2021 AP Literary Terms Test ~ 1-50

Ad Misericordiam

An appeal to the audience's sympathy and an attempt to persuade another using a hard-luck-story rather than logic or reason.

Allegory

An expression, by means of symbolic fictional characters and actions, of truths about human conduct and experience.

Alliteration

The repetition of accented consonant sounds at the beginning of words that are close to each other, usually to create an effect, rhythm, or emphasis.

Allusion

A reference in literature or in art to previous literature, history, mythology, pop culture, current events, or the bible.

Ambiguity

Quality of being intentionally unclear; events or situations that can be interpreted in more than one way.

Anachronism

An element in a story that is out of its time frame.

Anadiplosis

repeating the last word of clause at beginning of next clause

Analogy

clarifies or explains an unfamiliar concept or object, or one that cannot be put into words, by comparing it with one which is familiar.

Analysis

The process of examining the components of a literary work.

Anecdote

A short and often personal story used to emphasize a point, develop a character or theme, or inject humor.

Antagonist

A character who functions as a resisting force to the goals of the protagonist.

Antecedent

The word or phrase to which a pronoun refers.

Anticlimax

An often disappointing, sudden end to an intense situation.

Antihero

A protagonist who carries the actions of the literary piece but does not embody the classic characteristics of courage, strength, and nobility.

Antithesis

A concept that is directly opposed to a previously presented idea.

Anapest

a metrical foot of poetry consisting of two unaccented syllables, followed by one accented syllable.

Anaphora

Repetition of an opening word or phrase in a series of lines.

Anthropomorphism

Giving a human quality, emotion or ambition to a non-human object or being.

Aphorism

A terse statement that expresses a general truth or moral principle, sometimes considered a folk proverb.

Apostrophe

A rhetorical (not expecting an answer) figure of direct address to a person, object, or abstract entity.

Apotheosis

Elevating someone to the level of a god.

Archetype

a character, situation, or symbol that is familiar to people from all cultures because it occurs frequently in literature, myth, religion, or folklore.

Aside

a short speech or remark made by an actor to the audience rather than to the other characters, who do not hear him or her.

Assonance

The repeated use of a vowel sound.

Asyndeton

a rhetorical term for a writing style that omits conjunctions between words, phrases, or clauses.

Attitude

The author's feelings toward the topic he or she is writing about.

Aubade

a poem or song about lovers who must leave one another in the early hours of the morning.

Ballad

A folk song or poem passed down orally that tells a story which may be derived from an actual incident, legend, or folklore.

Bildungsroman

A novel whose principal subject is the moral, psychological, and intellectual development of a usually youthful main character.

Blank Verse

Unrhymed poetry in iambic pentameter (five feet of two syllables each unstressed and stressed).

Cacophony

Harsh, discordant sounds, unpleasant to the ear.

Caesura

A speech pause occurring within a line.

carpe diem

Latin for "seize the day."

Catharsis

refers to an emotional cleansing or feeling or relief.

Characterization

The way an author presents characters.

Chiasmus

The opposite of parallel construction; inverting the second of two phrases that would otherwise be in parallel form.

Colloquial

Of or relating to slang or regional dialect, used in familiar everyday conversation.

Conceit

A far-fetched comparison between two seemingly unlike things; an extended metaphor that gains appeal from its unusual or extraordinary comparison.

Connotation

Associations a word calls to mind.

Consonance

The same consonant sound in words with different vowel sounds.

Couplet

two successive rhyming lines of the same number of syllables, with matching cadence.

Dactyl

a foot of poetry with three syllables, one stressed and two short or unstressed syllables.

Denotation

The dictionary or literal meaning of a word or phrase.

Denouement

the outcome or clarification at the end of a story or play; the winding down from climax to ending.

deus ex machina

Literally, when the gods intervene at a story's end to resolve a seemingly impossible conflict. Refers to an unlikely or improbable coincidence.

Diction

the deliberate choice of a style of language for a desired effect or tone. Words chosen to achieve a particular effect such as formal, informal, or colloquial.

Didactic

a story, speech, essay or play is one in which the author's primary purpose is to instruct, teach or moralize.--> Can be used to describe tone!

Distortion

an exaggeration or stretching of the truth to achieve a desired effect.

Elegy

a type of literature, often a song or poem, that expresses sorrow or lamentation, usually for one who has died.

Enjambment

in poetry, the running over of a sentence from one verse or stanza into the next without stopping at the end of the first.