AP Language & Literature Terms Flashcards

10429576516	Absolute	a word free from limitations or qualifications - best, all, none, perfect, worst	0
10429576517	Abstract	Complex, discusses intangible qualities like good and evil, seldom uses examples to support its points.	1
10429576518	Absurd	Extremely ridiculous or completely lacking reason; unreasonable or foolish.	2
10429576519	Academic	Dry and rhetorical writing; sucking all the life out of its subject with analysis.	3
10429576520	Accent	In poetry, the stressed portion of a word.	4
10429576521	Active Voice	The opposite of passive voice; a sentence with an active verb. It expresses more energy and command of the essay than does the passive voice.	5
10429576522	Ad hominem argument	An argument attacking an individual's character rather than his or her position on an issue	6
10429576523	Aesthetic	Appealing to the senses; a coherent sense of taste or style.	7
10429576524	Allegory	A story in which each aspect of the story has a symbolic meaning outside the tale itself.	8
10429576525	Alliteration	The repetition of initial consonant sounds.	9
10429576526	Allusion	A reference to another work or famous figure.	10
10429576527	Ambibranch	A poetic foot -- light, heavy, light	11
10429576528	Ambiguity	The multiple meanings, either intentional or unintentional, of a word, phrase, sentence, or passage.	12
10429576529	Anachronism	"Misplaced in time." An aspect of a story that doesn't belong in its supposed time setting.	13
10429576530	Analogy	A comparison, usually involving two or more symbolic parts, employed to clarify an action or a relationship.	14
10429576531	Anapest	A poetic foot -- light, light, heavy	15
10429576532	Anaphora	A sub-type of parallelism, when the exact repetition of words or phrases at the beginning of successive lines or sentences.	16
10429576533	anecdote	A short account of an interesting or humorous incident	17
10429576534	Antecedent	The word, phrase, or clause that determines what a pronoun refers to.	18
10429576535	Anthimeria	substitution of one part of speech for another (for example, changing a noun into a verb)	19
10429576536	Anthropomorphism	When animals are given human characteristics. Often confused with personification.	20
10429576537	Anticlimax	Occurs when an action produces far smaller results than one had been led to expect.	21
10429576538	Antihero	A protagonist who is markedly unheroic: morally weak, cowardly, dishonest, or any number of other unsavory qualities.	22
10429576539	Antithesis	An opposition or contrast of ideas. Balancing words, phrases, or ideas that are strongly contrasted, often by means of grammatical structure.	23
10429576540	antonomasia	the substitution of a title, epithet, or descriptive phrase for a proper name; example calling a lover Casanova.	24
10429576541	Aphorism	A short and usually witty saying.	25
10429576542	Apostrophe	A figure of speech wherein the speaker talks directly to something that is nonhuman.	26
10429576543	Apotheosis	Elevation to divine status; the perfect example of something. Making a God of something or someone.	27
10429576544	Appositive	A noun or noun substitute that is placed directly next to the noun it is describing: My student, Sidney, makes me want to retire.	28
10429576545	Archaism	The use of deliberately old-fashioned language.	29
10429576546	Archetype	A detail, image, or character type that occurs frequently in literature and myth and is thought to appeal in a universal way to the unconscious and to evoke a response	30
10429576547	Argument	a statement of the meaning or main point of a literary work	31
10429576548	Aside	A speech (usually just a short comment) made by an actor to the audience, as though momentarily stepping outside of the action on stage.	32
10429576549	Assonance	The repeated use of vowel sounds: "Old king Cole was a merry old soul."	33
10429576550	Asyndeton	The deliberate omission of conjunctions from series of related independent clauses. The effect is to create a tight, concise, and forceful sentence.	34
10429576551	Atmosphere	The emotional tone or background that surrounds a scene	35
10429576552	Attitude	A speaker's, author's, or character's disposition toward or opinion of a subject.	36
10429576553	balanced sentence	a sentence in which words, phrases, or clauses are set off against each other to emphasize a contrast	37
10429576554	Bathos	A false or forced emotion that is often humorous; Writing strains for grandeur it can't support and tries too hard to be a tear jerker.	38
10429576555	Black humor	The use of disturbing themes in comedy.	39
10429576556	Bombast	Pretentious, exaggeratedly learned language.	40
10429576557	burlesque	ludicrous parody or grotesque caricature; humorous and provocative stage show	41
10429576558	cacophony	(n) harsh-sounding mixture of words, voices, or sounds	42
10429576559	Caricature	A portrait (verbal or otherwise) that exaggerates a facet of personality.	43
10429576560	carpe diem	"Seize the day"; a Latin phrase implying that one must live for the present moment, for tomorrow may be too late.	44
10429576561	Catharsis	Drawn from Aristotle's writings on tragedy. Refers to the "cleansing" of emotion an audience member experiences during a play	45
10429576562	chiasmus	A statement consisting of two parallel parts in which the second part is structurally reversed ("Susan walked in, and out rushed Mary."), A statement consisting of two parallel parts in which the second part is structurally reversed ("Susan walked in, and out rushed Mary.")	46
