Ap Lang

Allegory

A story or poem in which characters, settings, and events stand for other people or events or for abstract ideas or qualities.

Alliteration

Repetition of the same or similar consonant sounds in words that are close together.

Allusion

Reference to someone or something that is known from history, literature, religion, politics, sports, science, or another branch of culture. An indirect reference.

Analogy

Comparison made between two things to show how they are alike.

Anaphora

Repetition of a word, phrase, or clause at the beginning of two or more sentences in a row.

Anastrophe

Inversion of the usual, normal, or logical order of the parts of a sentence. Purpose is rhythm, emphasis, or euphony.

Antithesis

Balancing words, phrases, or ideas that are strongly contrasted, often by means of grammatical structure.

Apostrophe

Calling out to an imaginary, dead, or absent person, or to a place, thing, or a personified abstract idea.

Assonance

The repetition of similar vowel sounds followed by different consonant sounds, especially in words that are together.

Asyndeton

Commas used without conjunction to separate a series of words, thus emphasizing the parts equally.

Chiasmus

In poetry, a type of rhetorical balance in which the second part is syntactically balanced against the first, but with the parts reversed.

Colloquialism

A word or phrase in everyday use in conversation and informal writing but inappropriate for formal situations.

Conceit

An elaborate metaphor that compares two things that are startlingly different; often an extended metaphor.

Connotation

The associations and emotional overtones attached to a word or phrase, in addition to its strict dictionary definition.

Didactic

Form of fiction or nonfiction that teaches a specific lesson or moral or provides a model of correct behavior or thinking.

Elegy

A poem of mourning, usually about someone who has died.

Epanalepsis

Device of repetition in which the same expression is repeated both at the beginning and at the end of the line, clause, or sentence.

Epigraph

A quotation or aphorism at the beginning of a literary work suggestive of the theme.

Hyperbole

A figure of speech that uses incredible exaggeration or overstatement for effect.

Irony

A discrepancy between appearances and reality.

Juxtaposition

Placing normally unassociated ideas, words, or phrases next to one another, creating surprise or contrast.

Litotes

A form of understatement in which the positive form is emphasized through the negation of a negative form.

Metonymy

A figure of speech in which a person, place, or thing is referred to by something closely associated with it (e.g., “the crown” for monarch).

Polysyndeton

A sentence which uses a conjunction with no commas to separate items in a series (e.g., “X and Y and Z”).

Synecdoche

A figure of speech in which a part represents the whole (e.g., “wheels” for a car).