AP Lit Vocabulary

Allegory

story or poem in which characters, settings, and events stand for other people or events or for abstract ideas or qualities

Slant rhyme

slant rhyme referred to a type of rhyme in which two words located at the end of a line of poetry themselves end in similar—but not identical—consonant sounds

Alliteration

repetition of the same or similar consonant sounds in words that are close together

Allusion

reference to someone or something that is known from history, literature, religion, politics, sports, science, or another branch of culture. An indirect reference to something (usually from literature, etc.).

Ambiguity

deliberately suggesting two or more different, and sometimes conflicting, meanings in a work. An event or situation that may be interpreted in more than one way- - this is done on purpose by the author, when it is not done on purpose, it is vagueness, and detracts from the work.

Analogy

Comparison made between two things to show how they are alike (logical comparison)

• You are the wind beneath my wings.

• He is a diamond in the rough.

• Life is a roller coaster with lots of ups and downs.

• America is the great melting pot.

• My mother is the warden at my house.

Anaphora

Repetition of a word, phrase, or clause at the beginning of two or more sentences in a row. This is a deliberate form of repetition and helps make the writer’s point more coherent

• Ex. “You is kind, you is smart, and you is important

Anastrophe

Inversion of the usual, normal, or logical order of the parts of a sentence. Purpose is rhythm or emphasis or euphony. It is a fancy word for inversion

• Usual SVO (subject-verb-object) inversion to OSV (object-subject-verb

• Ex. Powerful you have become; the dark side I sense in you.

Anecdote

Brief story, told to illustrate a point or serve as an example of something, often shows character of an individual

Antagonist

Opponent who struggles against or blocks the hero, or protagonist, in a story.

Antimetabole

Repetition of words in successive clauses in reverse grammatical order. Moliere: “One should eat to live, not live to eat.” In poetry, this is called chiasmus.

Antithesis

Balancing words, phrases, or ideas that are strongly contrasted, often by means of grammatical structure.

• Speech is silver, but silence is gold. Keep your friends close; keep your enemies closer. Money is the root of all evil: poverty is the fruit of all goodness.

Antihero

Central character who lacks all the qualities traditionally associated with heroes. may lack courage, grace, intelligence, or moral scruples.

Anthropomorphism

attributing human characteristics to an animal or inanimate object (Personification)

Aphorism

brief, cleverly worded statement that makes a wise observation about life, or of a principle or accepted general truth. Also called maxim, epigram

• ex. “if it ain't broke, don't fix it.”

Apostrophe

calling out to an imaginary, dead, or absent person, or to a place or thing, or a personified abstract idea. If the character is asking a god or goddess for inspiration it is called an invocation

Assonance

the repetition of similar vowel sounds followed by different consonant sounds especially in words that are together

Consonance

a literary device that occurs when two words have the same consonant sound following different vowel sounds

oxymoron

a figure of speech that combines contradictory words with opposing meanings, like “old news,” “deafening silence,” or “organized chaos.”

enjambment

(in verse) the continuation of a sentence without a pause beyond the end of a line, couplet, or stanza.

Indirect characterization

the author reveals to the reader what the character is like by describing how the character looks and dresses, by letting the reader hear what the character says, by revealing the character’s private thoughts and feelings, by revealing the characters effect on other people (showing how other characters feel or behave toward the character), or by showing the character in action. Common in modern literature

Direct characterization

the author tells us directly what the character is like: sneaky, generous, mean to pets and so on. Romantic style literature relied more heavily on this form.

Static character

is one who does not change much in the course of a story

Dynamic character

is one who changes in some important way as a result of the story’s action

Flat character

has only one or two personality traits. They are one dimensional, like a piece of cardboard. They can be summed up in one phrase

Round character

has more dimensions to their personalities---they are complex, just a real people are.

Chiasmus

In poetry, a type of rhetorical balance in which the second part is syntactically balanced against the first, but with the parts reversed. Coleridge: “Flowers are lovely, love is flowerlike.” In prose this is called antimetabole.

Cliche

is a word or phrase, often a figure of speech, that has become lifeless because of overuse. Avoid clichés like the plague. (That cliché is intended.)

Colloquialism

a word or phrase in everyday use in conversation and informal writing but is inappropriate for formal situations. Example: “He’s out of his head if he thinks I’m gonna go for such a stupid idea.

Comedy

in general, a story that ends with a happy resolution of the conflicts faced by the main character or characters.

Conceit

an elaborate metaphor that compares two things that are startlingly different. Often an extended metaphor.

Confessional poetry

a twentieth century term used to describe poetry that uses intimate material from the poet’s life.

External conflict

conflicts can exist between two people, between a person and nature or a machine or between a person a whole society.

Internal conflict

a conflict can be internal, involving opposing forces within a person’s mind

Connotation

the associations and emotional overtones that have become attached to a word or phrase, in addition to its strict dictionary definition.

Couplet

two consecutive rhyming lines of poetry

Dialect

a way of speaking that is characteristic of a certain social group or of the inhabitants of a certain geographical area

Diction

a speaker or writer’s choice of words

Elegy

a poem of mourning, usually about someone who has died. A Eulogy is great praise or commendation, a laudatory speech, often about someone who has died.

Epanalepsis

device of repetition in which the same expression (single word or phrase) is repeated both at the beginning and at the end of the line, clause, or sentence. Voltaire: “Common sense is not so common.”

Epic

a long narrative poem, written in heightened language , which recounts the deeds of a heroic character who embodies the values of a particular society

Epigraph

a quotation or aphorism at the beginning of a literary work suggestive of the theme.

