AP Language and Composition Glossary of Literary and Rhetorical Devices

Flashcards for key vocabulary terms from the AP Language and Composition Glossary of Literary and Rhetorical Devices.

Active Voice

The subject of the sentence performs the action.

Passive Voice

The subject of the sentence receives the action.

Allusion

An indirect reference to something with which the reader is supposed to be familiar.

Alter-ego

A character used by the author to speak the author’s own thoughts.

Anecdote

A brief recounting of a relevant episode.

Antecedent

The word, phrase, or clause referred to by a pronoun.

Classicism

Art or literature characterized by a realistic view of people and the world; sticks to traditional themes and structures.

Comic Relief

A humorous scene inserted into a serious story to lighten the mood.

Diction

Word choice, particularly as an element of style.

Colloquial

Ordinary or familiar type of conversation.

Connotation

The associations suggested by a word; implied meaning rather than literal meaning.

Denotation

The literal, explicit meaning of a word, without its connotations.

Jargon

The diction used by a group which practices a similar profession or activity.

Vernacular

Language or dialect of a particular country, region, or group; plain everyday speech.

Didactic

Fiction, nonfiction, or poetry that teaches a specific lesson or moral.

Adage

A folk saying with a lesson.

Allegory

A story in which characters, things, and events represent qualities or concepts.

Aphorism

A terse statement which expresses a general truth or moral principle.

Ellipsis

The deliberate omission of a word or phrase from prose for effect.

Euphemism

A more agreeable or less offensive substitute for generally unpleasant words or concepts.

Figurative Language

Writing that is not meant to be taken literally.

Analogy

A comparison of one pair of variables to a parallel set of variables.

Hyperbole

Exaggeration.

Idiom

A common, often used expression that doesn’t make sense if you take it literally.

Metaphor

Making an implied comparison, not using “like,” as,” or other such words.

Metonymy

Replacing an actual word or idea with a related word or concept.

Synecdoche

A kind of metonymy when a whole is represented by naming one of its parts, or vice versa.

Simile

Using words such as “like” or “as” to make a direct comparison between two very different things.

Synesthesia

A description involving a “crossing of the senses.”

Personification

Giving human-like qualities to something that is not human.

Foreshadowing

When an author gives hints about what will occur later in a story.

Genre

The major category into which a literary work fits.

Gothic

Writing characterized by gloom, mystery, fear and/or death.

Imagery

Word or words that create a picture in the reader's mind; usually involves the five senses.

Invective

A long, emotionally violent, attack using strong, abusive language.

Irony

When the opposite of what you expect to happen does.

Verbal Irony

Saying something and meaning the opposite/something different.

Dramatic Irony

When the audience knows something that the character doesn't.

Situational Irony

Found in the plot of a book, story, or movie where things turn out opposite of what is expected.

Juxtaposition

Placing things side by side for the purposes of comparison.

Mood

The atmosphere created by the literature and accomplished through word choice (diction).

Motif

A recurring idea in a piece of literature.

Oxymoron

When apparently contradictory terms are grouped together and suggest a paradox.

Pacing

The speed or tempo of an author’s writing.

Paradox

A seemingly contradictory situation which is actually true.

Parallelism

Sentence construction which places equal grammatical constructions near each other, or repeats identical grammatical patterns.

Anaphora

Repetition of a word, phrase, or clause at the beginning of two or more sentences or clauses in a row.

Chiasmus

When the same words are used twice in succession, but the second time, the order of the words is reversed.

Antithesis

Two opposite or contrasting words, phrases, or clauses, or even ideas, with parallel structure.

Zuegma (Syllepsis)

When a single word governs or modifies two or more other words, and the meaning of the first word must change for each of the other words it governs or modifies.

Parenthetical Idea

Parentheses are used to set off an idea from the rest of the sentence. It is almost considered an aside…a whisper.

Parody

An exaggerated imitation of a serious work for humorous purposes.

Persona

The fictional mask or narrator that tells a story.

Poetic Device

A device used in poetry to manipulate the sound of words, sentences or lines.

Alliteration

The repetition of the same consonant sound at the beginning of words.

Assonance

The repetition of identical or similar vowel sounds.

Consonance

The repetition of the same consonant sound at the end of words or within words.

Onomatopoeia

The use of a word which imitates or suggests the sound that the thing makes.

Internal Rhyme

When a line of poetry contains a rhyme within a single line.

Slant Rhyme

When a poet creates a rhyme, but the two words do not rhyme exactly – they are merely similar.

End Rhyme

When the last word of two different lines of poetry rhyme.

Rhyme Scheme

The pattern of a poem’s end rhymes.

Meter

A regular pattern to the syllables in lines of poetry.

Free Verse

Poetry that doesn’t have much meter or rhyme.

Iambic Pentameter

Poetry that is written in lines of 10 syllables, alternating stressed and unstressed syllables.

Sonnet

A 14 line poem written in iambic pentameter. Usually divided into three quatrains and a couplet.

Polysyndeton

When a writer creates a list of items which are all separated by conjunctions.

Pun

When a word that has two or more meanings is used in a humorous way.

Rhetoric

The art of effective communication.

Rhetorical Question

Question not asked for information but for effect.

Romanticism

Art or literature characterized by an idealistic, perhaps unrealistic view of people and the world, and an emphasis on nature.

Sarcasm

A generally bitter comment that is ironically or satirically worded.

Satire

A work that reveals a critical attitude toward some element of life to a humorous effect.

Appositive

A word or group of words placed beside a noun or noun substitute to supplement its meaning.

Clause

A grammatical unit that contains both a subject and a verb.

Balanced Sentence

A sentence in which two parallel elements are set off against each other like equal weights on a scale.

Compound Sentence

Contains at least two independent clauses but no dependent clauses.

Complex Sentence

Contains only one independent clause and at least one dependent clause.

Cumulative Sentence

When the writer begins with an independent clause, then adds subordinate elements.

Periodic Sentence

When the main idea is not completed until the end of the sentence; the writer begins with subordinate elements and postpones the main clause.

Simple Sentence

Contains only one independent clause.

Declarative Sentence

States an idea.

Imperative Sentence

Issues a command.

Interrogative Sentence

Sentences incorporating interrogative pronouns (what, which, who, whom, and whose).

Style

The choices in diction, tone, and syntax that a writer makes.

Symbol

Anything that represents or stands for something else.

Syntax

Grammatical arrangement of words.

Theme

The central idea or message of a work.

Thesis

The sentence or groups of sentences that directly expresses the author's opinion, purpose, meaning, or proposition.

Tone

A writer's attitude toward his subject matter revealed through diction, figurative language and organization.

Understatement

The ironic minimizing of fact.

Litotes

A particular form of understatement, generated by denying the opposite of the statement which otherwise would be used.

Argument

A piece of reasoning with one or more premises and a conclusion.

Premises

Statements offered as reasons to support a conclusion.

Conclusion

The end result of the argument – the main point being made.

Ethos

Being convinced by the credibility of the author.

Pathos

Persuading by appealing to the reader's emotions.

Logos

Persuading by the use of reasoning, using true premises and valid arguments.

Concession

Accepting at least part or all of an opposing viewpoint.

Conditional Statement

An if-then statement and consists of two parts, an antecedent and a consequent.