AP English - Rhetorical Devices (Page 1)

Flashcards covering key rhetorical devices and terminology from AP English notes (Page 1).

What term describes the repetition of the same sound or letter at the beginning of consecutive words or syllables?

Alliteration

What term is an indirect reference, often to another text or a historic event?

Allusion

What term is an extended comparison between two seemingly dissimilar things?

Analogy

What term is the repetition of words at the beginning of successive clauses?

Anaphora

What term is a short account of an interesting event?

Anecdote

What term is a short, astute statement of a general truth?

Aphorism

What term describes the use of words common to an earlier time period; antiquated language?

Archaic diction

What term means the speaker's position on a subject as revealed through tone?

Attitude

What term refers to one's listener or readership; those to whom a speech or writing is addressed?

Audience

What term describes an informal or conversational use of language?

Colloquialism

What term is that which is implied by a word, as opposed to the word's literal meaning?

Connotation

What term means words, events, or circumstances that help determine meaning?

Context

What term means word choice?

Diction

What term describes the use of tropes or figures of speech; going beyond literal meaning to achieve literary effect?

Figurative language

What term is an expression that strives for literary effect rather than conveying a literal meaning?

Figure of speech

What term means exaggeration for the purpose of emphasis?

Hyperbole

What term refers to asking a question and then answering, for effect?

Hypophora

What term is vivid use of language that evokes a reader's senses?

Imagery

What term is a contradiction between what is said and what is meant; incongruity between action and result?

Irony

What term is the placement of two things side by side for emphasis?

Juxtaposition

What term is a figure of speech or trope through which one thing is spoken of as though it were something else, making an implicit comparison?

Metaphor

What term is the use of an aspect of something to represent the whole?

Metonymy

What term is a figure of speech that combines two contradictory terms?

Oxymoron

What term is a statement that seems contradictory but is actually true?

Paradox

What term is the repetition of similar grammatical or syntactical patterns?

Parallelism

What term is a piece that imitates and exaggerates the prominent features of another; used for comic effect or ridicule?

Parody

What term is the speaker, voice, or character assumed by the author of a piece of writing?

Persona

What term is assigning lifelike characteristics to inanimate objects?

Personification

What term is an ironic, sarcastic, or witty composition that claims to argue for something, but actually argues against it?

Satire

What term is a figure of speech that uses “like” or “as” to compare two things?

Simile

What term is used for the author, speaker, or the person whose perspective (real or imagined) is being advanced in a speech or piece of writing?

Speaker

What term describes the distinctive quality of speech or writing created by the selection and arrangement of words and figures of speech?

Style

What term is the topic addressed in a piece of writing in rhetoric?

Subject