Literary Terms

Literary Terms for AP Lit

Synecdoche

A figure of speech in which part of something is used to represent the whole.

metonymy

A figure of speech in which something is represented by another thing that is related to it.

Aside

Aside is a short remark or speech delivered by a character directly to the audience (or to themselves), which other characters on stage are not meant to hear.

Conceit

A literary device that sets up a striking analogy between two entities that would not usually invite comparison, often drawing connections between the physical and the spiritual.

Foil

A contrasting character who allows the protagonist to stand out more distinctly.

Couplet

A two-line, rhyming stanza.

enjambment

A poetic technique in which one line ends without a pause and must continue on to the next line to complete its meaning; also referred to as a “run-on line.”

apostrophe

A direct address to an abstraction (such as Time), a thing (the Wind), an animal, or an imaginary or absent person.

anaphora

Repetition of an initial word or words to add emphasis.

meter

The formal, regular organization of stressed and unstressed syllables, measured in feet.

syntax

The arrangement of words into phrases, clauses, and sentences in a prose passage.

diction

A writer’s choice of words. In addition to choosing words with precise denotations and connotations, an author must choose whether to use words that are abstract or concrete, formal or informal, or literal or figurative. See colloquial language.

tone

A speaker’s attitude as exposed through stylistic choices.

oxymoron

A paradox made up of two seemingly contradictory words.

parado

A statement that seems contradictory but actually is not.