10429576563	chorus	A group of characters in Greek tragedy (and in later forms of drama), who comment on the action of a play without participation in it.	47
10429576564	cliché	A worn-out idea or overused expression	48
10429576565	coherence	Marked by an orderly, logical, and aesthetically consistent relation of parts.	49
10429576566	Coinage (neologism)	A new word, usually one invented on the spot.	50
10429576567	Colloquial/Colloquialism	The use of slang or informalities in speech or writing. Not generally acceptable for formal writing, but give a work a conversational, familiar tone. Include local or regional dialect	51
10429576568	Complex (Dense)	Suggesting that there is more than one possibility in the meaning of words.	52
10429576569	Conceit (Controlling Image)	A startling or unusual metaphor, or a metaphor developed and expanded upon several lines.	53
10429576570	concrete	Capable of being perceived by the senses.	54
10429576571	Connotation	Everything other than the literal meaning that a word suggests or implies.	55
10429576572	Consonance	The repetition of consonant sounds within words (rather than at their beginnings)	56
10429576573	cumulative sentence	a sentence in which the main independent clause is elaborated by the successive addition of modifying clauses or phrases	57
10429576574	Deduction	A form of reasoning that begins with a generalization, then applies the generalization to a specific case or cases.	58
10429576575	Denotation	The strict, literal, dictionary definition of a word, devoid of any emotion, attitude, or color.	59
10429576576	Diction	The words an author chooses to use.	60
10429576577	Didactic	literally means "teaching." These words have the primary aim of teaching or instructing, especially the teaching of moral or ethical principles.	61
10429576578	Dirge	A song for the dead. Its tone is typically slow, heavy, depressed, and melancholy	62
10429576579	Dissonance	Refers to the grating of incompatible sounds.	63
10429576580	Doggerel	Crude, simplistic verse, often in sing-song rhyme, like limericks.	64
10429576581	Dominant Expression	Precisely and clearly expressed or readily observable.	65
10429576582	Dramatic Irony	When the audience knows something that the characters in the drama do not	66
10429576583	Dramatic Monologue	When a single speaker in literature says something to a silent audience.	67
10429576584	Elegiac	Expressing sorrow or lamentation; a work that has a mournful quality.	68
10429576585	Elements	Basic techniques of each genre of literature	69
10429576586	epigram	A concise but ingenious, witty, and thoughtful statement.	70
10429576587	epiphany	A moment of sudden revelation or insight	71
10429576588	epiplexis	(1) A rhetorical term for asking questions to rebuke or reproach rather than to elicit answers; (2) More broadly, a form of argument in which a speaker attempts to shame an opponent into adopting a particular point of view.	72
10429576589	Epistrophe	ending of a series of lines, phrases, clauses, or sentences with the same word or words.	73
10429576590	Epitaph	Lines that commemorate the dead at their burial place.	74
10429576591	Ethos	Appeals to an audience's sense of ethics/morality/trust; Achieved by projecting an image of credibility which supports the speaker's position.	75
10429576592	Euphemism	A word or phrase that takes the place of a harsh, unpleasant, or impolite reality.	76
10429576593	euphony	A succession of harmonious sounds used in poetry or prose; the opposite of cacophony.	77
10429576594	Explicit	To say or write something directly and clearly.	78
10429576595	Extended Metaphor	A metaphor developed at great length, occurring frequently in or throughout a work.	79
10429576596	Fallacy	A failure of logical reasoning. Appear to make an argument reasonable, but falsely so.	80
10429576597	Farce	Extremely broad humor; in earlier times, a funny play or a comedy.	81
10429576598	Feminine rhyme	Lines rhymed by their final two syllables. Properly, the penultimate syllables are stressed and the final syllables are unstressed.	82
10429576599	Figurative Language	Writing or speech that is not intended to carry literal meaning and is usually meant to be imaginative and vivid	83
10429576600	Figure of speech	A device used to produce figurative language. Many compare dissimilar things.	84
10429576601	First person	A narrator who is a character in the story and tells the tale from his or her point of view.	85
10429576602	flat character	a character who embodies a single quality and who does not develop throughout the story	86
10429576603	Foil	A secondary character whose purpose is to highlight the characteristics of a main character, usually by contrast.	87
10429576604	foreshadowing	A narrative device that hints at coming events; often builds suspense or anxiety in the reader.	88
10429576605	frame device	a story within a story	89
10429576606	Genre	A sub-category of literature.	90
10429576607	Gerund	a verb ending in 'ing' to serve as a noun - 'Stabbing (used as a noun) is what I do said the thief.'	91
10429576608	Gothic	A sensibility that includes such features as dark, gloomy castles and weird screams from the attic each night.	92
10429576609	grotesque	Commonly used to denote aberrations from the norm of harmony, balance and proportion. Characterized by distortion, exaggeration, absurd, or the bizarre.	93
