AP English Literature & Composition Glossary

Noun

A person, place, thing, or idea (or an abstraction—for example, strength and determination are nouns).

Verb

An action word or a word that expresses a state of being.

Adjective

A word that modifies, describes, or limits a noun or pronoun.

Adverb

A word that modifies, describes, or limits a verb, an adjective, or another adverb.

Preposition

A word that shows the relationship between a noun or pronoun and some other word in the sentence.

Pronoun

A word that replaces a noun.

Gerund

A word that serves two functions. It acts like a noun and it acts like a verb.

Participle

A word that serves two functions. It acts like an adjective and it acts like a verb.

Infinitive

A phrase that begins with the word to and is followed by a verb form.

abstract

An abstract style (in writing) is typically complex, discusses intangible qualities like good and evil, and seldom uses examples to support its points.

academic

As an adjective describing style, this word means dry and theoretical writing.

accent

In poetry, accent refers to the stressed portion of a word.

aesthetic

Aesthetic can be used as an adjective meaning 'appealing to the senses.'

aesthetics

The plural noun, aesthetics, is the study of beauty.

aesthetics

The study of beauty.

allegory

A story in which each aspect has a symbolic meaning outside the tale itself.

alliteration

The repetition of initial sounds.

allusion

A reference to another work or famous figure.

anachronism

A term meaning 'misplaced in time.'

analogy

A comparison that usually involves two or more symbolic parts to clarify an action or relationship.

anecdote

A short narrative.

antagonist

A character, group, characteristic, or entity that opposes the protagonist.

antecedent

The word, phrase, or clause that a pronoun refers to or replaces.

anthropomorphism

When inanimate objects, animals, or natural phenomena are given human characteristics, behavior, or motivation.

anticlimax

An occurrence when an action produces far smaller results than one had been led to expect.

aphorism

A short and usually witty saying.

apostrophe

An address to someone not present or to a personified object or idea.

archaism

The use of deliberately old-fashioned language.

archetypes

Standard or clichéd character types.

argumentation

The act or process of analyzing evidence, drawing conclusions, and developing claims.

speech

A speech (usually just a short comment) made by an actor to the audience, as though momentarily stepping outside of the action on stage.

aspect

A trait or characteristic, as in 'an aspect of the dew drop.'

atmosphere

The emotional tone or background that surrounds a scene.

attitude

A speaker's, author's, or character's nature toward or opinion of a subject.

ballad

A long, narrative poem usually in very regular meter and rhyme. A ballad typically has a naive folksy quality, a characteristic that distinguishes it from epic poetry.

bathos

When writing strains for grandeur it can't support and tries to elicit tears from every little hiccup, that's bathos.

black humor

This is the use of disturbing themes in comedy.

bombast

This is pretentious, exaggeratedly learned language.

burlesque

A burlesque is broad parody, one that takes a style or a form such as tragic drama and exaggerates it into ridiculousness.

cacophony

In poetry, cacophony is using deliberately harsh, awkward sounds.

cadence

The beat or rhythm of poetry in a general sense.

canto

The name for a section division in a long work of poetry, similar to the way chapters divide a novel.

caricature

A portrait (verbal or otherwise) that exaggerates a facet of personality.

catharsis

This is a term drawn from Aristotle's writings on tragedy. Catharsis refers to the 'cleansing' of emotion an audience member experiences having lived (vicariously) through the experiences presented on stage.

character

In literary terms, description, representations, or discussions of the features that make up an individual and represent who they are.

chorus

In drama, a chorus is the group of people who stand outside the main action on stage and comment on it.

classic, classical

Classic can mean typical or an accepted masterpiece, while classical refers to the arts of ancient Greece and Rome and the qualities of those arts.

coinage (neologism)

A coinage is a new word, usually one invented on the spot.

colloquialism

This is a word or phrase used in everyday conversational English that isn't a part of accepted 'schoolbook' English.

