AP Shortened Vocab Terms

Ad hominem fallacy

A fallacy of logic in which a person's character or motive is attacked instead of that person's argument.

Allegory

A story in which the people, places, and things represent general concepts or moral qualities.

Allusion

A brief reference to a person, place, event, or literature assumed to be sufficiently well known to be recognized by the reader.

Analogy

A comparison between two things in which the more complex is explained in terms of the more simple.

Anaphora

Repetition of the same word or group of words at the beginning of successive clauses, sentences, or lines.

Anecdote

A short entertaining account of some happening, frequently personal or biographical.

Appeal to authority/credibility (ethos)

Citation of information from people recognized for their special knowledge of a subject.

Argumentation

Exploration of a problem by investigating all sides of it; persuasion through reason.

Asyndeton

Conjunctions are omitted, producing a fast pace and rapid prose.

Begging the question

A fallacy of logical argumentation that assumes as true the very thing that one is trying to prove.

Cause and effect

Examination of the causes and/or effects of a situation or phenomenon.

Classification as a means of ordering

Arrangement of objects according to class.

Colloquial expression

Words and phrases used in everyday speech but avoided in formal writing.

Concession

Anticipating potential opposition and objections and having an answer for them.

Connotation

The set of associations implied by a word in addition to its literal meaning.

Deduction (deductive reasoning)

A form of reasoning that begins with a generalization, then applies it to a specific case.

Denotation

The literal meaning of a word, the dictionary meaning.

Diction

A writer's choice of words, phrases, sentence structures, and figurative language.

Didactic

Tone word; instructional, designed to teach an ethical, moral, or religious lesson.

Digression

A temporary departure from the main subject in speaking or writing.

Elegiac

Tone word; relating to or involving elegy or expressing sorrow.

Epigraph

A quotation set at the beginning of a literary work to suggest its theme.

Euphemism

The use of a word or phrase that is less direct but also less distasteful.

Expository writing

Writing that explains or analyzes.

False dilemma

A fallacy which occurs when too few alternatives are considered.

Figurative language / figures of speech

Language used to create a special effect or feeling.

Hyperbole

An extravagant exaggeration of fact, used for serious or comic effect.

Inductive reasoning

Reasoning which works from a body of fact to the formulation of a generalization.

Invective

Of, relating to, or characterized by insult or abuse.

Inverted syntax

Reversing the normal word order of a sentence.

Irony

A method of humorous or sarcastic expression where the intended meaning is the opposite.

Juxtaposition

Placing two or more things side by side for comparison or contrast.

Litotes

A figure in which an affirmative is expressed by a negation of the contrary.

Metaphor

A figure of speech in which one thing is compared to another.

Metonymy

A figure of speech using the name of one thing as an attribute of another.

Mood

The feeling a piece of literature arouses in the reader.

Motif

A recurring thematic element or dominant idea.

Non sequitur

A statement that does not logically follow from what preceded it.

Oxymoron

A figure of speech in which contradictory terms are combined.

Parable

A short story from which a lesson may be drawn.

Parallelism

Using identical parts of speech or syntactic structure in a series.

Paradox

A statement which seems self-contradictory but may be true.

Parody

A composition that imitates the style of a serious work for humor or satire.

Personification

A figure of speech in which an inanimate object is endowed with human attributes.

Periodic sentence structure

A sentence whose full meaning cannot be understood until the end.

Point of view

The relationship assumed between the teller of a story and the characters.

Polysyndeton

The use of many conjunctions to emphasize numerous words or clauses.

Post hoc fallacy

Fallacy that assumes an incident that precedes another is its cause.

Pun

A humorous play on words.

Rhetoric

The art of using words effectively to influence or persuade.

Rhetorical question

A question asked for rhetorical effect with no answer expected.

Sarcasm

A type of irony where a person appears to praise something but actually insults it.

Satire

A literary work that ridicules vices, abuses, and absurdities.

Simile

A figure of speech involving a comparison using like or as.

Stream of consciousness

Technique that records a character's thoughts and feelings without regard to sequence.

Syllogism

A form of reasoning where a conclusion is drawn from two premises.

Symbol

Something that stands for another thing.

Synecdoche

Rhetorical substitution of a part for the whole.

Syntax

The arrangement of words as elements in a sentence.

Tone

Author's attitude toward the subject matter.

Understatement

Deliberately representing something as much less than it really is.

Vernacular

The characteristic language of a particular group.

Wit

A message whose ingenuity or verbal skill has the power to evoke laughter.