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AP English Vocab lis
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Allegory | Narrative form in which characters and actions have meanings outside themselves; characters are usually personifications of abstract qualities |
| Allusion | Figure of speech that makes a short casual reference to a historical or literary figure event object to apply a symbolic meaning to something |
| Anachromism | Use of historically inaccurate details in a text. Some authors use it for humour. Ex: Caesar using a computer. |
| Anadiplosis | Repetition of the last word of one clause at the beginning of the next clause |
| Anaphora | Literary device of repetition in which a word/phrase is repeated at the beginning of a series of lines. |
| Antihero | Protagonist of a literary work who does not embody the traditional qualities of a hero |
| Aphorism | A concise statement designed to make a point or illustrate a commonly held belief |
| Apology | Synonym of the word defense |
| Apostrophe | Figure of speech in which a person thing or abstract quality is addressed as present |
| Assonance | Repetition of similar vowel sounds |
| Asyndeton | Practice of ommiting conjuctions between phrases suggests the list may be incomplete |
| Antithesis | Juxtaposition of sharply contrasting ideas in balanced or parallel words or phrases |
| Begging the question | Evading the question |
| Bildungsroman | A novel whose theme is the moral or psychological growth of the main character |
| Canon | A work is authentic |
| Catharsis | Purification or cleansing of the spirit through the emotions of pity and terror as a witness to a tragedy |
| Consonance | "Repetition of two or more consonants with a change in intervening vowels ex ""Pitter-patter""" |
| Delayed sentence | "A sentence that witholds its main idea until the end. Ex ""Just as he bent to tie his shoe a car hit him""" |
| Deus ex machina | As in Greek theater use of artificial device to solve a difficult situation. Often introduced unexpectedly. |
| Didactic | Intended to teach a moral lesson |
| Doppelganger | Ghostly counterpart of a living person |
| Epigraph | Quote set at the begiinning or a literary world to set the tone or theme |
| Epiphany | Sudden or intuitive insight or perception into the reality or essential meaning of something brought on by a common experience |
| Epistrophe | Reptition of a word or words at the end of two or more verses clauses or sentences |
| Epistolary | A piece of literatuer contained in or carried on by letters |
| Epitaph | Writing in praise of a deceased person |
| Euphemism | "Substitution of a milder or less direct expression for one that is harsh or blunt. Using ""passed away"" instead of ""dead""" |
| Expletive | "A single world or phrase intended to emphasize surrounding words they are often separated by commas ex ""in fact after all""" |
| Explication | Interpretation or analysis of a text |
| Exposition | The explanation or analysis of a subject presenting the meaning or purpose of an issue |
| Foil | Something that makes another seem better by contrast |
| Hamartia | Aristotle's term for the main character's tragic flaw or error in judgement. |
| Inductive | Opposite from deductive |
| Invective | Angry and insulting language in satirical writing |
| In medias res | Refers to opening a story in the middle of the action (with use of a flashback) |
| Isocolon | Parallel structure in which the parallel elements are similar not only in grammatical structure but also in length |
| Litote | Form of understatement used to achieve emphasis |
| Metonymy | A figure of speech that uses the name of one thing to name or designate something |
| Motif | Recurrent device formula or situation that serves as a signal for the appearance of a character |
| Narrative device | Use of techniques such as flashbacks or digression in the telling of a story |
| Onomatopoeia | Word capturing the sound that it describes |
| Parallelism | Recurent syntactical similarity |
| Paradox | Statement that seems contradictory but is actually true |
| Persona | Voice of an author that tells the story but may not share the values of the real author (Sophies World sort of?) |
| Retrospection | Looking back at the past |
| Syllogism | A form of deduction. Extremely subtle and sophisticated argument |
| Synecdoche | A figure of speech in which a part signifies the whole |
| Trope | Use of a word in a figurative sense with a change of its literal meaning |
| Zeugma | Gramatically correct linkage of one subject with two or more verbs |