AP Language Literary Terms Flashcards

14976022406	Allegory	a story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one.	0
14976027799	Alliteration	the occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words.	1
14976030264	Allusion	an expression designed to call something to mind without mentioning it explicitly; an indirect or passing reference.	2
14976033078	Analogy	a comparison in which an idea or a thing is compared to another thing that is quite different from it	3
14976038651	Antagonist	a person who actively opposes or is hostile to someone or something; an adversary.	4
14976040889	Antithesis	a rhetorical device in which two opposite ideas are put together in a sentence to achieve a contrasting effect	5
14976045167	Apostrophe	A figure of speech that directly addresses an absent or imaginary person or a personified abstraction, such as liberty or love.	6
14976052443	aside	a character's dialogue is spoken but not heard by the other actors on the stage	7
14976055174	bias	an undue favor, support, or backing, extended to a person, group, race, or even an argument	8
14976069017	direct characterization	when the author directly states a character's traits	9
14976071792	indirect characterization	Author subtly reveals the character through actions and interactions.	10
14976075062	colloquial language	the use of informal words, phrases or even slang in a piece of writing	11
14976077749	Connotation	an idea or feeling that a word invokes in addition to its literal or primary meaning.	12
14976080958	Denotation	the literal meaning of a word	13
14976081588	diction	the author's choice of words	14
14976085618	elegy	a poem of serious reflection, typically a lament for the dead.	15
14976088262	simile	A comparison using "like" or "as"	16
14976090953	metaphor	A comparison without using like or as	17
14976090954	Personification	A figure of speech in which an object or animal is given human feelings, thoughts, or attitudes	18
14976093172	foil	a character that shows qualities that are in contrast with the qualities of another character with the objective to highlight the traits of the other character	19
14976098912	Foreshadowing	hinting at what is to come	20
14976102748	frame story	A secondary story or stories embedded in the main story	21
14976107841	genre	type of literature	22
14976112390	hyperbole	exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally.	23
14976115505	idiom	a group of words whose collective meaning is quite different from their individual, literal meaning	24
14976119682	imagery	visually descriptive work	25
14976123888	dramatic irony	The audience knows something the characters do not	26
14976127080	situational irony	An outcome that turns out to be very different from what was expected	27
14976131801	verbal irony	A figure of speech in which what is said is the opposite of what is meant (sometimes sarcasm)	28
14976134418	Juxtaposition	Placement of two things closely together to emphasize comparisons or contrasts	29
14976134419	mood	evokes certain feelings or vibes in readers through words and descriptions	30
14976137805	motif	a distinctive feature or dominant idea in an artistic or literary composition	31
14976141276	paradox	A statement or proposition that seems self-contradictory or absurd but in reality expresses a possible truth.	32
14976145358	parody	imitation of a particular writer, artist or a genre, exaggerating it deliberately to produce a comic effect	33
14976152665	emotional appeal (pathos)	When a writer appeals to readers' emotions (often through pathos) to excite and involve them in the argument.	34
14976156566	Ethical appeal (ethos)	when an author uses people in the correct professional field to win support for their argument	35
14976168268	Logical appeal (logos)	when an author uses facts and logic to win support for their argument	36
14976175242	1st person point of view	from the viewpoint of a character in the story	37
14976185628	3rd person limited	when the narrator is telling the story about one character that is not him/herself and is limited to the knowledge of that character	38
14976191404	3rd person omniscient	A method of storytelling in which the narrator knows the thoughts and feelings of all of the characters in the story.	39
14976191405	Protagonist	main character	40
14976194209	rhetorical question	A question asked merely for effect with no answer expected.	41
14976198195	satire	a technique employed by writers to expose and criticize foolishness and corruption of an individual or a society by using humor, irony, exaggeration or ridicule	42
14976201503	syntax	The arrangement of words and phrases to create well-formed sentences in a language.	43
14976204272	symbol/symbolism	the use of symbols to represent ideas or qualities	44
14976208808	theme	the main idea of a piece of literature	45
14976211446	thesis	the primary position taken by a writer or speaker	46
14976215263	tone	Attitude a writer takes toward the audience, a subject, or a character	47
14976215355	topic sentence	thesis/ main idea	48
14976217200	litotes	ironical understatement in which an affirmative is expressed by the negative of its contrary	49
14976220551	anastrophe	the inversion of the usual order of words or clauses	50
14976223356	parenthesis	a qualifying or explanatory sentence, clause or word that writers insert into a paragraph or passage	51
14976230011	Synecdoche	a figure of speech in which a part is made to represent the whole or vice versa	52
14976234986	metonymy	the substitution of the name of an attribute or adjunct for that of the thing meant	53