AP Lang Terms

Allegory

A narration or description in which events, actions, characters, settings or objects represent specific abstractions or ideas (has a “surface story” that represents the “hidden story”)

EX: Animal Farm is an allegory for the Russian Revolution

Alliteration

The repetition of initial consonant sounds (not letters) in 2+ neighboring words

EX: “Kids’ cloaks”

Allusion

A direct or indirect reference to something that is presumably commonly known, such as an event, book, myth, place, or work of art

EX: Opening Pandora’s box (alluding to Pandora’s myth of letting trouble into the world)
- Biblical allusions

Ambiguity

The multiple meanings, either intentional or unintentional, of a word, phrase, sentence, or passage

Anadiplosis

Repetition where a word or phrase at the end of one clause or sentence is repeated at the beginning of the following clause or sentence

EX: “Our doubt is our passion, and our passion is our task."

Analogy

A comparison that aims to explain a thing or idea by likening it to something else

Anaphora

Repetition where words repeat at the beginning of successive clauses, phrases, or sentences

EX: “It rained on his lousy tombstone, and it rained on the grass on his stomach. It rained all over the place.”

Anecdote

A very short story that’s significant to the topic at hand (usually adding personal knowledge or experience to the topic)

Antecedent

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

EX: “Sally walked her dog” → “her” refers to Sally, making Sally the antecedent

Antithesis

A figure of speech that juxtaposes 2 contrasting ideas, usually within parallel grammatical structures

EX: "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.”

Aphorism

A saying that concisely expresses a moral principle or an observation about the world, presenting it as a general or universal truth

EX: “You can't always get what you want"

Apostrophe

A figure of speech in which a speaker directly addresses someone/something that is not present or cannot respond in reality (dead person, inanimate object, etc)

EX: "O Romeo, Romeo, Wherefore art thou Romeo?"

Asyndeton

A figure of speech in which coordinating conjunctions ("and", "or", "but", etc) that join words or clauses into relationships of equal importance are omitted

EX: “We went to the park, played in the jungle gym, ran around, had a picnic… That was about it!” → “and” is omitted before the last thing in the list

Atmosphere

The overall mood of a story; Mainly emerges from description and setting

Chiasmus

A figure of speech in which the grammar of one phrase is inverted in the following phrase so that 2 key concepts from the 1st phrase reappear in the 2nd phrase in inverted order

EX: “My heart burned with anguish, and chilled was my body when I heard of his death”

Clause

A grammatical unit that contains a subject and a verb

- Independent clauses express a complete thought and can be a sentence
- Dependent clauses aren’t complete sentences so they must be accompanied by an independent clause

Conduplicatio

Repetition of one or more words in successive clauses (random places)

EX: "So I ask you tonight to return home, to say a prayer for the family of Martin Luther King -- yeah, it's true -- but more importantly to say a prayer for our own country, which all of us love -- a prayer for understanding and that compassion of which I spoke."

Colloquialism

The use of informal words or phrases in writing or speech (Can include aphorisms, idioms, profanity, & other words used in certain dialects/geographical regions)

Coherence

Is achieved when sentences and ideas are connected and flow together smoothly

Conceit

A fanciful metaphor (esp a highly elaborate / extended metaphor) in which an unlikely, far-fetched, or strained comparison is made between two things

Connotation

The array of emotions and ideas suggested by a word, in addition to its dictionary definition

Denotation

The literal meaning, or "dictionary definition," of a word

Diction

A writer's unique style of expression, especially their choice and arrangement of words

Didactic

Words or works that are designed or intended to teach people something (usually moral or ethical principles)

Enumeratio

A rhetorical device used for listing details & is a type of amplification or division in which a subject is further distributed into components

EX: “We say that if America has entered the war to make the world safe for democracy, she must first make democracy safe in America. How else is the world to take America seriously, when democracy at home is daily being outraged, free speech suppressed, peaceable assemblies broken up by overbearing and brutal gangsters in uniform; when free press is curtailed and every independent opinion gagged.”

Expletive

Figure of emphasis in which a single word or short phrase, usually interrupting normal speech, is used to lend emphasis to the words on either side of the expletive

EX: "I would like, if I may, to take you on a strange journey."

Euphemism

Polite, mild phrases which substitute unpleasant ways of saying something sad or uncomfortable

EX: “We have to let you go, Tyler.” → “Let you go” = fired from job

Exposition

The description or explanation of background information within a work of literature. Covers characters and their relationship to one another, the setting, historical context, etc.

Extended metaphor

A metaphor that unfolds across multiple lines or even paragraphs of a text, making use of multiple interrelated metaphors within an overarching one

EX: “Life is a highway” becomes an extended metaphor when you say: "Life is a highway that takes us through green pastures, vast deserts, and rocky mountains. Sometimes your car breaks down or you run out of gas, and sometimes you get lost. Friends are the roadmaps that help you get where you're going." (more complex, friends = roadmaps, etc)

Figurative language

Language that uses words in ways that deviate from their literal interpretation to achieve a more complex or powerful effect

Figure of speech

A literary device in which language is used in an unusual or "figured" way in order to produce a stylistic effect. Can either play w/ meaning of words or arrangement of words

Generic conventions

Traditions or conventions for each genre (essay, political writing, journalistic writing, etc) that help to define each genre

Genre

A category of literature identified by form, content, and style

EX: Poetry - Has some form of meter or rhyme w/ focus on syllable counts, musicality, and division of lines
Prose - Any literary text that is not arranged like poetry (fiction, journals, etc)
Drama - Text which has been written with the intention of being performed for an audience

Homily

A sermon or speech that a religious person or priest delivers before a group of people to offer them moral or spiritual advice

Hyperbole

A figure of speech in which a writer or speaker exaggerates for the sake of emphasis

Hypophora

A figure of speech in which a writer raises a question and then immediately provides an answer to that question

EX: “What should young people do with their lives today? Many things, obviously.”

