AP Literature Terms Flashcards

Vocabulary flashcards for AP Literature and Composition test review.

Metaphor

A comparison between two unlike things without using 'like' or 'as'; an extended metaphor continues the comparison throughout a passage or entire work.

Simile

A comparison between two unlike things using 'like' or 'as.'

Personification

Assigning human traits, emotions, or actions to non-human objects or concepts.

Hyperbole

Deliberate and extreme exaggeration for emphasis or effect.

Imagery

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

Diction

An author's choice of words, which influences meaning, tone, and style.

Tone

The author's attitude toward the subject, audience, or characters, conveyed through stylistic choices.

Mood/Atmosphere

The emotional feeling or atmosphere a work evokes in the reader.

Syntax

The arrangement of words and phrases to create well-formed sentences; affects pacing, emphasis, and tone.

Selection of Detail

The specific words, incidents, images, or events the author uses to create a scene or reveal character.

Dialogue

Spoken exchanges between characters, used to reveal character, advance plot, or develop conflict.

Situational Irony

When the opposite of what is expected occurs.

Verbal Irony

When a speaker says the opposite of what they mean.

Dramatic Irony

When the audience knows something that the characters do not.

Allusion

A brief reference to a person, event, place, or work of art/literature outside the text.

Understatement

Deliberately minimizing something’s importance, often for ironic or humorous effect.

Juxtaposition

Placing two elements side by side to present a contrast or comparison.

Oxymoron

A figure of speech in which two contradictory terms are combined.

Symbolism

Using an object, character, or event to represent a deeper meaning or abstract idea.

Parable

A short story illustrating a moral or spiritual lesson.

Allegory

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

Foreshadow

Hints or clues about what will happen later in the story.

Parallel Structure

Using the same pattern of words to show that two or more ideas have the same level of importance.

Synecdoche

A figure of speech where a part is used to represent the whole or vice versa.

Theme

The central idea, message, or insight a literary work conveys about life, human nature, or society; a theme must be expressed as a complete sentence offering a universal observation.

Aside

A brief remark by a character spoken directly to the audience (or to themselves) and unheard by other characters on stage.

Dialogue

Conversation between two or more characters, used to advance the plot or reveal character.

Monologue

A long, uninterrupted speech by a character addressed to other characters or the audience.

Dramatic Irony

When the audience knows something important that a character does not.

Soliloquy

A speech in which a character speaks their private thoughts aloud while alone on stage (or thinking they are alone).

Consonance

The repetition of consonant sounds within or at the end of words in a phrase or line.

Assonance

The repetition of vowel sounds within nearby words.

Enjambment

The continuation of a sentence or clause across a line break without a pause.

Caesura

A strong pause within a line of poetry, often marked by punctuation.

Apostrophe

A direct address to an absent person, an abstract idea, or an inanimate object.

Rhyme Scheme

The ordered pattern of end rhymes in a poem, often noted using letters (ABAB, AABB, etc.).

Internal Rhyme

Rhyme within a single line.

End Rhyme

Rhyme at the end of lines.

Slant Rhyme

Near rhyme; words with similar but not identical sounds.

Stanza

A grouped set of lines in a poem, often separated by spaces; functions like a paragraph in prose.

Free Verse

Poetry that does not have a regular meter or rhyme scheme.

Alliteration

The repetition of initial consonant sounds in nearby words.

Onomatopoeia

Words that imitate natural sounds.

Meter

The structured pattern of rhythm in a line of poetry, determined by the number and type of beats (syllables and stresses).

Prosody

The study of meter, rhythm, and intonation in poetry.

Metric/Poetic Foot

A basic unit of meter consisting of a combination of stressed and unstressed syllables.

Iamb

A two-syllable foot where the first syllable is unstressed and the second is stressed (da-DUM).

Trochee

A two-syllable foot with the first syllable stressed and the second unstressed (DA-dum).

Dactyl

A three-syllable foot with the first stressed and the next two unstressed (DA-da-da).

Pentameter

A line of poetry containing five metrical feet.

Trimeter

A line of poetry containing three metrical feet.

Tetrameter

A line of poetry containing four metrical feet.

Scansion

The act of analyzing the meter of a poem by marking stressed and unstressed syllables and identifying the metrical pattern.

Couplet

Two consecutive lines of poetry that usually rhyme and have the same meter.

Tercet

A three-line stanza or group of three lines that may or may not rhyme.

Quatrain

A stanza of four lines, often with a rhyme scheme such as ABAB or AABB.

Sestet

A six-line stanza or the last six lines of a Petrarchan sonnet.

Octave

An eight-line stanza or the first eight lines of a Petrarchan sonnet, typically following an ABBAABBA rhyme scheme.

Sonnet

A 14-line poem written in iambic pentameter, traditionally dealing with themes of love, time, or mortality.

Petrarchan (Italian) Sonnet

A sonnet divided into an octave (ABBAABBA) and a sestet (varied rhyme schemes like CDECDE or CDCDCD), often presenting a problem and a resolution.

Shakespearean (English) Sonnet

A sonnet organized into three quatrains and a final couplet, following an ABABCDCDEFEFGG rhyme scheme.

Spenserian (Elizabethan) Sonnet

A variation of the English sonnet with interlocking rhyme: ABAB BCBC CDCD EE.

Sestina

A highly structured 39-line poem composed of six sestets followed by a three-line envoi; it repeats six end-words in a set pattern.

Villanelle

A 19-line poem composed of five tercets followed by a quatrain, relying on repetition of two refrains and a strict rhyme scheme (ABA ABA ABA ABA ABA ABAA).

Ode

A formal, often ceremonious lyric poem that addresses and often celebrates a person, place, thing, or idea.

Ballad

A narrative poem, often arranged in quatrains, that tells a story, typically in a musical or rhythmic style.