AP Glossary of Literary and Rhetorical Terms

Active voice

A grammatical structure where the subject of the sentence performs the action.

Passive voice

A grammatical structure where the subject of the sentence receives the action.

Allusion

An indirect reference to something (usually a literary text, although it can be other things commonly known, such as plays, songs, historical events) with which the reader is supposed to be familiar.

Alter-ego

A character that is used by the author to speak the author's own thoughts; when an author speaks directly to the audience through a character.

Anecdote

A brief recounting of a relevant episode, often inserted into texts as a way of developing a point or injecting humor.

Antecedent

The word, phrase, or clause referred to by a pronoun.

Classicism

Art or literature characterized by a realistic view of people and the world; sticks to traditional themes and structures.

Comic relief

When a humorous scene is inserted into a serious story, in order to lighten the mood somewhat.

Diction

Word choice, particularly as an element of style, which significantly affects meaning.

Colloquial

Ordinary or familiar type of conversation; a common or familiar type of saying.

Connotation

The associations suggested by a word, implying meaning rather than its literal definition.

Denotation

The literal, explicit meaning of a word, without its connotations.

Jargon

The diction used by a group which practices a similar profession or activity.

Vernacular

Language or dialect of a particular country or regional clan; plain everyday speech.

Didactic

A term used to describe fiction, nonfiction or poetry that teaches a specific lesson or moral.

Adage

A folk saying with a lesson, similar to aphorism and colloquialism.

Allegory

A story, fictional or non fictional, in which characters, things, and events represent qualities or concepts.

Aphorism

A terse statement which expresses a general truth or moral principle.

Ellipsis

The deliberate omission of a word or phrase from prose done for effect by the author.

Euphemism

A more agreeable or less offensive substitute for generally unpleasant words or concepts. Sometimes they are used for political correctness. "Physically challenged," in place of "crippled."

Figurative Language

"Figurative Language" is the opposite of "Literal Language." Literal language is writing that makes complete sense when you take it at face value. "Figurative Language" is the opposite: writing that is not meant to be taken literally.

Analogy

An analogy is a comparison of one pair of variables to a parallel set of variables. When a writer uses an analogy, he or she argues that the relationship between the first pair of variables is the same as the relationship between the second pair of variables. "America is to the world as the hippo is to the jungle."

Hyperbole

Exaggeration. "My mother will kill me if I am late."

Idiom

A common, often used expression that doesn't make sense if you take it literally. "I got chewed out by my coach."

Metaphor

Making an implied comparison, not using "like," as," or other such words. "My feet are popsicles." An extended metaphor is when the metaphor is continued later in the written work.

Conceit

A particularly elaborate extended metaphor.

Metonymy

Replacing an actual word or idea, with a related word or concept. "Relations between London and Washington have been strained," does not literally mean relations between the two cities, but between the leaders of The United States and England.

Synecdoche

A kind of metonymy when a whole is represented by naming one of its parts, or vice versa. "The cattle rancher owned 500 head." "Check out my new wheels."

Simile

Using words such as "like" or "as" to make a direct comparison between two very different things. "My feet are so cold they feel like popsicles."

Synesthesia

A description involving a "crossing of the senses." Examples: "A purplish scent filled the room." "I was deafened by his brightly-colored clothing."

Personification

Giving human-like qualities to something that is not human. "The tired old truck groaned as it inched up the hill."

Foreshadowing

When an author gives hints about what will occur later in a story.

Genre

The major category into which a literary work fits. The basic divisions of literature are prose, poetry, and drama. However, genres can be subdivided as well.

Gothic

Writing characterized by gloom, mystery, fear and/or death. Also refers to an architectural style of the middle ages, often seen in cathedrals of this period.

Imagery

Word or words that create a picture in the reader's mind. Usually this involves the five senses.

Invective

A long, emotionally violent, attack using strong, abusive language.

Irony

When the opposite of what you expect to happen does.

Verbal irony

When you say something and mean the opposite/something different.

Dramatic irony

When the audience of a drama, play, movie, etc. knows something that the character doesn't and would be surprised to find out.

Situational irony

Found in the plot (or story line) of a book, story, or movie; it sometimes makes you laugh because it's funny how things turn out.

Juxtaposition

Placing things side by side for the purposes of comparison, often used by authors to make a point.

Mood

The atmosphere created by the literature and accomplished through word choice (diction), affected by syntax, setting, tone, and events.

Motif

A recurring idea in a piece of literature, such as the idea that 'you never really understand another person until you consider things from his or her point of view' in To Kill a Mockingbird.

Oxymoron

When apparently contradictory terms are grouped together and suggest a paradox, such as 'wise fool' or 'jumbo shrimp.'

Pacing

The speed or tempo of an author's writing, which can be fast, sluggish, stabbing, vibrato, staccato, measured, etc.

Paradox

A seemingly contradictory situation which is actually true, such as 'You can't get a job without experience, and you can't get experience without getting a job.'

