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AP Lit Terms
| definition | term |
|---|---|
| this is typically complex, discusses intangible qualities like good and evil, and seldom uses examples to support its points | Abstract (Style) |
| dry and nontheatrical writing. When a piece of writing seems to be sucking all the life out of its subjects w/ analysis | Academic (Style) |
| in poetry, refers to the stressed portion of a word | Accent |
| used as an adjective meaning "appealing to the senses" | Aesthetic |
| a literary work in which the characters represent abstract ideas; a symbolic representation | Allegory |
| repetition of initial consonant sounds | Alliteration |
| a reference to another work of literature, person, or event | Allusion |
| something located at a time when it could not have existed or occured | Anachronism |
| a comparison of two different things that are similar in some way | Analogy |
| a short narrative | Anecdote |
| the word, phrases, or clause to which a pronoun refers | Antecedent |
| the attribution of human characteristics to animals or inanimate objects | Anthropomorphism |
| a disappointing end to an exciting or impressive series of events | Anticlimax |
| a protagonist who lacks the characteristics that would make them a hero | Antihero |
| a brief, cleverly worded statement that makes a wise observation about life | Aphorism |
| address to an absent or imaginary person | Apostrophe |
| the use of deliberately old-fashioned language | Archaism |
| a line spoken by an actor to the audience but not intended for others on the stage | Aside |
| the repetition of vowel sounds | Assonance |
| the emotional tone or background that surrounds a scene | Atmosphere |
| any popular narrative poem, often with epic subject and usually in lyric form | Ballad |
| the use of disturbing themes in comedy | Black Humor |
| speech or writing that sounds grand or important but has little meaning | Bombast |
| a theatrical entertainment of broad and earthy humor | Burlesque |
| harsh, jarring, discordant sounds; dissonance | Cacophony |
| rhythmic flow of a sequence of sounds or words | Cadence |
| a major division of a long poem | Canto |
| drawing, imitation, or description that ridiculously exaggerates peculiarities or defects | Caricature |
| an emotional or psychological cleansing that brings relief or renewal | Catharasis |
| in Greek drama, the group of citizens who stands outside the main action on stage and comments on it | Chorus |
| informal words or expressions not usually acceptable in formal writing | Collquialism |
| a fanciful expression, usually in the form of an extended metaphor or surprising analogy between seemingly dissimilar objects | Conceit |
| the implied or associative meaning of a word | Connotation |
| repetition of consonant sounds | Consonance |
| two consecutive lines of poetry that rhyme | Couplet |
| conformity to accepted standards of conduct; proper behavior | Decorum |
| the dictionary definition of a word | Denotation |
| a writer or speaker's choice of words | Diction |
| a song or hymn of mourning composed or performed as a memorial to a dead person | Dirge |
| harsh or grating sounds that do not go together | Dissonance |
| badly written or trivial verses, often a singsong rhythm | Doggerel |
| (theater) irony that occurs when the meaning of the situation is understood by the audience but not by the characters in play | Dramatic Irony |
| when a single speaker in literature says something to a silent audience | Dramatic Monologue |
| a formal poem presenting a meditation on death or another solemn theme | Elegy |
| the continuation of a syntactic unit from one line of verse into the next line without a pause | Enjambment |
| a long narrative poem written in elevated style which present the adventures of characters in a high position and episodes that are important to the history of a race or nation | Epic |
| a brief statement written on a tomb or gravestone | Epitaph |
| a mild, indirect, or vague term substituting for a harsh, blunt, or offensive term | Euphemism |
| any agreeable (pleasing and harmonious) sounds | Euphony |
| a comedy that contains an extravagant and nonsensical disregard of seriousness, although it may have a serious, scornful purpose | Farce |
| latter two syllables of first word rhyme with latter two syllables of second word (ceiling appealing) | Feminine Rhyme |
| a character whose personality and attitude contrast sharply with those of another | Foil |
