AP Language and Composition advanced vocabulary

Rhetorical Triangle

The relationship between the speaker, audience, and subject.

Ethos

An appeal to credibility or character; e.g., A doctor endorsing a medical treatment to establish trust.

Pathos

An appeal to emotion; e.g., A commercial showing shivering puppies in a shelter to solicit donations.

Logos

An appeal to logic or reason; e.g., Citing a scientific study that proves 90% of users saw improvement.

Exigence

The spark or occasion that prompts the writer to write; e.g., A recent oil spill prompting an environmentalist to write an urgent op-ed.

Purpose

What the speaker wants the audience to do or feel; e.g., To persuade citizens to vote for a specific environmental bill.

Audience

The specific group a text is targeted toward; e.g., Tech-savvy teenagers vs. retired investors.

Speaker

The persona or voice the author adopts; e.g., A politician positioning themselves as a "common man" to gain votes.

Context

The circumstances, atmosphere, or events surrounding a text; e.g., A speech delivered during the height of the Great Depression.

Tone

The writer's attitude toward the subject; e.g., Using words like "shameful" and "appalling" to create a vitriolic tone.

Mood

The feeling created in the reader by the text; e.g., A description of a dark, rainy alley creating an ominous mood.

Diction

Strategic word choice; e.g., Choosing "slender" (positive) over "scrawny" (negative).

Syntax

The arrangement of words and phrases into sentences.

Denotation

The literal, dictionary definition of a word.

Connotation

The emotional or cultural associations of a word; e.g., "Home" suggesting warmth and security rather than just "house."

Allusion

A brief reference to a person, event, or place; e.g., "He was a real Romeo with the ladies."

Anaphora

Repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive phrases; e.g., "We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds..."

Antithesis

Opposition or contrast of ideas in a parallel construction; e.g., "Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven."

Archaic Diction

Old-fashioned or outdated choice of words; e.g., Using "thee" or "thou" in modern writing.

Asyndeton

Omission of conjunctions between coordinate phrases; e.g., "I came, I saw, I conquered."

Cumulative Sentence

Sentence that completes the main idea at the beginning and then builds; e.g., "The fire alarm went off, making a loud clang, startling the students, and causing a massive panic."

Hortative Sentence

Sentence that exhorts, urges, or calls to action; e.g., "Let us begin anew, remembering that civility is not a sign of weakness."

Imperative Sentence

Sentence used to command or enjoin; e.g., "Close the door."

Inversion

Inverted order of words in a sentence; e.g., "Whose woods these are I think I know."

Juxtaposition

Placement of two things closely together to emphasize differences; e.g., A high-tech laptop sitting on an antique wooden desk.

Metaphor

Figure of speech that compares two things without using like or as; e.g., "The snow is a white blanket."

Oxymoron

Paradoxical juxtaposition of words that seem to contradict; e.g., "Jumbo shrimp" or "organized chaos."

Parallelism

Similarity of structure in a pair or series of related words/phrases; e.g., "Singing a song, playing a game, and telling a story."

Periodic Sentence

Sentence whose main clause is withheld until the end; e.g., "After a long, bumpy flight and a tedious wait at customs, we finally arrived."

Personification

Attribution of a lifelike quality to an inanimate object; e.g., "The wind whispered through the trees."

Rhetorical Question

A question posed for effect rather than an answer; e.g., "Do you want to be a failure for the rest of your life?"

Synecdoche

Figure of speech that uses a part to represent the whole; e.g., "All hands on deck" where "hands" represents the sailors.

Zeugma

Use of two different words in a grammatically similar way that produces different meanings; e.g., "He broke her car and her heart."

Alliteration

Repetition of the same sound beginning several words; e.g., "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers."

Anadiplosis

Repetition of the last word of one clause at the beginning of the next; e.g., "Our doubt is our passion, and our passion is our task."

Antimetabole

Repetition of words in reverse order; e.g., "Eat to live, not live to eat."

Apostrophe

A direct address to an absent person or personified object; e.g., "O Liberty, what crimes are committed in thy name!"

Colloquialism

Informal or conversational use of language; e.g., "Y'all" or "Gonna."

Euphemism

A mild or indirect word substituted for one considered harsh; e.g., "Passed away" instead of "died."

Hyperbole

Deliberate exaggeration used for emphasis; e.g., "I've told you a million times."

Irony

A contradiction between what is said and what is meant; e.g., A fire station burning down.

Metonymy

Something represented by another thing related to it; e.g., "The White House issued a statement" where the building represents the President.

Paradox

A statement that is seemingly contradictory but delivers an ironic truth; e.g., "The only constant is change."

Polysyndeton

The deliberate use of multiple conjunctions; e.g., "I wore a hat and a coat and a scarf and boots."

Simile

A comparison using like or as; e.g., "She is as brave as a lion."

Understatement (Litotes)

Presenting something as less important than it is; e.g., "It's just a flesh wound" when a serious injury has occurred.

Analogy

A comparison between two seemingly dissimilar things; e.g., "Finding a needle in a haystack."

Anecdote

A brief story used to illustrate a point; e.g., A speaker telling a story about their own childhood to humanize their argument.

