AP Literary Terms

AP literary terms for AP summer assignment.

Act

A part in a play that divides the writing similar to chapters in a book

Allegory

A story intended to teach a basic truth or moral about life

Alliteration

The repetition of usually initial consonant sounds in two or more neighboring syllables

Allusion

An implied or indirect reference

Analogy

A comparison of two otherwise unlike things based on resemblance of a particular aspect

Antagonist

The main source of conflict in a story, or the opposing character to the protagonist

Apostrophe

A mark used to indicate the omission of letters or numerals, or used in cases of defining possession

Argumentation

The act or process of forming reasons and of drawing conclusions and applying them to a case in discussion

Aside

A comment or discussion that does not relate directly to the main subject being discussed

Assonance

A relatively close comparison of similar sounds especially vowels

Blank verse

An unrhymed verse

Cadence

The beat, time, or measure of rhythmical motion or activity

Caesura

A usually rhetorical break in the flow of sound in the middle of a line of verse

Catastrophe

A momentous tragic even ranging from extreme misfortune to utter overthrow or ruin

Characterization

The artistic representation of human character or motives

Climax

The main or highest part in a story

Conceit

Excessive appreciation of one’s own worth or virtue

Conflict

A difference that prevents agreement

Connotation

Something suggested by a word or thing; an implication

Consonance

Harmony or agreement among components

Cosmic Irony

A literary device where the universe or fate thwarts expectations from what the people in the story expect or deserve; ex: Romeo and Juliet

Couplet

Two successive lines of verse forming a unit marked usually by rhythmic correspondence, rhyme, or the inclusion of self-contained utterance

Detail

An intricate part in a story, may contain symbolism and help build the whole of the story

Deus ex machina

A person or thing that appears or is introduced suddenly and unexpectedly and provides a contrived solution to an apparently insoluble difficulty

Diction

Choice of words especially with regard to correctness, clearness, or effectiveness

Direct characterization

A clear description from the author that directly tells your what the character is like

Dirge

a song or hymn of grief or lamentation

Dissonance

Inconsistency between the beliefs one holds or between one’s actions and one’s beliefs

Doggerel

Loosely styled and irregular in measure especially for burlesque or comic effect

Drama

A composition in verse or prose intended to portray life or character or to tell a story usually involving conflicts and emotions through action and dialogue typically designed for theatrical performance

Dramatic irony

Irony in a story where words or actions are understood by the audience but not the characters

Dramatic monologue

A poem in which an imagined speaker addresses a silent listener, usually not the reader

Dynamic character

A character that goes through extreme internal changes throughout a story

Elegy

A song or poem expressing sorrow or lamentation especially for one who is dead

End rhyme

When in the last verse of a poem, the last two syllables rhyme

End-stopped line

A metrical line ending at a grammatical boundary or break, such as a dash or closing parenthesis

English sonnet

A 14-line poem traditionally written in iambic pentameter

Enjambment

The running over of a sentence from one verse or couplet into another so closely related words fall in different lines

Epic

A long narrative poem in which a heroic protagonist engages in an action of great mythic or historical significance

Epiphany

A revealing scene or moment

Euphony

A pleasing or sweet sound; a harmonious succession of words that sound pleasing

Eye rhyme

An imperfect rhyme that appears to have identical vowel sounds from similarity of spelling

Farce

A light dramatic composition marked by broadly satirical comedy and improbable plot

Feminine rhyme

A rhyming technique where the rhyme is found in the second-to-last syllable with words that share a common ending syllable

Figurative language

language that consists of or includes figures of speech (such as metaphors or similes)

Flashback

Interruption of chronological sequence by interjection of events of earlier occurrence

Flat character

Characters without complicated personalities or complex goals, lack personality

Foil

A character that exists to contrast with the protagonist to highlight certain personality traits held by them

Foot

The basic unit of measurement of accentual-syllabic meter (verse whose meter is determined by the number and alternation of its stressed and unstressed syllables)

