AP English Literature and Composition Useful Terms

Allegory

A narrative in which characters, events, and settings symbolize abstract ideas or moral qualities, often to teach a lesson or convey a moral message.

Allusion

A reference to a well-known person, event, place, or work of literature, often used to deepen meaning or add context without elaborating.

Alliteration

The repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words in close proximity, often used for emphasis or rhythm.

Ambiguity

The presence of two or more possible meanings in a word, phrase, or situation, which can lead to uncertainty or multiple interpretations.

Anaphora

The repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses or sentences, often used for emphasis or rhetorical effect.

Anecdote

A brief, often personal story or account used to illustrate a point or add interest to a narrative.

Antagonist

The character, force, or entity that opposes the protagonist and creates conflict in the narrative.

Apostrophe

A figure of speech in which the speaker addresses an absent person, an abstract idea, or a thing, often as though it were present or capable of understanding.

Assonance

The repetition of vowel sounds within nearby words, often used to create harmony, rhythm, or mood.

Asyndeton

The omission of conjunctions between words, phrases, or clauses, used to create a sense of speed, urgency, or emphasis.

Bildungsroman

A genre of novel that focuses on the moral and psychological growth of the protagonist, often from youth to adulthood.

Blank verse

Unrhymed poetry, typically written in iambic pentameter, often used in dramatic works and serious poetry.

Caesura

A pause or break within a line of poetry, typically occurring in the middle, which can affect the rhythm or pacing.

Catharsis

The emotional release or purging that the audience experiences after the resolution of a tragic drama, often leading to a sense of renewal or clarity.

Climax

The turning point or most intense moment in a story, where the central conflict reaches its peak.

Colloquialism

Informal, conversational language that reflects the speech patterns of everyday life, often regional or cultural.

Connotation

The emotional, cultural, or associative meanings attached to a word, in addition to its literal definition.

Convention

A widely accepted practice or standard, often referring to common techniques or structures in literature.

Consonance

The repetition of consonant sounds, particularly at the end or middle of words, creating a harmonious or rhythmic effect.

Couplet

A pair of consecutive rhyming lines in poetry, often with the same meter.

Deus ex machina

an unexpected power or event saving a seemingly hopeless situation, especially as a contrived plot device in a play or novel.

Diction

The choice and use of words and phrases in speech or writing.

Denouement

the final part of a play, movie, or narrative in which the strands of the plot are drawn together and matters are explained or resolved.

Doppelganger

an apparition or double of a living person.

Double Entendre

a word or phrase that is open to two interpretations, one of which is usually risqué or indecent.

Elegy

a song or poem lamenting one who is dead; the word may also refer somewhat figuratively to a nostalgic poem, or to a kind of musical composition.

Elision / Elided

(of a sound or syllable) omitted when speaking.

Emotive language

Language chosen to evoke an emotional response in an audience. Emotive language often involves connotation, which is implied meaning beyond a word's literal dictionary definition.

Enjambment

the continuation of a sentence or phrase from one line of poetry to the next.

Epic

a long poem, typically one derived from ancient oral tradition, narrating the deeds and adventures of heroic or legendary figures or the history of a nation.

Epigraph

a short quote placed at the beginning of a piece of writing.

Epilogue

a final section that brings to an end and summarizes or comments on the action or characters of a story

Epiphany

Any moment when a character has a moment of realization.

Epistolary

the works of fiction that are written in the form of letters or other documents

Epistrophe

a figure of speech in which one or more words repeat at the end of successive phrases, clauses, or sentences.

Euphemism

a word or phrase that softens an uncomfortable topic.

Euphony

the combining of words to create a pleasing sound.

Fable

a brief, simplistic tale told to convey a moral, or lesson to the reader about how to behave in the world.

Feminine ending

"masculine ending" refers to a line ending in a stressed syllable; "feminine ending" is its opposite, describing a line ending in a stressless syllable.

Figurative Language

Language that uses figures of speech, such as metaphor, simile, personification, and hyperbole, to create meaning beyond the literal level.

Flashback

A literary device that interrupts the chronological sequence of a narrative to describe an event that occurred earlier, providing background or context.

Flat (also “Static”) Character

A character who is not developed fully and does not undergo significant change throughout the story.

Foil

A character who contrasts with another character (often the protagonist) to highlight particular qualities of the main character.

Folklore

The traditional stories, customs, and beliefs passed down orally or in writing within a culture.

Foot

The basic unit of meter in poetry, consisting of a combination of stressed and unstressed syllables.

Iamb

A metrical foot consisting of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable (e.g., "destroy").

Trochee

A metrical foot consisting of a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable (e.g., "garden").

Dactyl

A metrical foot consisting of one stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables (e.g., "beautiful").

