AP Literature Vocab Terms

allegory

A story in which people, things, and events have another meaning.

ex) Tortoise and the Hare

alliteration

A sound device with the repetition of identical or similar consonant sounds at the beginning of words.

ex) Sally sells seashells by the seashore.

allusion

A reference in a work of literature to something outside the work, especially to a well-known historical or literary event, person, or work.

ex) Penelope → Othello

ambiguity

Multiple meanings a literary work may communicate, especially two meanings that are incompatible.

ex) The door in front of him had closed shut.

antecedent

That which goes before, especially the word, phrase, or clause to which a pronoun refers. In the sentence "The witches cast their spells," the antecedent of the pronoun "their" is the noun "witches."

ex) He kicked his ball.

apostrophe

Direct address, usually to someone or something that is not present.

ex) His Skeleton

assonance

The repetition of identical or similar vowel sounds.

ex) He was homebound, but there was not a sound in the town.

attitude

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

ex) Holden Caulfield and “phonies”

ballad meter

A four-line stanza rhymed abcb with four feet in lines 1 and 3 and three feet in lines 2 and 4.

blank verse

Unrhymed iambic ( U / ) pentameter (five feet, 10 syllables).

ex) They fell toward a blazing ball of air / but thanks to him, their bodies saved themselves.

clause

A group of words containing a subject and its verb that may or may not be a complete sentence.

ex) The dog sprinted.

connotation

The implications of a word or phrase, as opposed to its exact meaning.

ex) He sprinted away. VS He fled.

consonance

Repetition of internal consonant sounds.

ex) Chitter chatter

convention

A device of style or subject matter so often used that it becomes a recognized means of expression.

ex) Othello (tragedy, can never escape his fate)

cumulative sentence

A sentence in which the main clause appears near the beginning rather than partially or wholly at the end; the opposite of a periodic sentence. Also knowns as a "loose sentence."

ex) She realized that the forest was enormous, canopies blocking the sunlight, moist soil giving way underfoot, leaves fluttering about.

dactyl

A metrical foot of three syllables of / U U

ex) raspberry

denotation

The dictionary meaning of a word, as opposed to connotation.

ex) His house was in shambles.

details (also choice of details)

Details are items or parts that make up a larger picture or story.

ex) The meadow was sunny and full of flowers.

devices of sound

The techniques of deploying the sound of words, especially in poetry. Includes rhyme, alliteration, assonance, consonance, and onomatopoeia.

ex) The alarm went off with a “briiing.”

diction

Word choice.

ex) The curtains were blue.

didactic

Explicitly instructive and can be good or bad.

ex) The Ant and the Grasshopper

digression

The use of material unrelated to the subject of a work.

ex) The meeting went on and on because our boss kept talking about something else.

ellipsis

The omission of a word or several words necessary for a complete construction that is still understandable.

ex) When sunny, take sunscreen.

end-stopped

(Only in poetry) A line with a pause at the end. Can be stopped with a period, comma, colon, semicolon, exclamation point, or a question mark.

epigram

A concise saying, often using contrast. It’s also a verse form, usually brief and pointed.

ex) No pain, no gain.

euhpemism

A figure of speech using indirection to avoid offensive bluntness.

ex) Put down vs. euthanized

figurative language

Uses words to mean something other than their literal meaning.

ex) She was like the sun.

free verse

Poetry not written in a traditional meter but is still rhythmical.

grotesque

Characterized by distortions or incongruities.

ex) Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

heroic couplet

Two end-stopped iambic pentameter lines rhymed aabbcc with the thought usually completed in the two-line unit.

hexameter

A line containing six feet.

hyperbole

A deliberate, self-conscious exaggeration without the intention to be accepted literally.

iamb

A two-syllable foot → U /

imagery

The sensory details and figurative language of a work.

ex) The forest was dim with overhanging canopies and smelled of damp soil.

imperative

The mood of a verb that gives an order.

ex) Go to sleep!

internal rhyme

Rhyme that occurs within a line, rather than at the end.

ex) The birds sing beyond the sky. The cicadas scream in July / until summer comes to an end.

irony

A figure of speech in which intent and actual meaning differ, characteristically praise for blame or blame for praise; a pattern of words that turns away from direct statement of its own obvious meaning.

ex) (Dramatic irony) Othello being gaslit into thinking that his wife is cheating then killing her.

jargon

The special language of a profession or group. It has the implication that jargon is evasive, tedious, and unintelligible to outsiders.

ex) Prescription → script

literal

Not figurative; accurate to the letter, matter of fact or concrete.

ex) The tree was cut.

litotes

A form of understatement in which a thing is affirmed by stating the negative of its opposite.

ex) He’s not wrong.