10429576610	Homily	This term literally means "sermon," but more informally, it can include any serious talk, speech, or lecture involving moral or spiritual advice.	94
10429576611	Hubris	The excessive pride or ambition that leads to the main character's downfall	95
10429576612	Hyperbole	Exaggeration or deliberate overstatement.	96
10429576613	Idiom	An expression that cannot be understood if taken literally.	97
10429576614	Imagery	The sensory details or figurative language used to describe, arouse emotion, or represent abstractions; related to the five senses: visual, auditory, tactile, gustatory, and olfactory. O	98
10429576615	Implicit	To say or write something that suggests and implies but never says it directly or clearly.	99
10429576616	in medias res	A Latin term for a narrative that starts not at the beginning of events but at some other critical point.	100
10429576617	Inductive Reasoning	A method of reasoning by which a speaker collects a number of instances and forms a generalization that is meant to apply to all instances.	101
10429576618	Inference/infer	To draw a reasonable conclusion from the information presented. If it is directly stated, then it is not this.	102
10429576619	Interior Monologue	Refers to writing that records the mental talking that goes on inside a character's head; tends to be coherent.	103
10429576620	Invective	an emotionally violent, verbal denunciation or attack using strong, abusive language. (For example, in Henry IV, Part hill of flesh.")	104
10429576621	Inversion	Switching the customary order of elements in a sentence or phrase.	105
10429576622	Irony/ironic	The contrast between what is stated explicitly and what is really meant, or the difference between what appears to be and what is actually true. there are three major types: (1) verbal - when the words literally state the opposite of the writer's (or speaker's) meaning (2) situational - when events turn out the opposite of what was expected; when what the characters and readers think ought to happen is not what does happen (3) dramatic - when facts or events are unknown to a character in a play or piece of fiction but known to the reader, audience, or other characters in the work.	106
10429576623	Jargon	A pattern of speech and vocabulary associated with a particular group of people. Computer analysis have their own vocabulary, as do doctors, plumbers, etc.	107
10429576624	Juxtaposition	Placement of two things closely together to emphasize comparisons or contrasts.	108
10429576625	Lampoon	A satire.	109
10429576626	Limited Omniscient	A Third person narrator who generally reports only what one character sees, and who only reports the thoughts of that one privileged character.	110
10429576627	Literary Conceit	A fanciful expression, usually in the form of an extended metaphor or surprising analogy between seemingly dissimilar objects Displays intellectual cleverness through unusual comparisons that make good sense	111
10429576628	Litotes	a form of understatement that involves making an affirmative point by denying its opposite. Examples: "Not a bad idea."	112
10429576629	Logos	An appeal to reason.	113
10429576630	Loose sentence	A sentence that is complete before its end: Jack loved Barbara despite her irritating snorting laugh.	114
10429576631	Macabre	Grisly, gruesome; horrible, distressing; having death as a subject.	115
10429576632	Malapropism	a word humorously misused: Example, he is the AMPLE of her eye... instead of "he is the APPLE of her eye".	116
10429576633	Masculine rhyme	A rhyme ending on the final stressed syllable (regular old rhyme)	117
10429576634	maxim	a concise statement, often offering advice; an adage	118
10429576635	Meaning	What makes sense, what's important, why the writer/speaker said what he/she said.	119
10429576636	Melodrama	A form of cheesy theater in which the hero is very, very good, the villain mean and rotten, and the heroine oh-so-pure.	120
10429576637	Metaphor	A comparison or analogy that states one thing IS another.	121
10429576638	Metonymy	One word or phrase is substituted for another with which it is closely associated (such as crown for royalty).	122
10429576639	Monosyllabic	Having or characterized by or consisting of one syllable.	123
10429576640	Mood	The prevailing atmosphere or emotional aura of a work.	124
10429576641	motif	a principal idea, feature, theme, or element; a repeated or dominant figure in a design	125
10429576642	Narrative	The telling of a story or an account of an event or series of events.	126
10429576643	Nemesis	The protagonist's arch enemy or supreme and persistent difficulty.	127
10429576644	neologism	a new word, expression, or usage; the creation or use of new words or senses	128
10429576645	Non Sequitur	This literally means "it does not follow". An argument by misdirection that is logically irrelevant.	129
10429576646	Objectivity	Treatment of subject matter in an impersonal manner or from an outside view.	130
10429576647	Omniscient	A third person narrator who sees into each character's mind and understands all the action going on.	131
10429576648	Onomatopoeia	Words that sound like what they mean	132
10429576649	Opposition	A pairing of images whereby each becomes more striking and informative because it's placed in contrast to the other one.	133
10429576650	Oxymoron	A phrase composed of opposites; a contradiction.	134