AP LANG course terms quizlet

Alliteration

The repetition of sounds, especially initial consonant sounds in two or more neighboring words (as in 'she sells sea shells'). The repetition can reinforce meaning, unify ideas, and/or supply a musical sound.

Allusion

A direct or indirect reference to something that is presumably commonly known, such as an event, book, myth, place, or work of art. Allusions can be historical, literary, religious, or mythical.

Analogy

A similarity or comparison between two different things or the relationship between them. An analogy can explain something unfamiliar by associating it with something more familiar.

Anaphora

Repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive phrases, clauses, or lines.

Antithesis

A figure of speech involving a seeming contradiction of ideas, words, clauses, or sentences within a balanced grammatical structure.

Apostrophe

A figure of speech that directly addresses an absent or imaginary person or personified abstraction, such as liberty or love.

Assonance

The repetition of vowel sounds in the stressed syllables of two or more adjacent words.

Asyndeton

A figure of speech in which coordinating conjunctions are omitted, speeding up the rhythm of a phrase.

Chiasmus

A figure of speech in which the grammar of one phrase is inverted in the following phrase, such that two key concepts from the original phrase reappear in inverted order.

Deductive Reasoning

A logical process that involves drawing specific conclusions from general ideas or premises.

Diction

Word choice.

Direct Address

A literary device that involves speaking directly to the reader or an individual or specific group within an audience.

Epiphora/Epistrophe

The repetition of the same word or words at the end of successive phrases, clauses or sentences.

Euphemism

A more agreeable or less offensive substitute for generally unpleasant words or concepts.

Epithet

An adjective added to a person's name or a phrase used instead of it, usually to criticize or praise them.

Hyperbole

A figure of speech using deliberate exaggeration or overstatement.

Inductive Reasoning

A method of drawing conclusions by going from the specific to the general.

Irony

The expression of one's meaning by using language that normally signifies the opposite, typically for humorous or emphatic effect.

Verbal Irony

When a person says one thing but means the opposite.

Situational Irony

When the opposite of what is expected happens.

Dramatic Irony

When the audience knows something that characters do not.

Jargon

Special words or expressions that are used by a particular profession or group and are difficult for others to understand.

Juxtaposition

Placement of two things closely together to emphasize similarities or differences.

Litotes

Understatement in which an affirmative is expressed by the negative of the contrary.

Metaphor

An implied analogy which imaginatively identifies one object with another and ascribes to the first object one or more of the qualities of the second.

Metonymy

A figure of speech characterized by the substitution of a term naming an object closely associated with the word in mind for the word itself.

Paradox

A statement that seems untrue on the surface but is true nevertheless.

Parallelism / Parallel Structure

The grammatical or rhetorical framing of words, phrases, sentences or paragraphs to give structural similarity.

Personification

A figure of speech in which the author presents or describes concepts, animals, or inanimate objects by endowing them with human attributes or emotions.

Polysyndeton

A figure of speech in which coordinating conjunctions are used several times in close succession.

Pun

A form of wit, not necessarily funny, involving a play on a word with two or more meanings.

Repetition

The duplication, either exact or approximate, of any element of language, such as a sound, word, phrase, clause, sentence, or grammatical pattern.

Rhetorical Question

A question that is asked merely for effect and does not expect a reply.

Scheme

An artful deviation from the ordinary arrangement of words.

Simile

An explicit comparison, normally using 'like,' 'as,' or 'if.'

Synecdoche

A rhetorical strategy which substitutes a part of the whole for the whole.

Syntax

The way an author chooses to join words into phrases, clauses, and sentences.

Tone

Describes the author's attitude toward his or her subject, the audience, or both.

Tricolon

A group of three similar phrases, words, clauses, or sentences that are parallel in their length, rhythm, and/or structure.

Trope

An artful deviation from the ordinary or principal signification of a word.

Understatement

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