Imagery

Descriptive language that engages the human senses

Inference

To draw a reasonable conclusion from the information presented

Invective

Literary device in which one attacks or insults a person or thing through the use of abusive language and tone

Irony

A literary device or event in which how things seem to be is very different from how they actually are
- Verbal irony - The literal meaning of what someone says is different from (usually opposite to) what they actually mean
- Dramatic irony - A plot device that highlights the difference between a character's understanding of a given situation and that of the audience
- Situational irony - An unexpected, paradoxical, or perverse turn of events

Juxtaposition

Occurs when an author places 2 things side by side as a way of highlighting their differences

Litotes

A figure of speech + a form of understatement in which a sentiment is expressed ironically by negating its contrary

EX: "It's not the best weather today" during a hurricane

Loose sentence (non-periodic sentence)

Type of sentence in which the main idea (independent clause) comes first, followed by
dependent grammatical units such as phrases and clauses

Metaphor

A figure of speech that compares 2 different things by saying that one thing is the other

Metonymy

A type of figurative language in which an object or concept is referred to not by its own name, but instead by the name of something closely associated with it

EX: “Hollywood has been releasing a surprising amount of sci-fi movies lately.” → Hollywood = movie industry

Mood

The array of feelings a work evokes in the reader

Narrative

An account of connected events

Onomatopoeia

A figure of speech in which words evoke the actual sound of the thing they refer to or describe

Oxymoron

A figure of speech in which 2 contradictory terms or ideas are intentionally paired in order to make a point (usually to reveal a deeper or hidden truth)

EX: “Cruel kindness”

Paradox

A figure of speech that seems to contradict itself, but which, upon further examination, contains some kernel of truth or reason

Parallelism

A figure of speech in which 2+ elements of a sentence (or series of sentences) have the same grammatical structure

EX: I like jogging and walking

Parody

A work that mimics the style of another work, artist, or genre in an exaggerated way, usually for comic effect

Pedantic

An adjective that describes words, phrases, or general tone that is overly scholarly, academic, or bookish (language that might be described as “show-offy”)

Periodic sentence

A sentence that presents its central meaning in a main clause at the end

Personification

A type of figurative language in which non-human things are described as having human attributes

Polysyndeton

a figure of speech in which coordinating conjunctions ("and," "or," "but," etc) that join words or clauses into relationships of equal importance are used several times in close succession (esp where conjunctions would normally not be present at all)

EX: "We ate roast beef and squash and biscuits and potatoes and corn and cheese."

Point of view

Refers to the perspective that the narrator holds in relation to the events of the story

- 1st person - “I went to the store”
- 2nd person - “You went to the store”
- 3rd person - “She went to the store”

Predicate adjective

Adjectives that modify or describe the subject of a sentence or clause and are linked to the subject by a linking verb

EX: “The joke was funny” → “Funny” describes the subject (joke) & is linked by “was”

Predicate nominative

A noun, pronoun, or another nominal that follows a linking verb, which is usually a form of the verb "be,” and renames the subject

Prose

Anything that is not arranged like poetry / with line breaks (essays, nonfiction books, novels, short stories, etc)

Repetition

A literary device in which a word or phrase is repeated 2+ times

Rhetoric

Used in speech and writing to make a specific impact on the audience/reader, usually to persuade

Rhetorical question

A figure of speech in which a question is asked for a reason other than to get an answer (author does NOT answer the question)

Sarcasm

A form of verbal irony that mocks, ridicules, or expresses contempt

Satire

The use of humor, irony, sarcasm, or ridicule to criticize something or someone

Semantics

The interpretation of language, including words, sentences, phrasing, and symbols

Style

The way in which an author writes/tells a story (tone, diction, sentence structure, etc)

Subject complement

A word or phrase (usually an adjective phrase, noun phrase, or pronoun) that follows a linking verb and describes or renames the subject of the sentence

EX: Can be identified as a predicate nominative (“Mrs. Rigney was my fourth-grade teacher”) or predicate adjective (“The light in the chapel was soft”)

Subordinate clause (aka dependent clause)

A clause that cannot stand alone as a complete sentence; it merely complements a sentence’s main clause

Syllogism

A 3-part logical argument (based on deductive reasoning) in which 2 premises are combined to arrive at a conclusion
"All mammals are animals. All elephants are mammals. Therefore, all elephants are animals."
The more general premise = the major premise ("All mammals are animals")
The more specific premise = the minor premise (“All elephants are mammals.”)

Symbolism

A literary device in which a writer uses one thing—usually a physical object or phenomenon—to represent something more abstract

Synecdoche

A figure of speech in which a part of something is used to refer to its whole or vice versa

EX: Part-to-whole: "The captain commands one hundred sails" → Uses "sails" to refer to ships
Whole-to-part: Using “mortals” to mean humans cuz plants and stuff are mortals

**Different than metonymy in that metonymy is when an object or concept is referred to as something that is closely associated (not necessarily part of it)**

Syntax

The way an author chooses to arrange words into phrases, clauses, and sentences

Theme

A universal idea, lesson, or message explored throughout a work of literature

Thesis

The sentence or group of sentences that directly expresses the author’s opinion, purpose, meaning, or position

Tone

The author’s general character or attitude toward a piece of writing

Transition

A word or phrase that links different ideas

Understatement

A figure of speech in which something is expressed less strongly than would be expected, or in which something is presented as being smaller or lesser than it really is

Undertone

An attitude that lies under the surface tone of a literary work; is an implied meaning that usually points to the underlying theme and is expressed by images and symbols

Wit

A biting or insightful kind of humor that includes sharp comebacks, clever banter, etc