AP Lit Literary Devices — Term List

A set of 88 vocabulary flashcards covering literary devices and terms from the AP Lit study guide.

Allegory

A story in which characters, settings, and events symbolically represent broader ideas, morals, or historical events.

Alliteration

Repetition of the same initial consonant sound in nearby words.

Allusion

A brief, indirect reference to a person, event, or work outside the text.

Amplification

Repeating a word or phrase while adding more detail to emphasize it.

Anagram

A word or phrase formed by rearranging the letters of another word or phrase.

Analogy

A comparison showing how two different things are similar in some way.

Anastrophe

Inversion of the normal word order in a sentence for emphasis.

Anecdote

A short, personal story used to illustrate a point.

Anthropomorphism

Giving human traits, emotions, or behavior to animals or objects.

Antithesis

Placing two contrasting ideas together in parallel structure for effect.

Aphorism

A short, memorable statement expressing a general truth or observation.

Archetype

A universal character, symbol, or pattern that recurs across literature and culture.

Assonance

Repetition of vowel sounds within nearby words.

Asyndeton

Omission of conjunctions between words, phrases, or clauses in a series.

Authorial Intrusion

A moment when the narrator or author directly addresses the reader, breaking the story's flow.

Bibliomancy

Seeking guidance or meaning by opening a book at random and reading a passage.

Bildungsroman

A novel focused on the psychological and moral growth of its protagonist from youth to adulthood.

Cacophony

A harsh, jarring combination of sounds in language.

Caesura

A pause or break in the middle of a line of poetry.

Characterization

The methods an author uses to reveal a character's personality and traits.

Chiasmus

A rhetorical device in which words or ideas are reversed in a mirrored grammatical structure.

Circumlocution

Using many words to express an idea that could be stated more directly.

Conflict

A struggle between opposing forces that drives the plot.

Connotation

The implied or emotional meaning associated with a word, beyond its literal definition.

Consonance

Repetition of consonant sounds, often at the end of words.

Denotation

The literal, dictionary definition of a word.

Deus ex Machina

An unexpected, contrived resolution introduced suddenly to solve an otherwise unsolvable conflict.

Diction

An author's choice of words and phrasing.

Doppelganger

A double or look-alike of a character, often representing a hidden or opposite side of them.

Ekphrastic

Writing, especially poetry, that vividly describes another work of art.

Epilogue

A short concluding section added after the main story to offer closure or reflection.

Epithet

A descriptive phrase used to characterize a person or thing.

Euphemism

A mild or indirect word substituted for one considered harsh or blunt.

Euphony

A pleasing, harmonious combination of sounds in language.

Faulty Parallelism

An error in which similar ideas are expressed using inconsistent grammatical forms.

Flashback

A scene that interrupts the present action to depict events from the past.

Foil

A character whose traits contrast with another character to highlight qualities of the other.

Foreshadowing

Hints or clues suggesting events that will occur later in the narrative.

Hubris

Excessive pride or self-confidence that often leads to a character's downfall.

Hyperbaton

A deliberate rearrangement of normal word order for emphasis or effect.

Hyperbole

Exaggerated statements not meant to be taken literally, used for emphasis.

Idioms

Expressions whose meaning cannot be understood from the literal words alone.

Internal rhyme

Rhyme that occurs within a single line of poetry rather than at line ends.

Inversion

Reversing the typical order of sentence elements, often for emphasis.

Imagery

Descriptive language that appeals to the five senses.

Irony

A contrast between expectation and reality, or between what is said and what is meant.

Juxtaposition

Placing two contrasting elements side by side to highlight their differences.

Kennings

A compound expression used as a poetic substitute for a simple noun.

Litotes

An understatement that affirms something by negating its opposite.

Malapropism

The mistaken use of an incorrect word in place of a similar-sounding one, for comic effect.

Metaphor

A direct comparison between two unlike things without using 'like' or 'as.'

Metonymy

Referring to something by the name of something closely associated with it.

Mood

The emotional atmosphere a piece of writing creates for the reader.

Motif

A recurring element, image, or idea that supports a work's central theme.

Negative Capability

The capacity to accept uncertainty, mystery, and doubt without seeking rational resolution.

Nemesis

A character's persistent rival or the source of their downfall.

Onomatopoeia

A word that phonetically imitates the sound it describes.

Oxymoron

A figure of speech combining two contradictory terms.

Paradox

A statement that seems self-contradictory but reveals a deeper truth.

Pathetic fallacy

Attributing human emotions to nature or inanimate objects to reflect a character's mood.

Periodic structure

A sentence structure that withholds the main clause until the end for suspense.

Periphrasis

Using an indirect, roundabout way of naming or describing something.

Personification

Giving human qualities to non-human things or abstract ideas.

Plot

The sequence of events that make up a story.

Point of View

The perspective from which a story is narrated.

Polysyndeton

The deliberate use of multiple conjunctions in close succession.

Portmanteau

A word blending the sounds and meanings of two other words.

Prologue

An introductory section that precedes and sets up the main story.

Puns

A play on words exploiting multiple meanings or similar sounds for humorous effect.

Rhyme scheme

The organized pattern of rhymes at the ends of lines in a poem.

Rhythm and rhyme

The beat and sound patterns created by stressed syllables and matching word endings in verse.

Satire

The use of humor, irony, or exaggeration to criticize people, institutions, or society.

Setting

The time and place in which a story occurs.

Simile

A comparison between two unlike things using 'like' or 'as.'

Spoonerism

An error in which the initial sounds of two words are swapped, often comically.

Stanza

A grouped set of lines forming a unit within a poem.

Stream of consciousness

A narrative style that presents a character's continuous flow of thoughts and impressions.

Suspense

A feeling of tension or anticipation about what will happen next.

Symbol

An object, person, or image that represents an idea beyond its literal meaning.

Synecdoche

A figure of speech in which a part represents the whole, or the whole represents a part.

Synesthesia

Describing one sense in terms of another, such as a 'loud color.'

Syntax

The arrangement of words and phrases to form sentences.

Theme

The central message or underlying idea of a literary work.

Tone

The author's attitude toward the subject or audience, conveyed through style and word choice.

Tragedy

A narrative in which a protagonist suffers a downfall, often due to a fatal flaw.

Understatement

Presenting something as less significant than it actually is.

Verisimilitude

The quality of seeming true or real within a work of fiction.

Verse

A single line of poetry, or metrical, rhythmic writing in general.