Help
Options
Didn't know it?
click below
click below
Knew it?
click below
click below
Don't Know
Remaining cards (0)
Know
retry
shuffle
restart
0:00
Embed Code - If you would like this activity on your web page, copy the script below and paste it into your web page.
Normal Size Small Size show me how
Normal Size Small Size show me how
Literary Terms
AP English Literature - 2012
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Aphorism | A tersely phrased statement of a truth or opinion; an adage |
| Ambiguity | The quality of being understood in two or more possible ways; uncertainty |
| Aside | A comment made by a stage performer that is intended to be heard by the audience but supposedly not by the other characters |
| Alliteration | The practice of beginning several consecutive or neighboring words with the same sound |
| Allusion | An indirect or implied refernece to a person, place, thing, character, or event from another context |
| Allegory | A narrative technique in which characters representing things or abstract ideas are used to convey a message or teach a lesson |
| Anthropomorphism | The presentation of animals or objects in human shape or with human characteristics |
| Anachronism | Something located at a time when it could not have existed or occured |
| Assonance | The repetition or vowel sounds in a series of words |
| Apostrophe | The absent or dead are spoken to as if present |
| Analogy | A comparison of two things made to explain something unfamiliar through its similarities to something familiar |
| Anaphora | The repetition of a word or phrase as the beginning of successive clauses |
| Antithesis | Opposing or contrasting ideas balance against each other in parallel gramatical structure |
| Deduction | The process of reaching a conclusion through reasoning from general premises to a specific premise |
| Conceit | A clever and faniciful metaphor that presents a striking parallel between two seenimgly dissimilar things |
| Connotation | An association that comes along with a particular word |
| Cacophony | A dissonat, unpleasant combination of sounds |
| Couplet | Two lines of poetry with the same ryhme and meter |
| Euphony | A harmonious, pleasant combination of sounds |
| Denotation | The definition of a word |
| Comic Relief | The use of humor to lighten to mood of a serious or tragic story |
| Burlesque | Any literary work that uses exaggeration to make its subject appear ridiculous |
| Catharsis | The release or purging of unwanted emotions |
| Diction | The selection and arrangement of words in a literary work |
| Chorus | In ancient Greek drama, a group of actors who commented on and interpreted the unfolding action on the stage |
| Consonance | Occurs in poetry when words appearing at the ends of two or more verses have similar final consonant sounds, but have final vowel sounds that differ |
| Farce | A form of drama/play that narrows in on an extremely unlikely plot |
| Hyperbole | Deliberate exaggeration used to achieve an effect |
| Epitaph | An inscription on a tomb or tombstone |
| Elegy | A lyric poem that laments the death of a person or the eventual death of all people |
| Foil | A character in a work of literature whose physical or psychological qualities contrast stong with the corresponding qualities of another character |
| Enjambment | The running over of the sense and structure of one line of poetry into the next line without syntactical pause |
| Hamartia | In tragedy, the event or act that leads to a hero's or heroine's downfall |
| Didactic | A term used to describe literary works that aim to teach some moral, religious, political, or practical lesson |
| Idiom | A word construction or verbal expression closely associated with a given language |
| Exposition | The gradual revelation of background information needed for understanding the plot of a story |
| Dramatic Irony | The audience of a play or the reader of a work knows something that a character in the work itself does not knwo |
| Figurative Language | A technique in writing where the author temporarily interrupts the order, construction, or meaning of the writing for a particular effect |
| Epithet | A word or phrase preceding or following a name which serves to describe the character of that name |
| Free Verse | Poetry that lacks regular material and rhyme patterns but tries to capture everyday speech |
| Kenning | Compound noun or short descriptive phrase with metaphoric value |
| Motif | A theme, character type, image, metaphor, or other verbal element that recurs throughout a single workd of literature |
| Imagery | A concrete representation of an object or sensory experience |
| Monologue | An extended narrative, whether oral or written, delievered uninterrupted by one person |
| Meter | The repetition of sound patterns that creates a rhythm |
| Inference | The act of concluding from evidence |
| Oxymoron | A form of paradox that combines a pari of contrary terms into a single expression |
| Induction | The process of reaching a conclusion by reasoning from specific premises to form a general premise |
| Invective | An emotionally violent, verbal denunciation or attack using strong, abusive language |
| Mood | The prevailing emotions of a work or of the author in his or her creation of the work |
| Irony | The recognition of the incongruity or differences between reality abd appearance |
| Litotes | Understatment, for intensification, by denying the contrary of the things being affirmed |
| Metaphor | A figure of speech that expresses an idea through the image of another object without using like or as |
| Juxtaposition | The act of placing close together |
| Polemic | A work in which the author takes a stand on aa controversial subject |
| Pedantic | An adjective that describes words that are overly scholarly |
| Satire | A work that uses ridicule, humor, and with to criticize and provoke change in human nature and institutions |
| Parody | A composition that imitates the style of another composition normally for comic effect |
| Rhetoric | The art of ethical persuasion |
| Paradox | A statement that appears illogical or contradictory at first, but may actually point to an underlying truth |
| Prose | Refers to fiction and nonfiction that are written in ordinary language and most closely resemble everyday speech |
| Parallelism | A method of comparison of two ideas in which each is developed in the same grammatical structure |
| Simile | A figure of speech that makes a comparison using like or as |
| Parable | A story designed to suggest a principle, illustrate a moral, or answer a question |
| Proverb | A brief, sage saything that expresses a truth about life in a striking manner |
| Personification | Gives inanimate objects or abstract ideas human characteristics |
| Syntax | Sentence structure |
| Tragic Flaw | In tragedy, the quality within the hero or heroine which leads to his or her downfall |
| Metonymy | One word or phrase is substituted for a related word or phrase |
| Soliloquy | A speech in which a character who is alone speaks his or her thoughts aloud |
| Stream of Consciousness | A narrative technique for rendering the inward experience of a character |
| Syllogism | A method of presenting a logical argument including a major premise, a minor premise, and a conclusion |
| Synecdoche | A figure of speech in which a part of something stands for the whole |
| Synesthesia | A description of one sensory experience in terms of another |
| Tone | The author's attitude toward his or her audience |
Created by:
ChasingRubies
Popular English Vocabulary sets