AP English Language & Composition Vocabulary

Flashcards for AP English Language & Composition vocabulary review.

Anaphora

The repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses or sentences.

Apposition

A word or phrase that renames or identifies a preceding noun or pronoun.

Asyndeton

The omission or absence of a conjunction between parts of a sentence.

Climax

The point in a narrative at which the conflict reaches its highest intensity.

Epistrophe

The repetition of a word or phrase at the end of successive clauses or sentences.

Litotes

Ironical understatement in which an affirmative is expressed by the negative of its contrary.

Metonymy

A figure of speech in which a word or phrase is substituted for another with which it is closely associated.

Synecdoche

A figure of speech in which a part is used to represent the whole or vice versa.

Meiosis

Intentional use of understatement.

Polysyndeton

The use of more conjunctions than is necessary or natural.

Paradox

A statement that appears self-contradictory but contains a deeper truth.

Oxymoron

A figure of speech in which apparently contradictory terms appear in conjunction.

Parallelism

The use of successive verbal constructions in poetry or prose that correspond in grammatical structure, sound, meter, meaning, etc.

Antithesis

A person or thing that is directly opposite to someone or something else.

Anadiplosis

The repetition of the last word of one clause or sentence at the beginning of the next.

Zeugma

A figure of speech in which a word applies to two others in different senses.

Inductive Reasoning

Reasoning from detailed facts to general principles.

Deductive Reasoning

Reasoning from general principles to specific cases.

Fallacy

An instance of dubious or flawed reasoning.

Argumentum ad Ignorantiam

The argument to ignorance; asserts a proposition is true because it has not yet been proven false (or vice versa).

Argumentum ad Hominem

A personal attack; attacks the person making the argument rather than the argument itself.

Argumentum ad Misericordiam

An appeal to pity; attempts to persuade by provoking irrelevant feelings of compassion.

Argumentum ad Populum (Bandwagon)

An appeal to popularity; asserts something is true because many people believe it.

Faulty Reasoning

Error in logic or structure.

Claim

A statement presented as fact.