AP Lang Flash Cards

Allegory

a narrative where the characters, behavior, and setting demonstrate multiple levels of meaning and significance. Often, the allegory is a universal symbol or personified abstraction.

Alliteration

the sequential repetition of a similar initial sound, usually applied to consonants.

Allusion

a literary, historical, religious, or mythological reference.

Analogy

an extended comparison between 2 seemingly dissimilar things.

Anaphora

repetition of a group of words or phrases at the beginning of successive clauses.

Anecdote

a short account of an enjoyable event.

Antithesis

the juxtaposition of sharply contrasting ideas in balanced or parallel words, phrases, grammatical structure, or ideas.

Aphorism

a concise statement designed to make a point or illustrate a commonly held belief.

Apostrophe

an address or invocation to something inanimate.

Asyndeton

a syntactical structure in which conjunctions are omitted in a series, usually producing more rapid prose.

Bias

prejudice or predisposition toward one side of a subject or issue.

Claim

in argumentation, an assertion of something as fact.

Cliche

an overused expression

Colloquial/ism

a term identifying the diction of the standard, ordinary folks, especially in a specific region or area.

Close Reading

a careful reading that is attentive to the organization, figurative language, sentence structure, vocabulary, and other literary and structural elements of the text.

Standard Ground

shared beliefs, values, or positions.

Concession

a reluctant acknowledgment or yielding.

Concrete Details

details that relate to or describe actual, specific things or events.

Connotation

the implied, suggested, or underlying meaning of a word or phrase.

Context

words, events, or circumstances that help determine meaning.

Convention

an accepted manner, model, or tradition.

Counterargument

A challenge to a position, an opposing argument.

Deductive Reasoning(deduction)

reasoning from general to specific.

Denotation

The dictionary definition of the word.

Dialect

the language and speech idiosyncrasies of a specific area, region, or group.

Diction

is the author's specific word choice to persuade or convey tone, purpose, or effect.

Didactic

(from the Greek “good teaching”) Writing or speech is didactic when it has an instructive purpose or lesson.

Elegy

a poem or prose work that laments or meditates upon the death of a person or persons.

Ellipsis

the omission of a word or phrase that is grammatically necessary but can be deduced from the context.

Epistrophe

in rhetoric, the repetition of a phrase at the end of successive sentences.

Epitaph

writing praising a dead person, often inscribed on a headstone.

Ethos

in rhetoric, the appeal of a text to the credibility and character of the speaker, writer, or narrator.

Euphemism

an indirect, kinder, or less harsh or hurtful way of expressing unpleasant information.

Exposition

the interpretation or analysis of a text.

Eulogy

a speech or written passage in praise of a person.

Figurative language/Figure of speech

the language with levels of meaning expressed through figures of speech such as personification, metaphor, hyperbole, and simile.

Flashback

(Also known as retrospection)

Genre

a type or class of literature such as epic, poem, history, biography, fiction, or nonfiction.

Homily

a sermon, but more contemporary uses include any serious talk, speech, or lecture involving a moral or spiritual life.

Hyperbole

overstatement, exaggeration.

Idiom

an expression in a given language that cannot be understood from the literal meaning of the words in the expression.

Imagery

any sensory detail in a work, the use of figurative language to evoke a feeling to call to mind an idea or to describe an object using any or all of the five senses.

Inference

a conclusion or proposition by considering facts, observations, or specific data, looking at clues, and learning the facts.

Invective

an intensely vehement, highly emotional verbal attack.

Irony (ironic)

the contrast between explicitly stated and what is meant. The intended meaning often contradicts what is said, frequently suggesting light sarcasm.

Jargon

a specialized or technical language of trade, profession, or similar group.

Juxtaposition

the location of one thing adjacent to or juxtaposed with another to create an effect, reveal an attitude, or accomplish another purpose.

Metaphor

an implicit comparison or identification of one thing with another without using Like or As.

Metonymy

a figure of speech where an attitude or commonly associated feature is used to name or designate something.

Mood

a feeling or ambiance resulting from the tone of the piece as well as the writer/narrator’s attitude and point of view.

Onomatopoeia

words capturing or approximating the sound they describe.

Oxymoron

a figure of speech that combines 2 contradictory elements.

Paradox

a statement that seems contradictory but may probably be true

Parallel Structure/Parallelism

using similar forms in writing for nouns, verbs, phrases, or thoughts.

Pathos

an element in literature that stimulates pity or sorrow. In argument, it is the evocation of pity from the reader/listener.

Parody

a piece that imitates and exaggerates the prominent features of another used for comic effect or ridicule.

Personification

giving an abstraction or non-human object a human feature or quality.

Point of View

the relation in which the narrator/author stands to a subject of discourse. In non-fiction, the point of view requires the reader to establish the historical perspective of what is being said.

Propaganda

a negative term for writing designed to sway opinion rather than present information.

Rhetoric

the art of using words to persuade in writing and speaking.

Rhetorical Question

a question simply asked for stylistic effect and is not expected to be answered.

Sarcasm

a form of verbal irony in which apparent praise is a criticism.

Satire

is a literary work that holds up to ridicule and censure human failings.

Simile

direct comparison of 1 thing to another using LIKE or AS.

Style

the way the writer combines and arranges words and ideas and utilizes syntax and structure. The distinctive style of expression represents the writer’s typical writing.

Symbolism

use of a person, place, thing, event, or pattern that figuratively represents something else.

Synecdoche

a figure of speech where a part signifies the whole.

Syntax

sentence structure.

Synthesize

Combining or bringing together 2 or more elements to produce something more complex.

Theme

the central or dominant idea or focus of a work. The statement a passage makes about its subject.

Thesis Statement

A statement of the central idea in a work.

Tone

the narrator/writer's attitude toward a subject and theme.

Understatement

Lack of emphasis in a statement or point.

Vernacular

the everyday speech of a particular country or region, often involving nonstandard usage.

Voice

the acknowledged or unacknowledged source of the words of the story.