AP English Language Glossary of Rhetorical Terms

Vocabulary flashcards defining rhetorical terms from Denotation to Imagery based on the AP English Language lecture material.

Denotation

The strict, literal, dictionary definition of a word, devoid of any emotion, attitude, or color.

Diacope

Repetition of a word or phrase after an intervening word or phrase: word/phrase X, . . ., word/phrase X.

Diction

Refers to the writer's word choices, especially with regard to their correctness, clearness, or effectiveness. Combined with syntax, figurative language, and literary devices, it creates an author's style.

Didactic

From the Greek literally meaning 'teaching,' works that have the primary aim of teaching or instructing, especially the teaching of moral or ethical principles.

Enumeratio

Figure of amplification in which a subject is divided into constituent parts or details, and may include a listing of causes, effects, problems, solutions, conditions, and consequences.

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.

Euphemism

From the Greek for 'good speech,' a more agreeable or less offensive substitute for a generally unpleasant word or concept.

Exposition

In essays, one of the four chief types of composition whose purpose is to explain something. In drama, the introductory material that creates the tone, gives the setting, and introduces the characters and conflict.

Extended metaphor

A metaphor developed at great length, occurring frequently in or throughout the work.

Figurative language

Writing or speech that is not intended to carry literal meaning and is usually meant to be imaginative and vivid.

Figure of speech

A device used to produce figurative language, many of which compare dissimilar things (e.g., apostrophe, hyperbole, irony, metaphor, metonymy, oxymoron, paradox, personification, simile, synecdoche, and understatement).

Generic conventions

This term describes traditions for each genre that help to define each genre, differentiating, for example, an essay and journalistic writing or an autobiography and political writing.

Genre

The major category into which a literary work fits. The basic divisions of literature are prose, poetry, and drama, each containing many subdivisions.

Homily

Literally means 'sermon,' but more informally can include any serious talk, speech, or lecture involving moral or spiritual advice.

Hyperbole

A figure of speech using deliberate exaggeration or overstatement, often producing a comic or serious effect, or creating irony.

Hypophora

Figure of reasoning in which one or more questions is/are asked and then answered, often at length, by one and the same speaker.

Imagery

The sensory details or figurative language used to describe, arouse emotion, or represent abstractions; relates on a physical level to the five senses (visual, auditory, tactile, gustatory, olfactory).