AP Literature Vocabulary Terms Flashcards
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| 13420569916 | Allusion | A reference in literature or art to a previous literature, history, mythology, pop culture/current events, or the Bible | 0 | |
| 13420588287 | Anachronism | a thing belonging or appropriate to a period other than that in which it exists, especially a thing that is conspicuously old-fashioned. | 1 | |
| 13420596608 | Anapest | The poetic foot that follows the pattern unstressed, unstressed, stressed. Ex: I am MONarch of ALL i surVEY. | 2 | |
| 13420619633 | Antecedent | The word, phrase, or clause referred to by a pronoun. | 3 | |
| 13420627353 | Anticlimax | a disappointing end to an exciting or impressive series of events | 4 | |
| 13420632970 | Antihero | Central character who lacks all the qualities traditionally associated with heroes. may lack courage, grace, intelligence, or moral scruples. | 5 | |
| 13420635992 | Aphorism | A brief, cleverly worded statement that makes a wise observation about life. Ex: "Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise." | 6 | |
| 13420639884 | Apostrophe | A figure of speech that directly addresses an absent or imaginary person or a personified abstraction, such as liberty or love. The subject is not expected to answer. | 7 | |
| 13420647456 | Apotheosis | Raising to god status | 8 | |
| 13420654024 | Assonance | Repetition of vowel sounds Ex: "How now brown cow." | 9 | |
| 13420654025 | Aubade | A love lyric in which the speaker complains about the arrival of the dawn, when he must part from his lover. | 10 | |
| 13420657738 | Blank verse | unrhymed iambic pentameter (five feet of two syllables each--unstressed and stressed). The rhythm of a sonnet. Ex: "When honour's at the stake. How stand I then, That have a father kill'd, a mother stain'd..." | 11 | |
| 13420667448 | Cacophony | A harsh, discordant mixture of sounds Ex: "And squared and stuck there squares of soft white chalk, And with a fish-tooth, scratched a moon on each." | 12 | |
| 13420681337 | Chiasmus | A statement consisting of two parallel parts in which the second part is structurally reversed. Ex: I like the idea; its execution, I don't. | 13 | |
| 13420691606 | Colloquial | Characteristic of ordinary conversation rather than formal speech or writing. Ex: "Howdy Y'ALL. Yee haw bruther. Build that there uh'wall" | 14 | |
| 13420699554 | Conciet | a far-fetched comparison between two seemingly unlike things; an extended metaphor that gains appeal from its unusual or extraordinary comparison Ex: "My lover and I are fleas in the bed of love." | 15 | |
| 13420708799 | Dactyl | foot of poetry with three syllables, one stressed and two short or unstressed. Kinda like the rhythm in "Favorite Things" (or 7 Rings by Ms. Grande) Ex: "Just for a handful of silver he left us." | 16 | |
| 13420734560 | Denouement | the outcome or clarification at the end of a story or play; the winding down from climax to ending. Basically the resolution | 17 | |
| 13420739486 | Didactic | A story, speech, essay or play in which the author's primary purpose is to instruct, teach, or moralize. Typical folktales usually follow this. | 18 | |
| 13420751203 | Enjambment | In poetry, the running on of a sentence from one verse or stanza to the next, with little or no pause. Ex: "And stop and feed itself at Tanks-- And then, a prodigious step Around a pile of Mountains." | 19 | |
| 13420761476 | Epigram | a short, clever poem with a witty turn of thought | 20 | |
| 13420764820 | Epigraph | A brief quotation found at the beginning of a literary work, reflective of theme. | 21 | |
| 13420774012 | Epistolary novel | a novel in letter form written by one or more of the characters Ex: The Color Purple | 22 | |
| 13420777536 | Euphony | the quality of being pleasing to the ear, especially through a harmonious combination of words. Ex: "The gray sea and long black land And the yellow half-moon large and low." | 23 | |
| 13420780282 | Farce | A kind of comedy that depends on exaggerated or improbable situations, physical disasters, and sexual innuendo to amuse the audience. Ex: Dumb and Dumber | 24 | |
| 13420787861 | Heroic couplet | In poetry, a rhymed couplet written in iambic pentameter (five feet, each with one unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable). | 25 | |
| 13420790948 | Hubris | insolence, arrogance, or pride. Typically a tragic flaw in mythology | 26 | |
| 13420795332 | Iambic pentameter | a five-foot line made up of an unaccented followed by an accented syllable | 27 | |
| 13420798702 | In medias res | In literature, a work that begins in the middle of the story. Ex: The Odyssey | 28 | |
| 13420804025 | Italian sonnet | Fourteen-line poem divided into two parts: the first is eight lines and the second is six | 29 | |
| 13420808634 | Litotes | Affirmation of an idea by using a negative understatement. The opposite of hyperbole. Ex: "He was not averse to taking a drink. She is no saint." | 30 | |
| 13420811179 | Lyric poem | A fairly short, emotionally expressive poem that expresses the feelings and observations of a single speaker. | 31 | |
| 13420815415 | Meter | the rhythmical pattern of a poem | 32 | |
| 13420819930 | Metonymy | a figure of speech that replaces the name of a thing with the name of something else with which it is closely associated Ex: "the president" and "the White House" | 33 | |
| 13420836936 | Slant rhyme | A rhyme based on an imperfect or incomplete correspondence of end syllable sounds | 34 | |
| 13420850525 | Parable | a short story illustrating a moral or religious lesson | 35 | |
| 13420853103 | Paradox | A statement or situation that at first seems impossible or oxymoronic, but which solves itself and reveals its meaning. Ex: "Fair is foul, and Foul is Fair." | 36 | |
| 13420863998 | Pastoral | A poem, play, or short story that celebrates and idealizes the simple life of shepherds and shepherdesses. Can also mean an ideal life or lifestyle | 37 | |
| 13420878586 | Periodic sentence | A sentence that delivers its point at the end; usually constructed as a subordinate clause followed by a main clause. Ex: "At the piano, she practices scales." | 38 | |
| 13420884474 | Quatrain | Four-line stanza | 39 | |
| 13420887215 | Sestet | A six-line stanza of poetry; also, the last six lines of a sonnet. | 40 | |
| 13420894576 | Stock character | the stereotyped character in which he is immediately known from typical characters in history Ex: the evil stepmother | 41 | |
| 13420901441 | Synecdoche | A figure of speech where one part represents the entire object, or vice versa. Ex: "All hands on deck." "Lend me your ears." | 42 | |
| 13420904258 | Syntax | the way in which words are put together to form phrases, clauses, or sentences | 43 |