AP Lit Unit 3 Vocab

Allude (v)

suggest or call attention to indirectly; hint at.

Carping (adj)

tending to find fault, especially in a petty, nasty, or hairsplitting way; difficult to please; critical.

Delineate (v)

to describe, portray, or set forth with accuracy or in detail; to indicate the exact position of (a border or boundary).

Elicit (v)

to call forth or draw out (something, such as information or a response)

Incendiary (adj)

deliberately setting or causing fires; designed to start fires; tending to stir up strife or rebellion. (n) one who deliberately sets fires; arsonist; one who causes strife

Inept (adj)

having or showing no skill; clumsy

Maelstrom (n)

a whirlpool of great size and violence; a situation or state of confused movement or violent turmoil.

Myopic (adj)

nearsighted; lacking a broad, realistic view of a situation; lacking foresight or discernment

Pejorative (adj)

expressing contempt, disapproval, or disparagement; derogatory and belittling

Vacillate (v)

to waver in mind, will, or feeling: hesitate in choice of opinions or courses

Antihero (n)

central character who lacks all the qualities traditionally associated with heroes, lacking courage, grace, intelligence, or moral scruples

Assonance (n)

the repetition of similar vowel sounds followed by different consonant sounds, especially in words that are together

Connotation (n)

the associations and emotional overtones that have become attached to a word or phrase, in addition to its strict dictionary definition

Epigraph (n)

a quotation or aphorism at the beginning of a literary work, suggestive of the theme

Enjambment (n)

any line of poetry that does not end in a punctuation mark