| the basic unit of rhythmic measurement in a line of poetry | Foot |
| the use of hints and clues to suggest what will happen later in a plot | Foreshadowing |
| unrhymed verse without a consistent metrical pattern | Free Verse |
| a novel in which supernatural horrors and an atmosphere of unknown terrors pervades the action | Gothic Novel |
| excessive pride of arrogance that results in the downfall of the protagonists of a tragedy | Hubris |
| a figure of speech that uses exaggeration to express strong emotion, make a point, or evoke humor | Hyperbole |
| a narrative technique that records a character's internal flow of thoughts, memories, and ideas; a longish passage of an uninterrupted thought | Interior Monologue |
| the reversal of the normal order of words | Inversion |
| a contrast between what is expected and what actually exists or happens | Irony |
| ridicule with satire | Lampoon |
| of or relating to a category of poetry that express emotion (often in a songlike way) | Lyric |
| final syllable of first word that rhymes with final syllable of second (scald recalled) | Masculine Rhyme |
| a form of cheesy theater in which the hero is very, very good, the villain mean and rotten, and the heroine oh-so-pure | Melodrama |
| a figure of speech comparing two unlike things without using like or as | Metaphor |
| a word that is used to stand for something else that it has attributes of or is associated with | Metonym |
| the protagonist's arch enemy or supreme and persistent difficulty | Nemesis |
| an impersonal presentation of events and characters | Objectivity |
| a figure of speech consisting of two apparently contradictory terms | Oxymoro |
| the use of words that imitate sounds | Onomatopoeia |
| a simple story that illustrates a moral or religious lesson | Parable |
| a statement or proposition that seems self-contradictory or absurd but in reality expresses a possible truth | Paradox |
| the use of a series of words, phrases, or sentences that have similar grammatical form | Parallelism |
| a work which imitates another in a ridiculous manner | Parody |
| a literal word idealizing the rural life (especially the life of sheperds) | Pastoral |
| a quality that arouses emotions (especially by pity or sorrow) | Pathos |
| the speaker, voice, or character assumed by the author of a piece of writing | Persona |
| the act of attributing human characteristics to abstract ideas etc | Personification |
| a poem or speech expressing sorrow | Plaint |
| the main character in a literary work | Protagonist |
| a play on words, often achieved through the use of words with similar sounds but different meanings | Pun |
| the repetition of one or more phrases or lines at definite intervals in a poem, or usually at the end of a stanza | Refrain |
| a song of prayer for the dead | Requiem |
| an intensely passionate verse or section of verse, usually of love or praise | Rhapsody |
| a statement that is formulated as a question but that is not supposed to be answered | Rhetorical Question |
| a literary work that ridicules or criticizes a human vice through humor or derision | Satire |
| a figure of speech that expresses a resemblance between things of different kinds (usually formed with "like" or "as") | Simile |
| in drama, a character speaks alone on stage to allow his/her thoughts and ideas to be conveyed to the audience | Soliloquy |
| a fixed number of lines of verse forming a unit of a poem | Stanza |
| standard or cliched character types; the drunk, the miser, the foolish girl | Stock Characters |
| a personal presentation of events and characters, influenced by the author's feelings and opinions | Subjectivity |
| a grammatical situation involving the words "if" and "were", setting up a hypothetical situation | Subjunctive Mood |
| a brief statement that presents the main points in a concise form | Summary |
| a device in literature where an object represents an idea | Symbolism |
| the main idea of the story | Theme |
| the primary position taken by a writer or speaker | Thesis |
| the character flaw error of a tragic hero that leads to his downfall | Tragic Flaw |
| a grotesque or grossly inferior imitation | Travesty |
| an obvious truth | Truism |
| an imaginary place considered to be perfect or ideal | Utopia |
| when a word is used with two adjacent words in the same construction, but only makes literal sense with one of them | Zeugma |
Created by:
mrea22