
14666215802	oxymoron	combination of contradictory or incongruous words	5
14666218847	asyndeton	omission of the conjunctions that ordinarily join coordinate words or clauses	6
14666222781	prose	the ordinary language people use in speaking or writing	7
14666224581	theme	subject or topic of discourse or of artistic representation	8
14666226795	tone	style or manner of expression in speaking and writing	9
14666228935	genre	a category of artistic, musical, or literary composition characterized by a particular style, form, or content	10
14666231589	euphemism	substitution of an agreeable or inoffensive expression for one that may offend or suggest something unpleasant	11
14666235161	anadiplosis	repetition of a prominent and usually the last word in one phrase or clause at the beginning of the next	12
14666254892	parallelism	repeated syntactical similarities introduced for rhetorical effect	13
14666256256	motif	dominant and recurring idea of central theme	14
14666257876	epigraph	quotation set at the beginning of a literary work or one of its divisions to suggest its theme	15
14666270317	antihero	a protagonist or notable figure who is conspicuously lacking in heroic qualities	16
14666272272	expletive	syllable, word, or phrase inserted to fill a vacancy (as in a sentence or a metrical line) without adding to the sense	17
14666276892	periodic sentence	a usually complex sentence that has no subordinate or trailing elements following its principal clause (as in "yesterday while I was walking down the street, I saw him")	18
14666278384	parody	literary or musical work in which the style of an author or work is closely imitated for comic effect or in ridicule	19
14666281080	epitaph	a brief statement commemorating or epitomizing a deceased person or something past	20
14666282725	epistolary	lectionary containing a body of liturgical epistles (letters)	21
14666285481	foil	someone or something that serves as a contrast to another	22
14666287919	polysyndeton	repetition of conjunctions in close succession ex. "we have ships and men and money"	23
14666292586	isocolon	period consisting of a cola (plural of colon) of equal length	24
14666296037	inductive	logical assumption or process of assuming hit what is true for a single specimen or example is also true for other specimens or examples of the same type	25
14666301232	in media res	refers to the classical tradition of opening an epic not in the chronological order at which the sequence of events started, but rather at the midway point of the story	26
14666308114	alliteration	repetition of usually ignition constant sounds in two or more neighboring words or syllables	27
14666310972	consonance	reference or repetition of consonants especially at the end of stressed syllables without the similar correspondence of vowels	28
14666313795	invective	insulting or abusive language	29
14666315974	persona	character assumed by an author in a written work	30
14666318906	syntax	way in which linguistic elements (such as words) are put together to form constituents (such as phrases or clauses)	31
14666321276	foreshadow	represent, indicate, or typify beforehand	32
14666324638	personification	attribution of personal qualities (especially representation of a thing or abstraction as a person or by the human form)	33
14666328732	aside	few words/short passage spoken by one character to the audience while the other characters pretend they cannot hear the speaker's words	34
14666332134	aesthetic	literary movement that encourages critical or artistic focus on the experience of beauty rather than focuses on didactic messages or seeking truth	35
14666340722	assonance	repeating identical or similar vowels (especially in stressed syllables) in nearby words	36
14666344143	catharsis	emotional discharge that brings about a moral or spiritual renewal or welcome relief from tension and anxiety	37
14666347893	imagery	signifies all the sensory perceptions referred to in a literary work, whether by literal description, allusion, simile, or metaphor	38
14666354234	epiphany	term used to signify a manifestation of God's presence in the world	39
14666356253	diction	writer's choice of a particular word as opposed to others	40
14673071465	deductive	progress of logic in which a thinker takes a true for a large, general category and assumes that specific individual examples fitting with the general category obey the same rule	41
14673073842	mood	feeling, emotional state, or disposition of mind especially the predominating atmosphere or tone of literary work	42
14673080548	protagonist	main character in a work, on whom the author focuses most of the narrative attention	43
14673082054	realism	generally, any artistic or literary portrayal of life in a faithful, accurate manner, unclouded by false ideals, literary conventions, or misplaced esthetic glorification and beautification of the world	44
14673086479	thesis	argument, either overt or implicit, that a writer develops and supports	45
14673090345	perspective	point of view or general standpoint from which different things are viewed, physically or mentally; the appearance to the eye of various objects at a given time, place, or distance	46
14673091998	assertion	confident and forceful statement of fact or belief	47
14673093859	voice	expresses the narrator or author's emotions, attitudes, tone, and point of view through artful, well thought out use of word choice and diction	48
14673099803	contradiction	proposition, statement, or phrase that asserts or implies both the truth and falsity of something	49
14673105484	apostrophe	addressing of usually absent person or a usually personified thing rhetorically	50
14673107208	aphorism	terse formulation of a truth or sentiment	51
14673108273	anecdote	usually short narrative of an interesting, amusing, or biographical incident	52
14673110808	nostalgic	longing for or thinking fondly of a past time or condition	53
14673113606	vernacular	language or dialect spoken by the ordinary people in a particular country or region	54
14673118558	allusion	reference that a writer makes with the assumption that the reader understands what it means (biblical, historical, mythological, etc)	55
14673123208	connotation	the implied meaning of a word; words can broadly have positive, negative, and neutral connotations	56
14673126099	denotation	literal, dictionary-definition meaning of a word	57
14673126982	allegory	using characters of story elements to symbolically represent an abstraction	58
14673128674	audience	who the author is directing his or her message towards	59
14673131196	rhetorical	of, relating to, or concerned with the art of using language effectively and persuasively	60
14673133896	ambiguous	open to more than one interpretation; having a double meaning	61
14673143226	irony	use of words to express something other than and especially the opposite of the literal meaning	62
14673146027	zeugma	use of a word to modify or govern two or more words usually in such a manner that it applies to each in a different sense or makes sense with only one	63
14673148193	elegy	song or poem expressing sorrow or lamentation especially for one who is dead	64
14673149794	juxtaposition	act or an instance of placing two or more things side by side to compare or contrast or to create an interesting effect	65
14673153382	colloquial	used in or characteristic of familiar and informal conversation (ex. "kind of" is used for "somewhat"	66
14673156673	didactic	intended to convey instruction and information as well as pleasure and entertainment	67
14673189651	propaganda	spreading of ideas, information, or rumor for the purpose of helping or injuring an institution, cause, or person	68
14673191255	pathos	element in experience or in artistic representation evoking pity or compassion	69
14673193484	ethos	distinguishing character, sentiment, moral nature, or guiding beliefs of a person, group, or institution	70
14673196932	logos	reasons that in ancient Greek philosophy is the controlling principle in the universe	71
14673200806	litote	understatement in which an affirmative is expressed by the negative of the contrary	72
14673202970	chiasmus	inverted relationship between the syntactic elements of parallel phrases	73
14673204412	analogy	comparison of two otherwise unlike things based on resemblance of a particular aspect	74
14673206640	antagonist	one that contends with or opposes another adversary/opponent	75
14673208600	hyperbole	extravagant exaggeration	76
14673209818	utopia	place of ideal perfection especially in laws, government, and social conditions	77
14673213802	onomatopoeia	use of words whose sound suggests the meaning	78