Parallelism

Sentence construction which places equal grammatical constructions near each other or repeats identical grammatical patterns, used to add emphasis or organization.

Anaphora

Repetition of a word, phrase, or clause at the beginning of two or more sentences or clauses in a row, helping to make the writer's point more coherent.

Chiasmus

When the same words are used twice in succession, but the second time, the order of the words is reversed.

Antithesis

Two opposite or contrasting words, phrases, or clauses, or even ideas, with parallel structure.

Zuegma (Syllepsis)

When a single word governs or modifies two or more other words, and the meaning of the first word must change for each of the other words it governs or modifies.

Parenthetical Idea

Parentheses are used to set off an idea from the rest of the sentence, considered an aside and used sparingly for effect.

Parody

An exaggerated imitation of a serious work for humorous purposes, borrowing words or phrases from an original and poking fun at it.

Persona

The fictional mask or narrator that tells a story, not to be confused with alter-ego.

Poetic device

A device used in poetry to manipulate the sound of words, sentences, or lines.

Alliteration

The repetition of the same consonant sound at the beginning of words.

Assonance

The repetition of identical or similar vowel sounds. "From the molten-golden notes"

Consonance

The repetition of the same consonant sound at the end of words or within words. "Some late visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door"

Onomatopoeia

The use of a word which imitates or suggests the sound that the thing makes. Snap, rustle, boom, murmur

Internal rhyme

When a line of poetry contains a rhyme within a single line. "To the rhyming and the chiming of the bells!"

Slant rhyme

When a poet creates a rhyme, but the two words do not rhyme exactly - they are merely similar. "I sat upon a stone, / And found my life has gone."

End rhyme

When the last word of two different lines of poetry rhyme. "Roses are red, violets are blue, / Sugar is sweet, and so are you."

Rhyme Scheme

The pattern of a poem's end rhymes. For example, the following lines have a rhyme scheme of a b a b c d c d:

Stressed and unstressed syllables

In every word of more than one syllable, one of the syllables is stressed, or said with more force than the other syllable(s). In the name "Nathan," the first syllable is stressed. In the word "unhappiness," the second of the four syllables is stressed.

Meter

A regular pattern to the syllables in lines of poetry

Free verse

Poetry that doesn't have much meter or rhyme.

Iambic pentameter

Poetry that is written in lines of 10 syllables, alternating stressed and unstressed syllables. "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?"

Sonnet

A 14 line poem written in iambic pentameter. Usually divided into three quatrains and a couplet.

Polysyndeton

When a writer creates a list of items which are all separated by conjunctions. Normally, a conjunction is used only before the last item in a list.

Pun

When a word that has two or more meanings is used in a humorous way. "My dog has a fur coat and pants!" "I was stirred by his cooking lesson."

Rhetoric

The art of effective communication.

Aristotle's Rhetorical Triangle

The relationships, in any piece of writing, between the writer, the audience, and the subject.

Rhetorical Question

Question not asked for information but for effect. "The angry parent asked the child, 'Are you finished interrupting me?'"

Romanticism

Art or literature characterized by an idealistic, perhaps unrealistic view of people and the world, and an emphasis on nature.

Sarcasm

A generally bitter comment that is ironically or satirically worded.

Satire

A work that reveals a critical attitude toward some element of life to a humorous effect.

Sentence

A sentence is group of words (including subject and verb) that expresses a complete thought.

Appositive

A word or group of words placed beside a noun or noun substitute to supplement its meaning.

Clause

A grammatical unit that contains both a subject and a verb.

Independent clause

Expresses a complete thought and can stand alone as a sentence.

Dependent clause

Cannot stand alone as a sentence and must be accompanied by an independent clause.

Balanced sentence

A sentence in which two parallel elements are set off against each other like equal weights on a scale.

Compound sentence

Contains at least two independent clauses but no dependent clauses.

Complex sentence

Contains only one independent clause and at least one dependent clause.

Cumulative sentence

When the writer begins with an independent clause, then adds subordinate elements.

Periodic sentence

When the main idea is not completed until the end of the sentence.

Simple sentence

Contains only one independent clause.

Declarative sentence

States an idea. It does not give a command or request, nor does it ask a question.

Imperative sentence

Issues a command.

Interrogative sentence

Sentences incorporating interrogative pronouns (what, which, who, whom, and whose).

Style

The choices in diction, tone, and syntax that a writer makes.

Symbol

Anything that represents or stands for something else.

Syntax

Grammatical arrangement of words.

Theme

The central idea or message of a work.

Thesis

The sentence or groups of sentences that directly expresses the author's opinion, purpose, meaning, or proposition.

Tone

A writer's attitude toward his subject matter revealed through diction, figurative language and organization.

Understatement

The ironic minimizing of fact, understatement presents something as less significant than it is.

Litotes

A particular form of understatement, generated by denying the opposite of the statement which otherwise would be used.

Litotes

A figure of speech that retains the effect of understatement or becomes an intensifying expression depending on the tone and context.

Argument

A piece of reasoning with one or more premises and a conclusion.