AP Literature Literary Terms

Metaphor

A direct, nonliteral comparison in which one thing is described as another, without using like or as, so that qualities or associations transfer between them.

Personification

A form of figurative language that gives human

qualities, emotions, intentions, or actions to an

animal, object, abstraction, or other nonhuman

thing.

Simile

An explicit comparison between unlike things,

ordinarily signaled by “like,” “as,” or “than.”

Synecdoche

A figure of speech in which a part represents the

whole, the whole represents a part, or an

individual member represents a larger class.

Metonymy

A figure of speech in which something is named

by a closely associated object, place, or idea rather

than by one of its literal parts.

Overstatement/Hyperbole

Deliberate exaggeration used for emphasis,

emotional intensity, humor, or characterization

rather than as a literally accurate claim.

Understatement

Deliberately presenting something as less

important, serious, intense, or extreme than it

actually is, often to create irony or reveal restraint.

Trope

In its classical sense, any deliberate turn from

literal or ordinary meaning, including metaphor,

irony, and metonymy; in modern usage, a

recurring storytelling convention, character type,

image, or situation.

Situational Irony

A contrast between what reasonably appears

likely to happen and what actually happens; the

outcome reverses or complicates expectations.

Dramatic Irony

A situation in which the audience or reader

knows crucial information that one or more

characters do not, giving the characters' words or

actions an additional meaning.

Verbal Irony

A discrepancy between a speaker's literal words

and the meaning or attitude the speaker intends,

often expressed through sarcasm but not limited

to it.

Paradox

A statement, situation, or idea that appears

self-contradictory but reveals a coherent insight

when examined more closely.

Oxymoron

A compressed verbal paradox in which two

adjacent or closely connected words have

apparently contradictory meanings.

Exposition

The portion of a narrative that establishes

necessary background, such as characters, setting,

prior circumstances, or an initial situation, before

the central conflict fully develops.

Inciting Incident

The event or decision that disrupts the initial

situation and sets the central conflict or main

sequence of action in motion.

Rising Action

The connected complications, discoveries, and

conflicts that intensify after the inciting incident

and move the narrative toward its decisive

turning point.

Climax

The narrative's decisive turning point, often the

moment of greatest confrontation or irreversible

choice, after which the central conflict moves

toward an outcome; it is not simply the most

exciting scene.

Falling Action

Events following the climax that reveal its

immediate consequences and reduce or redirect

the story's central tension on the way toward

resolution.

Resolution

The point at which the central conflict reaches a

settled outcome, even if some questions or

tensions remain unresolved.

Denouement

The final unwinding after the climax and

resolution in which remaining consequences,

relationships, or future conditions are clarified;

unlike resolution, it concerns the aftermath rather

than the settlement itself.

Deux ex Machina

An improbable, insufficiently prepared outside

force that suddenly solves an apparently

unsolvable conflict; the term means "god from the

machine."

In Medias Res

A narrative opening that begins in the middle of

significant action rather than at the chronological

beginning, with earlier events supplied later or

left for the audience to infer.

Foreshadowing

A detail, image, statement, or event that

anticipates and prepares for a later development

without fully revealing it.

Analepsis

A narrative movement backward from the

present point of the story to an earlier event. A

fully dramatized flashback is one form of

____, but ______ can also be brief

recollection or summary.

Prolepsis

A narrative movement forward beyond the

present point of the story to show, summarize, or

anticipate a later event;

Epiphany

A sudden moment of recognition in which a

character perceives a significant truth about the

self, another person, or the world; the recognition

may or may not produce lasting change.

Internal Conflict

A struggle within a character among competing

desires, beliefs, duties, fears, or identities.

External Conflict

A struggle between a character and an outside

force, such as another character, society, nature,

technology, fate, or a supernatural power.

Narration/Narrative Perspective

The method and position from which a story is

told, including who speaks, what that narrator

can know, the narrator's distance from events,

and how that perspective shapes what readers

perceive.

First-Person Point of

View

A point of view in which a narrator who

participates in or observes the events speaks as I

or we; the narrator's knowledge is limited to what

that speaker knows, remembers, or infers.

Second-Person Point

of View

A point of view in which the narrator addresses a

you as the central perceiver or actor, placing the

reader or a named/unnamed character into the

narrated experience.

Third-Person Limited

Point of View

A point of view in which a narrator outside the

story refers to characters as he, she, or they while

restricting access mainly to one character's

perceptions and thoughts at a time.

Third-Person Omniscient Point of View

A point of view in which a narrator outside the

story can move among multiple characters'

thoughts, disclose information unavailable to

them, and offer broad commentary.

Unreliable Narrator

A narrator whose account readers have reason to

question because of limited understanding, bias,

self-deception, instability, dishonesty, or

contradictions between the account and the text's

evidence.

Interior Monologue

A direct presentation of a character's unspoken

thoughts, often in a sustained and relatively

coherent verbal form, as though readers can hear

the character thinking.

Stream of Consciousness

A technique that imitates the associative, shifting

flow of consciousness through sensory

impressions, fragments, memories, and loosely

connected thoughts; it is often less orderly than

interior monologue.

Frame Narrative

A narrative structure in which an outer story

introduces, contains, or provides a context for one

or more inner stories.

