AP Language and Composition Vocabulary Flashcards

14662946135	Allegory	The device of using character and/or story elements symbolically to represent an abstraction in addition to the literal meaning	0
14662964945	Alliteration	The repetition of sounds, especially initial consonants or more neighboring words	1
14662967918	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
14662969713	Analogy	A similarity or comparison between two different things or the relationship between them	3
14662973460	Anecdote	A short, simple narrative of an incident	4
14662978450	Connotation	The non literal, associative meaning of a word; the implied, suggested meaning	5
14662981412	Denotation	The strict, literal, dictionary definition of a word, devoid of any emotion attitude, or color	6
14662985746	Diction	the writer's word choices and style, especially with regard to their correctness, clearness, or effectiveness	7
14662988995	Extended metaphor	A metaphor developed at great length, occurring frequently in or throughout the work	8
14662991816	Figurative language	Speech or writing that departs from literal meaning to achieve a special effect or meaning, ex. imagery, hyperbole, understatement, simile, metaphor, extended metaphor, and symbolism	9
14662996600	Flashback	A device by which the writer presents scenes or incidents that occurred prior to the opening scene of the work	10
14662997924	Hyperbole	A figure of speech using deliberate exaggeration or overstatement	11
14663000052	Imagery	The sensory details or figurative language used to describe, arouse emotion, or represent abstractions, ex. the five senses	12
14663003356	Irony/ironic	The contrast between what is stated explicitly and what is really meant, ex. verbal, situational, dramatic	13
14663008771	Metaphor	A figure of speech using implied comparison of seemingly unlike things or the substitution of one for the other, ex. simile	14
14663010901	Mood (atmosphere)	The prevailing atmosphere or emotional aura of a work	15
14663013839	Oxymoron	A figure of speech composed of contradictory words or phrases, ex. wise fool, bitter sweet	16
14663019409	Personification	A figure of speech in which the author presents or describes concepts, animals, or inanimate objects by endowing them with human attributes or emotions	17
14663023395	Point of view	the perspective from which a story is told	18
14663025849	Pun	A play on words, either plays on multiple meanings of a word or replaces the word with another that is similar in sound but very different in meaning.	19
14783452444	Repetition	The duplication, either exact or approximate, of any element of language, such as a sound, word, phrase, clause, sentence, or grammatical pattern	20
14783455105	Assonance	repetition of identical or similar vowel sounds in a sequence of words	21
14783457627	Consonance	repetition of identical consonant sounds words in close proximity	22
14783461132	Symbol	A thing that represents or stands for something else, especially a material object representing something abstract	23
14783463371	Tone	characteristic emotion or attitude of an author toward the characters, subject, and audience	24
14783466285	Ambiguity	The multiple meanings, either intentional or unintentional, of a word, phrase, sentence, or passage	25
14783469374	Anaphora	repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive phrases, clauses, or lines	26
14783472262	Anastrophe	The reversal of word order for effect	27
14783474846	Antecedent	The word, phrase, or clause referred to by a pronoun	28
14783474847	Antiphrasis	the use of a word in a sense opposite to its normal sense (especially in irony)	29
14783482477	Antithesis	Figure of balance in which two contrasting ideas are intentionally juxtaposed	30
14783486969	Appeal	any persuasive strategy, especially one directed to the emotions, sense of humor, or cherished beliefs of an audience	31
14783495865	Aphorism	A short, often witty statement articulating a principle or a truth about life	32
14783498984	Apostrophe	figure of speech that directly addresses an absent or imaginary person or a personified abstraction	33
14783498986	Asyndeton	omitting conjunctions between words, phrases, or clauses	34
14783502104	Atmosphere	The emotional mood 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	35
14783505479	Avant-garde	suggest art or writing that challenges tradition, or that is innovative, experimental, revolutionary, or ahead of its time	36
14783505480	Bombast	Language that is overly rhetorical (pompous)	37
14783511589	Chiasmus	a figure of speech in which two successive phrases or clauses are parallel in syntax, but reverse the order of the analogous words	38
14783514209	Clause	A grammatical unit that contains both a subject and a verb	39
15164181978	Colloquial/Colloquialism	The use of slang or informalities in speech or writing	40
15164182980	Coherence (unity)	quality of a piece of writing in which all the parts contribute to the development of the central idea, theme, or organizing principle	41
15164187343	Conceit	A fanciful expression, usually in the form of an extended metaphor or surprising analogy between seemingly dissimilar objects.	42
15164190055	Diacope	Repetition of a word or phrase after an intervening word or phrase	43
15164191551	Deduction	The process of logic in which a thinker takes a rule for a large, general category and assumes that specific individual examples fitting within that general category obey the same rule	44
15164194593	Dialect	The language of a particular district, class, or group of persons	45
15164200964	Dystopia	imaginary place where living conditions are dreadful, opposite of utopia	46
15164204886	Eclipsis	a type of enallage in which an author or poet omits essential grammatical elements to create a poetic or artful effect	47
15164206260	Ellipsis (plural, ellipses)	in its oldest sense as a rhetorical device, ellipsis refers to the artful omission of a word implied by a previous clause	48
15182949615	Enallage (Greek, "interchange")	the intentional misuse of grammar to characterize a speaker or to create a memorable phrase	49
15182955075	Enumeration	a subject is divided into constituent parts or details, and may include a listing of causes, effects, problems, solutions, conditions, and consequences; the listing or detailing of the parts of something	50
15183032574	Euphemism	An indirect, less offensive way of saying something that is considered unpleasant	51
15183036794	Epitaph	an inscription carved on a gravestone or the final statement spoken by a character before his death	52
15183064738	Exposition	one of four narrative device, often used at the beginning of a work that provides necessary background information about the characters and their circumstances	53