Anapest

A metrical foot consisting of two unstressed syllables followed by a stressed syllable (e.g., "understand").

Spondee

A metrical foot consisting of two consecutive stressed syllables (e.g., "heartbreak").

Foreshadowing

A literary device in which hints or clues are given about events that will occur later in the story.

Free Verse

Poetry that lacks a fixed meter, rhyme scheme, or structure, allowing for natural speech rhythms.

Genre

A category of literature defined by shared conventions, such as poetry, drama, or the novel.

Gothic Novel

A genre of literature that combines elements of horror, romance, and the supernatural, often featuring dark, mysterious settings and themes of psychological or physical terror.

Homonym

A word that is spelled and pronounced the same as another word but has a different meaning (e.g., "bat" the animal vs. "bat" used in baseball).

Hubris

Excessive pride or self-confidence, often leading to a character’s downfall in classical tragedy.

Hyperbole

A figure of speech that involves extreme exaggeration for emphasis or effect (e.g., "I'm so hungry I could eat a horse").

Illocution

The implied meaning behind words, where a speaker’s intention differs from the literal statement.

Imagery

Descriptive language that appeals to the senses (sight, sound, touch, taste, smell) to create vivid mental pictures.

In Medias Res

A narrative technique in which a story begins in the middle of the action rather than at the beginning.

Inversion

A literary technique in which the normal order of words is reversed for emphasis or poetic effect (e.g., "Strong he was" instead of "He was strong").

Irony

A literary device in which the intended meaning contrasts with the actual meaning or outcome.

Dramatic Irony

A form of irony in which the audience knows something that the characters do not, creating tension or humor.

Verbal Irony

When a speaker says something but means the opposite, often sarcastically.

Cosmic Irony

The idea that fate, the gods, or the universe manipulate events in a way that mocks human intentions.

Situational Irony

When the actual outcome of a situation is the opposite of what is expected.

Juxtaposition

The placement of two contrasting elements close together to highlight differences or create an effect.

Masculine Ending

A line of poetry that ends with a stressed syllable.

Meter

The rhythmic pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in poetry.

Metaphor

A figure of speech that makes an implicit comparison between two unrelated things without using "like" or "as."

Extended Metaphor

A metaphor that continues throughout a passage, poem, or even an entire work.

Metonymy

A figure of speech in which something is referred to by an associated object or concept (e.g., "the crown" for the monarchy).

Motif

A recurring image, symbol, or theme that develops or explains a work’s central idea.

Narrator

The voice that tells the story, which may or may not reflect the author's perspective.

First Person

A narrative perspective where the narrator is a character within the story, using "I" or "we."

Third Person Objective

A narrative perspective where the narrator reports only observable facts, without access to characters' thoughts or feelings.

Third Person Limited

A narrative perspective where the narrator knows the thoughts and feelings of only one character.

Third Person Omniscient

A narrative perspective where the narrator knows the thoughts and feelings of multiple characters.

Novella

A fictional prose work that is longer than a short story but shorter than a novel.

Onomatopoeia

A word that imitates the sound it represents (e.g., "buzz," "sizzle").

Paradox

A statement that appears self-contradictory but reveals a deeper truth.

Parody

A humorous or satirical imitation of a serious work or style.

Personification

A literary device that gives human traits to non-human entities.

Poetic Justice

The idea that good is ultimately rewarded and evil is punished within a work of literature.

Polysyndeton

The deliberate use of multiple conjunctions in close succession for emphasis.

Prequel

A literary work that tells the story preceding an existing narrative.

Prologue

An introductory section of a literary work that provides background information.

Prose

Written or spoken language in its ordinary, non-poetic form.

Protagonist

The central character in a work of literature, often facing the main conflict.

Pun

A play on words that exploits multiple meanings or similar sounds for humorous or rhetorical effect.

Repetition

The deliberate reuse of words, phrases, or structures for emphasis or effect.

Rhyme

The repetition of similar-sounding words, usually at the end of lines in poetry.

End Rhyme

Rhyme that occurs at the end of lines in a poem.

Internal Rhyme

Rhyme that occurs within a single line of poetry.

Oblique / Slant / Feminine Rhyme

A type of rhyme with similar but not identical sounds (e.g., "orange" and "door hinge").

Perfect / True Rhyme / Masculine Rhyme

A rhyme in which the final stressed syllables match exactly (e.g., "cat" and "hat").

Rhyme Scheme

The pattern of rhyming lines in a poem, usually marked with letters (e.g., ABAB, AABB).

Rising Action

The series of events in a narrative that build tension and develop the conflict, leading up to the climax.

Round (Dynamic) Character

A character who is complex, undergoes significant development, and changes throughout the story in response to experiences.

Resolution

The conclusion of a story’s plot where conflicts are resolved, and the story comes to a satisfying or sometimes unresolved end.