AP TERMS 42-67

Tropes

Artful diction; from the Greek word for "turning," a figure of speech such as metaphor, simile, hyperbole, metonymy, or synecdoche.

Euphemism

A rhetorical device that replaces a harsh, blunt, or potentially offensive word or phrase with a milder, more polite, or indirect expression.

Hyperbole

Deliberate exaggeration used for emphasis or to produce a comic or ironic effect; an overstatement to make a point.

Irony

An incongruity between expectation and reality.

Metaphor

Figure of speech that compares two things without using "like" or "as."

Metonymy

Figure of speech in which something is represented by another thing that is related to or emblematic of it. Ex. The pen is mightier than the sword.

Oxymoron

A paradox made up of two seemingly contradictory words.

Paradox

A statement or situation that seems contradictory but actually reveals a surprising, hidden, or ironic truth.

Personification

Attribution of a lifelike quality to an inanimate object or idea.

Rhetorical Question

Figure of speech in the form of a question posed for rhetorical effect rather than for the purpose of getting an answer.

Simile

A figure of speech used to explain or clarify an idea by comparing it explicitly to something else, using the words "like," "as," or "as though."

Synecdoche

Figure of speech that uses a part to represent the whole.

Understatement (Litotes)

The presentation or framing of something as less important, urgent, awful, good, powerful, etc. than it actually is, often for satiric or comical effect; the opposite of hyperbole, it is often used along with this technique, and for a similar effect.

Zeugma

Use of two different words in a grammatically similar way that produces different, often incongruous, meanings.

Schemes

Artful syntax, which might be a deviation from the normal order of words. Include parallelism, juxtaposition, antithesis, and antimetabole.

Antithesis

Contradictory ideas that are juxtaposed, often using parallel grammatical construction.

Parallelism

Similarity of structure in a pair or series of related words, phrases, or clauses.

Tricolon

A rhetorical device consisting of three parallel words, phrases, or clauses that come in quick succession and are of equal length and grammatical form.

Juxtaposition

Placing two things side by side for the sake of comparison or contrast. Writers sometimes use incongruous juxtapositions to produce verbal irony.

Inversion

Inverted order of words in a sentence, usually a variation of the subject-verb-object order.

Asyndeton

Omission of conjunctions between coordinate phrases, clauses, or words.

Ellipsis

(…) A series of dots that can signal something is missing from a quote from a source.

Alliteration

Repetition of the same sound beginning several words or syllables in sequence.

Anaphora

Repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive phrases, clauses, or lines.

Antimetabole

Repetition of words in reverse order.

Polysyndeton

The deliberate use of multiple conjunctions between coordinate phrases, clauses, or words. Ex. "I paid for my plane ticket, and the taxes, and the fees, and the charge for the checked bag, and five dollars for a bottle of water."