AP Literature Terms: Figurative Language

Vocabulary practice flashcards defining essential literary devices and figurative language terms for AP Literature.

Allegory

A story in which each aspect has a symbolic meaning outside the tale itself.

Allusion

An indirect or passing reference to an event, person, place or artistic work that the author assumes the reader will understand.

Analogy

A comparison of similar things, often to explain something unfamiliar with something familiar.

Antithesis

A figure of speech in which words or phrases that are parallel in order and syntax express opposite or contrasting meanings.

Cliché

Any expression that has been used so often it has lost its freshness.

Conceit

From the Latin term for "concept," an often unconventional, logically complex, or surprising metaphor; also known as a metaphysical conceit, controlling image, or extended metaphor.

Euphemism

A mild term or phrase that takes the place of one more offensive or hurtful.

Figurative Language

Language that contains figures of speech, such as metaphor, simile, personification, etc.

Foreshadowing

An event or statement in a narrative that suggests a larger event that comes later.

Hyperbole

Exaggeration for the sake of emphasis in a figure of speech not meant literally.

Literal vs. Figurative Meaning

Literal meaning refers to the exact meaning of words, whereas figurative meaning refers to using words in a way not intended to be taken literally.

Irony

A discrepancy between intent and actual meaning.

Verbal Irony

A contrast between what is said and what is actually meant.

Situational Irony

A contrast between what is intended or expected and what actually occurs.

Dramatic Irony

A situation in which the audience knows more about a character's situation than the character does, foreseeing an outcome contrary to the character's expectations.

Kenning

A metaphoric compound word or phrase used as a synonym for a common noun.

Litotes

A figure of speech by which an affirmation is made indirectly by saying its opposite, usually with an effect of understatement.

Malapropism

The comic substitution of one word for another similar in sound, but quite different in meaning.

Metaphor

The most important and widespread figure of speech in which one thing, idea, or action is referred to by a word or expression normally denoting another, so as to suggest some common quality or qualities shared by the two.

Extended Metaphor

An idea or metaphor sustained throughout the work.

Dead Metaphor

A metaphor that has been used so much it has lost its figurative meaning and is taken literally.

Mixed Metaphor

A combination of two or more inconsistent metaphors in a single expression.

Metonymy

A figure of speech in which a representative term is used for a larger idea, where the word used is not literally a part of the thing referred to.

Oxymoron

A figure of speech in which two contradictory words or phrases are combined in a single expression.

Personification

The technique by which animals, abstract ideas, or inanimate objects are referred to as if they were human.

Pun

A form of wit, not necessarily funny, involving a play on a word with two or more meanings.

Simile

A less direct metaphor, using "like" or "as".

Solecism

Derived from Greek (meaning to speak incorrectly); a stylistic device, grammatical mistake, or intentional use of incorrect grammar in written language and speech.

Synecdoche

A figure of speech that utilizes a part as representative of the whole, where the word used is literally a part of the whole.

Synaesthesia

The description of one kind of sensation in terms of another.

Understatement

A type of verbal irony in which something is purposely represented as being far less important than it actually is.

Zeugma

Derived from the Greek for "yoking" or "bonding"; a figure of speech in which a word, usually a verb or an adjective, applies to more than one noun, blending together grammatically and logically different ideas.