Nonlinear Narrative

A narrative whose presented order departs

substantially from chronological sequence

through devices such as analepsis, prolepsis,

repetition, fragmentation, or multiple timelines.

Protagonist

The principal character whose goals, choices,

experiences, or conflict organize the central

action;

Antagonist

The character, group, institution, social system,

natural force, or internal pressure that most

directly opposes the protagonist's central goal or

movement.

Dynamic Character

A character who undergoes a meaningful change

in outlook, values, self-understanding, or

behavior as a result of the work's events;

complexity alone does not make a character

_____.

Static Character

A character who remains fundamentally

unchanged in outlook, values, or behavior despite

the work's events; a ____ character may still be

psychologically complex.

Round Character

A multidimensional character with several

developed, sometimes contradictory traits,

motives, or emotions; a ____ character need not

change.

Flat Character

A character constructed around one or only a few

traits and given little psychological development;

Foil Character

A character whose contrasting qualities

illuminate important traits, choices, or values in

another character; a ______ is defined by contrast, not

necessarily opposition.

Archetype

A widely recurring character type, image,

situation, or narrative pattern that carries

recognizable associations across cultures or

literary traditions.

Stock Character

A conventional, immediately recognizable

character built from familiar traits associated with

a social role or genre and usually given little

individual development.

Indirect

Characterization

The revelation of character through actions,

dialogue, thoughts, appearance, relationships,

and others' responses, requiring readers to infer

the trait rather than receive a direct label.

Direct

Characterization

An explicit statement by the narrator or another

authoritative voice identifying a character's trait,

disposition, or condition.

Temporal Setting

The time in which a work occurs, including

historical period, season, time of day, duration,

and the social conditions associated with that

time.

Spatial Setting

The physical and geographic location of a work,

including the built or natural environment and

the social spaces characters inhabit.

Mood/Atmosphere

The emotional climate a text creates for the reader

through setting, imagery, sound, pacing, and

other choices; ___ is the feeling produced, not

the author's or speaker's attitude.

Imagery

Concrete sensory language that appeals to sight,

sound, touch, taste, smell, or bodily sensation and

helps readers imagine an experience.

Tone

The speaker's or narrator's attitude toward the

subject, audience, or situation, conveyed through

diction, syntax, imagery, and selection of detail.

Syntax

The arrangement of words, phrases, clauses,

punctuation, and sentence lengths

Denotation

A word's literal, primary dictionary meaning,

apart from the emotional or cultural associations

it may carry.

Connotation

The emotional, cultural, historical, or personal

associations a word suggests beyond its

dictionary definition.

Euphemism

A mild, indirect, or socially acceptable expression

substituted for language considered harsh,

embarrassing, or disturbing.

Dysphemism

A deliberately harsh, disparaging, or offensive

expression substituted for a neutral or more

respectful one.

Diction

An author's or speaker's purposeful choice of

words, considered in terms of qualities such as

formality, specificity, abstraction, emotion, sound,

and association.

Colloquialism

An informal word, phrase, contraction, or

grammatical construction associated with

ordinary conversation or a particular region

rather than formal standard usage.

Ambiguity

The deliberate or meaningful possibility of more

than one interpretation of a word, event,

character, or work; _____ sustains

uncertainty rather than merely causing accidental

confusion.

Juxtaposition

The placement of two characters, images, settings,

ideas, or events near each other so that their

contrast or similarity becomes especially visible.

Symbol

A concrete object, character, place, action, or

image that retains its literal identity while also

representing a larger abstract idea or network of

meanings.

Allegory

A sustained narrative in which characters, places,

and events consistently correspond to a second

level of political, moral, religious, philosophical,

or historical meaning.

Allusion

A brief, indirect reference to a recognizable

person, event, story, myth, text, or cultural

tradition that adds meaning through the reader's

associations.

Selection of Detail

An author's choice to include, omit, repeat, or

emphasize particular details so that description

guides interpretation, establishes perspective, or

develops character and theme.

Theme

A work's developed insight or claim about

human experience, society, or an idea, expressed

as a complete and arguable statement rather than

as a one-word topic.

Motif

A recurring image, word, object, situation, or idea

that gains significance through repetition and

helps develop a work's themes;

Anaphora

The repetition of a word or phrase at the

beginning of successive clauses, sentences, or

lines to create emphasis, rhythm, or cumulative

force.

Antithesis

The placement of contrasting ideas in parallel

grammatical structures so that the opposition

between them becomes especially clear and

balanced.

Asyndeton

The deliberate omission of conjunctions between

words, phrases, or clauses, often accelerating pace

or making a series feel forceful and compressed.

Polysyndeton

The deliberate repetition of conjunctions between

words, phrases, or clauses, often slowing the

pace, emphasizing each item, or creating an

accumulating effect.

Hypotaxis

The arrangement of clauses through

subordination, making relationships such as

cause, condition, time, or concession explicit and

often producing layered, hierarchical sentences.

Parataxis

The placement of phrases or clauses beside one

another with little or no subordination, often

creating a direct, rapid, fragmented, or equally

weighted sequence.

Plot

The author's purposeful selection and

arrangement of events, including their causal

relationships, sequence, pacing, and pattern—not

merely everything that happens in a story.