lyrical

Songlike; characterized by emotion, subjectivity, and imagination.

ex) Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18; Midsummer’s Day

metaphor

A figurative use of language in which a comparison is expressed without the use of a comparative term like “as/like/than”

ex) The ocean’s blue void.

metonymy

A figure of speech characterized by the substitution of a term naming an object closely associated with the word in mind for the word itself.

ex) Silicon Valley → America’s technological industry

modify

To restrict or limit in meaning.

ex) The tall kid.

narrative techniques

The methods involved in telling a story; the procedures used by a writer of stories or accounts. Includes POV, manipulation of time, dialogue, or interior monologue.

ex) Catcher in the Rye, internal dialogue

omniscient point of view

The vantage point of a story in which the narrator can know, see, and report whatever he or she chooses.

ex) The Hunger Games, 1st POV

onomatopoeia

The use of words whose sound suggests their meaning.

ex) The alarm went off with a “briiing.”

oxymoron

A combination of opposites; the union of contradictory terms.

ex) old news

parable

A story designed to suggest a principle, illustrate a moral, or answer a question.

ex) The Boy Who Cried Wolf

paradox

A statement that seems to be self-contradicting but, in fact, is true.

ex) Lose yourself to find yourself.

parallel structure

A similar grammatical structure within a sentence or within a paragraph.

ex) When the birds sing and when the cicadas scream, then it is July.

parody

A composition that imitates the style of another composition normally for comic effect.

ex) Bart Baker

pathetic fallacy

When nature responds or reacts to something a character does or feels.

ex) Macbeth kills Duncan → horses eat each other

pentameter

A line containing five feet (10 syllables).

ex) In books, it’s full of heroes, queens, and knights.

periodic sentence

A sentence grammatically complete only at the end.

ex) Running through the woods, stumbling over the roots, she fled for her life.

personification

A figurative use of language which endows the nonhuman with human characteristics.

ex) The leaves waltzed through the air.

point of view

Any of several possible vantage points from which a story is told. The point of view may be omniscient, limited to that of a single character, or limited to that of several characters.

ex) Percy Jackson

reliability

A quality of some fictional narrators whose word the reader can trust.

ex) The Cask of Amontillado

resources of a language

A general phrase for the linguistic devices or techniques that a writer can use. Examples include diction, syntax, figurative language, and imagery.

ex) The forests were green and swayed with the warmth of a summer breeze.

rhetorical question

A question asked for effect, not in expectation of a reply. No reply is expected because the question presupposes only one possible answer.

ex) Do you think pigs fly?

rhetorical techniques

The devices used in effective or persuasive language. The more common examples include devices like contrast, repetitions, paradox, understatement, sarcasm, and rhetorical question.

ex) Do you think pigs fly?

satire

Writing that seeks to arouse a reader’s disapproval of an object by ridicule. Satire is usually comedy that exposes errors with an eye to correct vice and folly.

ex) Wall-E

setting

The background to a story; the physical location of a play, story, or novel. The setting of a narrative will normally involve both time and place.

ex) The setting in Wall-E is in the future on a dilapidated Earth.

simile

A directly expressed comparison; a figure of speech comparing two objects, usually with “like/as/than.”

ex) She was like the sun.

soliloquy

A speech in which a character who is alone speaks his or her thoughts aloud. Only the audience hears this, whether the other characters are absent or deaf to this speech.

sonnet

Normally a 14-line iambic pentameter poem. It’s usually rhymed abba, abba, cde, cde (Italian), or abab, cdcd, efef, gg (Shakespearean).

stanza

Usually a repeated grouping of three or more lines with the same meter and rhyme scheme.

stereotype

A conventional pattern, expression, character, or idea. In literature, a stereotype could apply to the unvarying plot and characters of some works of fiction or to the stock characters and the plots of many of the greatest stage comedies.

strategy (or rhetorical strategies)

The management of language for a specific effect. The planned placing of elements to achieve an effect. They can have a joyful tone within the first half then a cruel one the next for a contrasting effect.

ex) “The Villain”

structure

The arrangement of materials within a work; the relationship of the parts of a work to the whole; the logical divisions of a work. The most common units of structure are--play: scene, act; novel: chapter; poem: line, stanza.

ex) “The Villain”

style

The mode of expression in language; the characteristic manner of expression of an author.

syllogism

A form of reasoning in which two statements are made and a conclusion is made from them. A syllogism begins with a major premise followed by a minor premise, and a conclusion.

ex)

symbol

Something that is simultaneously itself and a sign of something else.

ex) The curtains were blue.

synaesthesia

The concurrent response of two or more of the senses to the stimulation of one. The term is applied in literature to the description of one kind of sensation in terms of another.

ex)