AP Lang - Schemes & Tropes

Adage

A short common saying expressing conventional wisdom (similar to cliche)

Alliteration

Repetition of the same letter or sound within nearby words - Most often, repeated initial consonants

Anamnesis

Calling to memory past matters

Anaphora

Repetition of the same word or group of words at the beginning of successive causes, sentences or lines

Antimetabole

Repetition of words, in successive clauses, in reverse grammatical order

Climax

The arrangement of words, phrases, or clauses in an order of increasing importance

Epistrophe

Ending a series of lines, phrases, clauses, or sentences with the same word or words

Hyperbole

Rhetorical exaggeration

Isocolon

A series of similarly structured elements having the same length

Personification

Reference to abstractions or inanimate objects as though they had human qualities or abilities

Antithesis

Juxtaposition of contrasting words or ideas (often, although not always, in parallel structure)

Anthypophora

A figure of reasoning in which one asks and then immediately answers one's own questions (or raises and then settles imaginary objections) - Reasoning aloud

Epiplexis

Asking questions in order to chide, to express grief, or to inveigh - A kind of rhetorical question

Euphemism

The substitution of a more favorable term for a socially delicate term (understatement)

Irony

Words that are meant to convey the opposite of their literal meaning

Anadiplosis

Repetition of the last word (or phrase) from the previous line, clause, or sentence at the beginning of the next

Parenthesis

Insertion of a verbal unit that interrupts normal syntactical flow

Simile

An explicit comparison, often (but not necessarily) employing "like" or “as”

Syntheton

When by convention two words are joined by a conjunction for emphasis

Zeugma

A general term describing when one part of speech governs two or more other parts of a sentence (often in a series)