15183077732	Figure of speech	A device used to produce figurative language such as apostrophe, hyperbole, irony, metaphor, metonymy, oxymoron, paradox, personification, simile, synecdoche, and understatement	54
15183086683	Generalization	A claim based upon an isolated example or asserts that a claim is certain rather than probable	55
15187943746	Genre	The major category into which a literary work fits with many subcategories within	56
15187968082	Homily	This term literally means "sermon," but more informally, it can include any serious talk, speech, or lecture involving moral or spiritual advice	57
15188001016	Hypophora	a figure of speech in which a writer raises a question and then immediately provides an answer to that question	58
15188042743	Inference/infer	to draw a reasonable conclusion from the information presented	59
15729994826	Induction	the reasoning process that moves from a given series of specifics to derive a general rule, it draws inferences from observations in order to make generalizations	60
15730000983	Invective	an emotionally violent, verbal denunciation or attach using strong, abusive language	61
15729998343	Inversion (anastrophe)	a reversal of the customary order of elements (subject, verb, complement) in a sentence or phrase	62
15730005343	Jargon	the special language of a profession or group	63
15730007930	Juxtaposition	when two words, phrases, images, ideas are placed close together or side by side for comparison or contrast.	64
15730009757	Litotes	a figure of thought in which a point is affirmed by negating its opposite	65
15730013497	Loose sentence (cumulative sentence)	a type of sentence in which the main idea (independent clause) comes first, followed by dependent grammatical units such as phrases and clauses	66
15730018555	Metonymy	a figure of speech in which the name of one object is substituted for that of another closely associated with it, the substituted term generally carries a more potent emotional response	67
15730021944	Narrative	the telling of a story or an account of an event or series of events	68
15730024212	Oversimplification	a logical fallacy by which the reasoned obscures or denies the complexity of the issues in an argument	69
15730030569	Paradox	a statement that appears to be self-contradictory or opposed to common sense but upon closer inspection contains some degree of truth or validity	70
15730032480	Parallelism(parallel construction or parallel structure)	the grammatical or rhetorical framing of words, phrases, sentences, or paragraphs to give structural similarity	71
15730037051	Parody	a work that ridicules the style of another work by imitating and exaggerating its elements, it can be utterly mocking or gently humorous	72
15730041228	Pedantic	an adjective that describes words, phrases, or general tone that is overly scholarly, academic, or bookish	73
15730042634	Periodic sentence	a sentence that presents its central meaning in a main clause at the end, this independent clause is preceded by a phrase or clause that cannot stand alone	74
15730048556	Picaresque novel	a humorous novel in which the plot consists of a young knave's misadventures and escapades narrated in comic or satiric scenes	75
15730053283	Polysyndeton	figure of addition and emphasis which intentionally employs a series of conjunctions not normally found in successive words, phrases or clauses; the deliberate and excessive use of conjunctions in successive words or clauses	76
15730061591	Predicate adjective	a type of subject complement is an adjective, group of adjectives, or adjective clause that follows a linking verb; the predicate of the sentence, and modifies, or describes, the subject	77
15730069409	Predicate nominative	a type of subject complement, a noun, group of nouns, or noun clause that names the subject; like the predicate adjective, follows a linking verb and is located in the predicate of the sentence	78
15841756470	Prose	one of the major divisions of genre, refers to fiction and non-fiction, including all its forms	79
15841797700	Regionalism	an element in literature that conveys a realistic portrayal of a specific geographical locale, using the locale and its influences as a major part of the plot	80
15841801724	Rhetoric	the principles governing the art of writing effectively, eloquently, and persuasively	81
15841819880	Rhetorical modes	the variety, the conventions, and purposes of the major kinds of writing; exposition, description, narration, argumentation	82
15953071942	Rhetorical Question	a question that does not anticipate an explicit answer. It is used to pose an idea to be considered by the speaker or audience	83
15953087082	Sarcasm	bitter, caustic language that is meant to hurt or ridicule someone or something, may use irony as a device, intended to ridicule	84
15953107106	Satire	the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues	85
15953159264	Stereotype	a character that represents a trait that is usually attributed (unfairly) to a particular social or racial group	86
15953164618	Style	an evaluation of the sum of the choices an author makes in blending diction, syntax, figurative language, and other literary devices OR classification of authors to a group and comparison of an author to similar authors	87
15979572599	Subject complement	The word or clauses that follows a linking verb and complements, or completes, the subject of the sentence by either renaming it or describing it; ex. predicate nominative or predicate adjective	88
15979600776	Subordinate clause	contains both a subject and a verb but cannot stand alone, also known as a dependent clause	89
15979605223	Subjectivity	a personal presentation of events and characters, influenced by the author's feelings and opinions	90
15979606770	Syllogism	A form of deductive reasoning consisting of a major premise, a minor premise, and a conclusion	91
15979610638	Synecdoche	a type of metaphor in which the part stands for the whole, the whole for a part	92
15979639775	Syntax	the grammatical structure of a sentence; that is, the arrangement of words in a sentence	93
15979641235	Transition	a word or phrase or clause that links one idea to the next and carries the reader from sentence to sentence, paragraph to paragraph	94
15979643306	Trope	any rhetorical device or figure of speech involving shifts in the meaning of words	95
15979644132	Understatement	the ironic minimizing of fact, presents something as less significant than it is, opposite of hyperbole	96
15979646372	Wit	intellectually amusing language that surprises and delights	97