complex, dense

These two terms suggest that there is more than one possibility in the meaning of words; there are subtleties and variations.

conceit, controlling image, extended metaphor

In poetry, conceit refers to a startling or unusual metaphor, or one developed and expanded upon over several lines.

connotation, denotation

The denotation of a word is its literal meaning.

denotation

The literal meaning of a word.

connotation

Everything else that the word suggests or implies.

consonance

The repetition of consonant sounds within words.

couplet

A pair of lines that end in rhyme.

decorum

A character's speech styled according to social station and occasion.

details

The items or parts that make up a larger picture or story.

devices of sound

Various techniques used by poets to create sound imagery through specific word choice.

diction

Word choice.

dirge

A song for the dead, typically slow, heavy, and melancholy.

dissonance

The grating of incompatible sounds.

doggerel

Crude, simplistic verse, often in sing-song rhyme.

dramatic irony

When the audience knows something that the characters in the drama do not.

dramatic monologue

When a single speaker in literature says something to a silent audience.

dystopia

A seemingly ideal world where the actual implementation of perfection is unsuccessful and destructive.

elegy

A type of poem that meditates on death or mortality in a serious, thoughtful manner.

elements

The basic techniques of each genre of literature.

enjambment

The continuation of a syntactic unit from one line or couplet of a poem to the next with no pause.

epic

A very long narrative poem on a serious theme and in a dignified style.

epitaph

Lines that commemorate the dead at their burial place.

ethos

The appeal to credibility; establishing common ground and trust with an audience.

euphemism

A word or phrase that takes the place of a harsh, unpleasant, or impolite reality.

euphony

When sounds blend harmoniously, the result is euphony.

explicit

Something said or written directly and clearly (this is a rare happening in literature because the whole game is to be "implicit"—that is, to suggest and imply).

farce

Today we use this word to refer to extremely broad humor. Writers in earlier times used farce as a more neutral term, meaning simply a funny play; a comedy.

feminine rhyme

Lines rhymed by their final two syllables. A pair of lines ending with running and gunning would be an example of feminine rhyme.

figurative language

Writing that uses words to mean something other than their literal meaning.

first-person narrator

See point of view.

foil

A secondary character whose purpose is to highlight the characteristics of a main character, usually by contrast.

foot

The basic rhythmic unit of a line of poetry. A foot is formed by a combination of two or three syllables, either stressed or unstressed.

foreshadowing

An event or statement in a narrative that suggests a larger event that comes later.

free verse

Poetry written without a regular rhyme scheme or metrical pattern.

genre

A subcategory of literature.

gothic, gothic novel

Gothic is the sensibility derived from dark novels.

hubris

The excessive pride or ambition that leads to the main character's downfall.

hyperbole

Exaggeration or deliberate overstatement.

imagery

An author's use of figurative language, images, or sensory details that appeal to the reader's senses.

implicit

Something said or written that suggests and implies but never says it directly or clearly.

in medias res

Latin for "in the midst of things."

inversion

Switching the customary order of elements in a sentence or phrase.

irony

Three types of irony can be found in literature: situational irony, dramatic irony, and verbal irony.

juxtaposition

Placing two or more concepts, places, characters, or their actions together for the purpose of comparison or contrast.

lament

A poem of sadness or grief over the death of a loved one or other intense loss.

logos

An appeal to logic.

loose and periodic sentences

A loose sentence is complete before its end. A periodic sentence is not grammatically complete until it has reached its final phrase.

Loose sentence

Jack loved Barbara despite her irritating snorting laugh, her complaining, and her terrible taste in shoes.

Periodic sentence

Despite Barbara's irritation at Jack's peculiar habit of picking between his toes while watching MTV and his terrible haircut, she loved him.

lyric

A type of poetry that explores the poet's personal interpretation of and feelings about the world.

masculine rhyme

A rhyme ending on the final stressed syllable (aka, regular old rhyme).