Epistrophe

Device of repetition in which the same expression (single word or phrase) is repeated at the end of two or more lines, clauses, or sentences (it is the opposite of anaphora)

Epithet

an adjective or adjective phrase applied to a person or thing that is frequently used to emphasize a characteristic quality. “Father of our country” and “the great Emancipator” are examples. A Homeric epithet is a compound adjective used with a person or thing: “swift-footed Achilles”; “rosy-fingered dawn.”

Essay types:

• ARGUMENTATION one of the four forms of discourse which uses logic, ethics, and emotional appeals (logos, ethos, pathos) to develop an effective means to convince the reader to think or act in a certain way.

• PERSUASION relies more on emotional appeals than on facts

• ARGUMENT form of persuasion that appeals to reason instead of emotion to convince an audience to think or act in a certain way.

• NARRATIVE the form of discourse that tells about a series of events

Explication

act of interpreting or discovering the meaning of a text, usually involves close reading and special attention to figurative language.

Figurative language

Words which are inaccurate if interpreted literally, but are used to describe. Similes and metaphors are common forms.

Foil

A character who acts as contrast to another character. Often a funny side kick to the dashing hero, or a villain contrasting the hero.

Foreshadowing

the use of hints and clues to suggest what will happen later in a plot

Free verse

poetry that does not conform to a regular meter or rhyme scheme

Hyperbole

a figure of speech that uses an incredible exaggeration or overstatement, for effect. “If I told you once, I’ve told you a million times….”

Imagery

the use of language to evoke a picture or a concrete sensation of a person , a thing, a place, or an experience

• 5 senses

Inversion

the reversal of the normal word order in a sentence or phrase

Verbal irony

occurs when someone says one thing but really means something else.

Situational irony

takes place when there is a discrepancy between what is expected to happen, or what would be appropriate to happen, and what really does happen.

Dramatic irony

is so called because it is often used on stage. A character in the play or story thinks one thing is true, but the audience or reader knows better

Juxtaposition

poetic and rhetorical device in which normally unassociated ideas, words, or phrases are placed next to one another, creating an effect of surprise and wit

• is also a form of contrast by which writers call attention to dissimilar ideas or images or metaphors. Martin Luther King: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

Metaphor

a figure of speech that makes a comparison between two unlike things without the use of such specific words of comparison as like, as, than, or resembles

Metonymy

a figure of speech in which a person, place, or thing, is referred to by something closely associated with it. “We requested from the crown support for our petition.” The crown is used to represent the monarch.

Mood

An atmosphere created by a writer’s diction and the details selected

Motif

a recurring image, word, phrase, action, idea, object, or situation used throughout a work (or in several works by one author), unifying the work by tying the current situation to previous ones, or new ideas to the theme.

Onomatopoeia

the use of words whose sounds echo their sense. “Pop.” “Zap.”

Oxymoron

a figure of speech that combines opposite or contradictory terms in a brief phrase. “Jumbo shrimp.” “Pretty ugly.” “Bitter-sweet

Parable

a relatively short story that teaches a moral, or lesson about how to lead a good life.

Paradox

a statement that appears self-contradictory, but that reveals a kind of truth

• If I know one thing, it's that I know nothing

Parallel structure (parallelism)

the repetition of words or phrases that have similar grammatical structures

• Ex. Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime

Personification

a figure of speech in which an object or animal is given human feelings, thoughts, or attitudes

Plot

the series of related events in a story or play, sometimes called the storyline

1st person POV

one of the characters tells the story

3rd person POV

an unknown narrator, tells the story, but this narrator zooms in to focus on the thoughts and feelings of only one character.

• Omniscient: an omniscient or all knowing narrator tells the story, also using the third person pronouns. This narrator, instead of focusing on one character only, often tells us everything about many characters (insider, knows characters thoughts)

• Objective: a narrator who is totally impersonal and objective tells the story, with no comment on any characters or events (outsider)

Protagonist

the central character in a story, the one who initiates or drives the action. Usually the hero or anti-hero; in a tragic hero, like John Proctor of The Crucible, there is always a hamartia, or tragic flaw in his character which will lead to his downfall.

Refrain

a word, phrase, line, or group of lines that is repeated, for effect, several times in a poem

Rhythm

a rise and fall of the voice produced by the alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables in language

Rhetorical question

a question asked for an effect, and not actually requiring an answer.

Romance

in general, a story in which an idealized hero or heroine undertakes a quest and is successful

Satire

a type of writing that ridicules the shortcomings of people or institutions in an attempt to bring about a change.

Simile

a figure of speech that makes an explicitly comparison between two unlike things, using words such as like, as , than, or resembles.

Soliloquy

a long speech made by a character in a play while no other characters are on stage

Stereotype

a fixed idea or conception of a character or an idea which does not allow for any individuality, often based on religious, social, or racial prejudices.

Stream of conciousness

a style of writing that portrays the inner (often chaotic) workings of a character’s mind

Style

the distinctive way in which a writer uses language: a writer’s distinctive use of diction, tone, and syntax

Symbol

a person, place, thing, or event that has meaning in itself and that also stands for something more than itself

Synecdoche

a figure of speech in which a part represents the whole. “If you don’t drive properly, you will lose your wheels.” The wheels represent the entire car.

Theme

the insight about human life that is revealed in a literary work

Tone

The attitude a writer takes toward the subject of a work, the characters in it, or the audience, revealed through diction, figurative language, and organization.

• Tone = author’s attitude

• Mood = feeling the reader gets from the writing

Tragedy

in general, a story in which a heroic character either dies or comes to some other unhappy end.