Chiasmus

Words/grammatical constructions repeated in reverse order; e.g., "The first shall be last and the last shall be first."

Epistrophe

Repetition of a word at the end of successive clauses; e.g., "of the people, by the people, for the people."

Claim

The argument's main idea or position.

Evidence

Specific details used to support a claim.

Warrant

The assumption that connects the claim to the evidence; e.g., If the claim is "it's raining" and the evidence is "the ground is wet," the warrant is "rain makes things wet."

Counterargument

An opposing argument to the one a writer is putting forward.

Concession

Acknowledging that an opposing argument may be true; e.g., "While I agree that the project is expensive, it is necessary for safety."

Refutation

A denial of the validity of an opposing argument.

Inductive Reasoning

Reasoning from specific cases to a general conclusion; e.g., "Every cat I've met purrs, so all cats must purr."

Deductive Reasoning

Reasoning from a general principle to a specific conclusion; e.g., "All humans are mortal; Harold is human; Harold is mortal."

Syllogism

A logical structure using major and minor premises; e.g., All mammals have lungs; whales are mammals; whales have lungs.

Logical Fallacy

Potential vulnerabilities or weaknesses in an argument.

Ad Hominem

Switching the argument from the issue to the character of the speaker; e.g., "We can't trust his math because he's a jerk."

Ad Populum (Bandwagon)

Argument that "everybody's doing it"; e.g., "Everyone is buying this phone, so it must be the best."

Appeal to False Authority

Citing someone with no expertise as an authority; e.g., A movie star giving medical advice.

Circular Reasoning

Repeating the claim as evidence; e.g., "You must obey the law because it's illegal to break it."

False Dilemma (Either/Or)

Presenting two extreme options as the only choices; e.g., "Either we cut taxes or the economy fails."

Hasty Generalization

Reaching a conclusion based on inadequate evidence; e.g., "I met one mean dog, so all dogs are mean."

Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc

Claiming A caused B because A happened first; e.g., "I wore my lucky socks and won, so the socks caused the win."

Straw Man

Using a poor example to ridicule an opponent's idea; e.g., "My opponent wants to limit gun sales; he clearly wants to leave us defenseless."

Red Herring

Introducing an irrelevant topic to divert attention; e.g., "We should focus on climate change, but what about the national debt?"

Non Sequitur

A statement that does not logically follow; e.g., "It's a beautiful day, so I should get an A on my test."

Begging the Question

Claim based on an unproven assumption; e.g., "Useless courses like Art should be cut from the budget."

Slippery Slope

Claiming a small step leads to a chain of disasters; e.g., "If we let students use phones in class, they will never learn to read."

Faulty Analogy

Comparing two things that are not truly comparable; e.g., "Medical student exams are like being a doctor in surgery."

Qualification

Limiting the scope of a claim; e.g., Using "most" or "usually" instead of "all" or "always."

Satire

Use of irony/sarcasm to critique society; e.g., "The Onion" news articles.

Abstract

Language describing concepts rather than concrete images; e.g., "Love," "Liberty," "Justice."

Concrete

Language describing specific, observable things; e.g., "A red brick wall."

Ambiguity

Multiple meanings of a word or phrase; e.g., "The passerby helped dog bite victim."

Anachronism

Something out of its proper time; e.g., A character using a cell phone in a movie set in the 1920s.

Aphorism

A short statement of a general truth; e.g., "A penny saved is a penny earned."

Caricature

Verbal description that distorts physical features for effect; e.g., Describing a politician as having "claws for hands."

Didactic

Words with the primary aim of teaching; e.g., A moralizing fable like "The Tortoise and the Hare."

Invective

Emotionally violent, abusive language; e.g., "You are a spineless, lily-livered coward!"

Loose Sentence

Main idea comes first, followed by dependent phrases; e.g., "The elephant was huge, with floppy ears and a long trunk."

Onomatopoeia

Natural sounds imitated in words; e.g., "Buzz," "Hiss," "Sizzle."

Pedantic

Overly scholarly or bookish tone; e.g., "I shall utilize my pedal-driven vehicle" instead of "I'll ride my bike."

Semantics

The branch of linguistics studying the meaning of words.

Symbolism

Anything that represents itself and stands for something else; e.g., A dove representing peace.

Thesis

The sentence or group of sentences that directly expresses the author's opinion or position.

Wit

Intellectually amusing language; e.g., Oscar Wilde's clever plays on words.

Allegory

Story elements symbolically representing abstractions; e.g., "Animal Farm" representing the Russian Revolution.

Homily

A sermon or serious talk involving moral or spiritual advice.

Genre

The major category into which a work fits; e.g., Biography, Poetry, Satire.

Point of View

The perspective from which a story is told.

Parody

A work that imitates another for comic effect; e.g., Saturday Night Live skits.

Generic Conventions

Traditions for each genre; e.g., A mystery novel having a detective and a crime to solve.

Narrative

The telling of a story or series of events.

Transition

A word or phrase that links ideas; e.g., "Furthermore," "However," "Consequently."

Style

The sum of choices an author makes in blending diction, syntax, and figurative language.

Rhetorical Strategy

The specific choices a writer makes to achieve their purpose; e.g., Using religious imagery to appeal to a pious audience.