Foreshadowing

A present implication of what is to be expected later in a story

Form

The physical structure, organization, and stylistic shape of a text

Free verse

A verse whose meter is irregular in some respect or whose rhyme is not metrical

Genre

A category of artistic, musical, or literary composition characterized by a particular style, form, or content

Half rhyme

Rhyming of the ending of consonant sounds in a word

Hamartia

A fatal flaw that leads to a character’s downfall

Hero

A mythological or legendary figure often of divine descend endowed with great strength or ability

Heroic couplet

A traditional form of English poetry consisting of two rhymed lines written in iambic pentameter

Hubris

Exaggerated pride or self-confidence in a character

Hyperbole

A figure of speech composed of striking exaggeration

Iamb

A metrical foot consisting of an unaccented syllable followed by an accented syllable

Imagery

Using vivid or figurative language to represent ideas, objects, or actions

In media res

In or into the middle of a narrative plot

Indirect characterization

Characterization through a character’s dialogue, actions, and choices that have to be evaluated by the reader

Internal rhyme

Rhyme within a single line of verse, when a word from the middle of a line is rhymed with a word at the end of the line

Irony

Implies a distance between what is said and what is meant

Italian sonnet

A sonnet consisting of an octave rhyming abba abba and a sestet rhyming in any various patterns

Juxtaposition

The act or an instance of placing two or more things side by side often to compare or contrast or to create an interesting effect

Line

A set of words that ends for a specific reason, which may include rhythm, meaning, syllable count, pacing, or rhyme

Literal meaning

An explicitly stated meaning to a poem or story written by the author or interpreter

Litotes

A deliberate understatement for effect

Lyric

A short poem in which the poet, the poet’s persona, or another speaker expresses personal feelings

Masculine rhyme

Rhymes ending in a stressed syllable

Measure

The units of rhyme used in poetry

Metaphor

A direct comparison without using ’like’ or ‘as’

Meter

The rhythmical pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in verse

Metonymy

A figure of speech in which a related term is substituted for the word itself

Monologue

A long discourse delivered by a single person

Motif

A reoccurring theme or moral in a story

Narrative poetry

A genre of poetry that tells a complete story

Nonce symbol

A symbol used for a single occasion or utterance that is not understood outside the narrative world

Ode

A composition in verse in which a person expresses a strong feeling or love or respect for someone or something

Onomatopoeia

The naming of a thing or action by a vocal imitation of the sound associated with it

Parable

A usually short fictious story that illustrates a moral attitude or a religious principle

Parallelism

Repeated syntactical similarities introduced for rhetorical effect

Pentameter

A line of verse consisting of five metrical feet

Personification

Narrative descriptions of objects or animals in a human-like way

Plot

The plan or main story of a literary work

Poetry

writing that formulates a concentrated imaginative awareness of experience in language chosen and arranged to create a specific emotional response through meaning, sound, and rhythm.

Prose

The ordinary language people use in speaking or writing

Protagonist

The character(s) holding the main focus of the story, the metaphorical lens follows them throughout the section of their journey being explored in the literary work

Pun

The usually humorous use of a word in such a way as to suggest two or more of its meanings or the meaning of another word similar in sound

Refrain

A regularly recurring phrase or verse especially at the end of each stanza or division of a poem or song

Reliability

The extent to which an experiment, test, or measuring procedure yields the same results on repeated trials

Repetition

The act or an instance of repeating or being repeated

Rhyme

The repetition of syllables, typically at the end of a verse line

Rhyme scheme

The pattern of end rhymes in a stanza, with each rhyme encoded by a letter of the alphabet

Rhythm

An audible pattern in verse established by the interval between stressed syllables

Romantic irony

The author deliberately breaks the illusion of fiction, drawing attention to their presence or the artifice of the work

Round character

A character who is lifelike and complex in their personality and goals

Sarcasm

The use of words that mean the opposite of what one intends to say especially in order to insult