Ap Lang Vocab

Abstract Language

Language describing ideas and qualities

Allegory

A narrative in which character, action, and setting represent abstract concepts apart from the literal meaning of a story. The underlying meaning usually has a moral, social, religious, or political significance.

Allusion

a brief reference to a person, event, or place - real or fictitious - or to a work of art.

Analogy

A comparison to a directly parallel case; the process of drawing a comparison between two things based on a partial similarity of like features.

Anaphora

the same expression is repeated at the beginning of 2 or more consecutive lines.

Anecdote

A short account of an interesting or humorous incident, intended to illustrate or support a point.

Antecedent

the word to which a pronoun refers.

Antithesis

A contrast in language to bring out a contrast in ideas.

Aphorism

A concise or tersely phrased statement in principle, truth, or opinion. Often found in fields like law, politics, and art.

Bias

a predisposition or subjective opinion.

Call to action

Writing that urges readers to action or promote a change.

Claim of Definition

claims arguing for what something means (or doesn't mean).

Claim of Policy

claims advocating courses of action that should or should not be undertaken.

Claim of Value

Claims involving opinions, attitudes, and subjective evaluation.

Cliche

A timeworn expression that through overuse has lost its power to evoke concrete images.

Colloquialism

words characteristic to informal, slang-ish, or familiar conversation.

Concrete Language

Language describing observable, specific things.

Connotation

The emotional implications that a word may carry.

Denotation

specific, exact meaning of a word as defined.

Diction

choice of words in a work and an important element of style.

Ethos

appealing to the audience's shared values.

Euphemism

Substitutions of an inoffensive, indirect, or agreeable expression for a word or phrase perceived as socially unacceptable or harsh.

Generalization

When a writer bases a claim upon an isolated example or asserts that a claim is certain rather than probable.

Idiom

An expression that means something other than the literal meanings of its individual words.

Irony

The discrepancy between appearance and reality: verbal, situational, dramatic.

Juxtaposition

Placing two ideas side by side or close together.

Logos

Appealing to logical reasoning and sound evidence.

Mood

The overall atmosphere of a work and the mood is how that atmosphere makes a reader feel.

Motif

recurrent images, words, objects, phrases, or actions that tend to unify the work.

Oxymoron

a self contradictory combination of words.

Paradox

a phrase or statement that while seeming contradictory or absurd may actually be well founded or true. Used to attract attention or to secure emphasis.

Parallelism

when the arrangement of parts of a sentence is similarly phrased or constructed.

Parody

exaggerated imitation of a serious work or subject.

Pathos

Evoking and manipulating emotions.

Persona

the character that the speaker portrays.

Refutation

When a writer delivers relevant opposing arguments.

Repetition

A thing repeated for rhetorical or literary effect.

Rhetorical Question

A question asked solely to produce an effect and not to elicit a reply.

Satire

genre of writing used to critique or ridicule through humor or sarcasm.

Declarative Sentence

makes a statement.

Interrogative Sentence

asks a question.

Imperative sentence

gives a command.

Exclamatory sentence

makes an interjection.

Syntax

how a sentence is constructed; the phrasing and grammar of a sentence.

Thesis

The central claim and overall purpose of a work.

Tone

the voice and attitude the writer has chosen to project.

Qualifier

a statement that indicates the force of the argument.