AP LIT AND LANG VOCAB

Abstract (style)

Writing that deals with ideas, qualities, or concepts rather than concrete objects or events.

Academic (style)

Formal, scholarly writing style following conventional rules of grammar and structure.

Accent

The emphasis or stress placed on a syllable in speech or poetry.

Aesthetic, Aesthetics

Concerned with beauty and artistic taste; the philosophy of art and beauty.

Allegory

A narrative in which characters, events, and settings symbolize abstract ideas or moral qualities.

Alliteration

Repetition of initial consonant sounds in nearby words.

Allusion

A brief, indirect reference to a person, event, or work of literature/art.

Anachronism

Something placed in the wrong time period.

Analogy

A comparison showing similarity between two otherwise unlike things to explain or clarify.

Anecdote

A short, personal story used to illustrate a point.

Antecedent

The noun a pronoun refers back to.

Anthropomorphism

Attributing human characteristics to animals, objects, or abstract ideas.

Anticlimax

A sudden shift from a serious/important tone to a trivial one, often disappointing.

Antihero

A protagonist lacking traditional heroic qualities like courage or morality.

Aphorism

A short, pithy statement expressing a general truth.

Apostrophe

A figure of speech addressing an absent person, abstract idea, or inanimate object directly.

Archaism

The use of deliberately old-fashioned language.

Aside

A short speech/comment by a character (often in drama) meant for the audience, not other characters.

Assonance

Repetition of vowel sounds within nearby words.

Atmosphere

The emotional mood or feeling created by a piece of writing.

Ballad

A narrative poem, often meant to be sung, typically with a simple rhyme scheme.

Black humor

Comedy that makes light of serious, morbid, or taboo subjects.

Bombast

Pompous, inflated, or overly wordy language.

Burlesque

A literary work that mocks a subject through exaggeration or ridiculous imitation.

Cacophony

A harsh, discordant mixture of sounds.

Cadence

The rhythmic flow of language.

Canto

A major division of a long poem.

Caricature

A description that exaggerates certain features for comic or satiric effect.

Catharsis

The emotional release/purification experienced by an audience, especially in tragedy.

Chorus

A group of performers who comment on the action in Greek drama.

Colloquialism

Informal, everyday language or expressions.

Conceit

An extended, elaborate, often unconventional metaphor.

Connotation

The implied or associative meaning of a word beyond its literal definition.

Consonance

Repetition of consonant sounds, especially at the ends of words.

Couplet

Two consecutive rhyming lines of poetry, usually of the same meter.

Decorum

Appropriateness of style to subject and occasion.

Denotation

The literal, dictionary definition of a word.

Diction

An author's choice of words.

Dirge

A somber song or poem expressing grief, typically for the dead.

Dissonance

Harsh, jarring, or unresolved sound; also used for a lack of harmony in ideas.

Doggerel

Crude, poorly constructed verse, often comic.

Dramatic irony

When the audience knows something a character does not.

Dramatic monologue

A poem or speech in which a single character speaks to a silent listener, revealing their personality.

Elegy

A poem of mourning, typically for someone who has died.

Enjambment

The continuation of a sentence without pause beyond the end of a line, couplet, or stanza.

Epic

A long narrative poem celebrating heroic deeds, usually of a legendary figure.

Epitaph

An inscription on a tombstone or a brief statement commemorating a dead person.

Euphemism

A mild or indirect expression substituted for a harsh or blunt one.

Euphony

Pleasant, harmonious sounds in language.

Farce

A comedy relying on exaggerated, improbable situations for humor.

Feminine Rhyme

A rhyme of two or more syllables with the stress on a syllable other than the last (e.g., "picture/mixture").

Foil

A character who contrasts with another to highlight particular qualities.

Foot

A basic unit of rhythm in poetry, made of stressed/unstressed syllables.

Foreshadowing

Hints or clues about events that will happen later in a narrative.

Free verse

Poetry without a fixed meter or rhyme scheme.

Gothic novel

A genre featuring mystery, horror, and gloomy, decaying settings.

Hubris

Excessive pride or self-confidence, often leading to a character's downfall.

Hyperbole

Deliberate exaggeration for emphasis or effect.

Interior monologue

A technique revealing a character's inner thoughts directly.

Inversion

Reversal of normal word order, often for emphasis.

Irony

A contrast between expectation and reality (verbal, situational, or dramatic).

Lampoon

A harsh satire mocking an individual or group.

Lyric

A short poem expressing personal emotion, often musical in quality.

Masculine Rhyme

A rhyme ending on a stressed final syllable (e.g., "cat/hat").

Melodrama

A dramatic work with exaggerated emotion and sensational plot elements.

Metaphor

A direct comparison between two unlike things without using "like" or "as."

Metonym

A figure of speech where something is referred to by something closely associated with it (e.g., "the crown" for royalty).

Nemesis

An unconquerable rival or source of downfall.

Objectivity

Writing free from personal bias or feeling.

Onomatopoeia

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

Oxymoron

A figure of speech combining contradictory terms (e.g., "deafening silence").

Parable

A short story illustrating a moral or religious lesson.

Paradox

A statement that seems contradictory but reveals a deeper truth.

Parallelism

Use of similar grammatical structures for related ideas.

Parody

A humorous imitation of a work, style, or genre.

Pastoral

A work idealizing rural life, often shepherds and countryside.

Pathos

A quality that evokes pity or sadness in the audience.

Persona

The voice or character adopted by an author for a piece of writing.

Personification

Giving human qualities to non-human things.

Plaint

An expression of sorrow or complaint, often in verse.

Protagonist

The main character of a work.

Pun

A play on words exploiting multiple meanings or similar sounds.

Refrain

A repeated line or phrase, especially in poetry or song.

Requiem

A composition or piece honoring the dead.

Rhapsody

An effusive expression of emotion or enthusiastic piece of writing/music.

Rhetorical Question

A question asked for effect, not requiring an answer.

Satire

Writing that uses humor, irony, or exaggeration to criticize vice or folly.

Simile

A comparison using "like" or "as."

Soliloquy

A speech in a play where a character speaks their thoughts aloud, alone.

Stanza

A grouped set of lines in a poem, akin to a paragraph.

Stock characters

Stereotyped characters instantly recognizable to readers.

Subjectivity

Writing influenced by personal feelings or opinions.

Subjunctive mood

A verb mood expressing wishes, hypotheticals, or conditions contrary to fact.

Summary

A brief restatement of the main points of a text.

Symbolism

The use of symbols to represent ideas or qualities.

Theme

The central idea or message of a work.

Thesis

The main argument or claim of a piece of writing.

Tragic flaw

A character trait that leads to the downfall of a tragic hero.

Travesty

A grotesque or absurd imitation that distorts the original.

Truism

A statement so obviously true it's almost not worth stating.