AP Literary Terms

Ambiguity

when a word, phrase, or plot has more than one clear message

Anachronism

a person, object, event, or custom placed in the wrong time period

Archetype

universal character, symbol, or setting that recurs across different cultures

Connotation

emotional, cultural, or secondary meaning that a word carries beyond its definition

Denotation

literal, exact definition of a word

Details

specific fact or description used by a writer to support an idea

Epigraph

short phrase, poem, or quote placed at beginning of a book, chapter, or poem to set the mood or hint at the theme

Flashback

interrupts chronological order of story to show past events

Foreshadowing

author gives hints or warnings about future events in the story

Imagery

language that engages the reader’s five senses

In media res

story starts in middle of an exciting action, a big fight, or major problem instead of the beginning

Mood

emotional feeling that a work evokes in a reader

Moral

practical message that a story conveys to reader

Motif

recurring element that appears repeatedly throughout story

Parable

short story that teaches a lesson

Syntax

the way a writer arranges words, phrases, or clauses to form sentences

Theme

central, underlying idea or message explored in a story

Tone

attitude that author has towards a subject, character, or audience

Allegory

story where characters, places, and events hold deeper symbolic meaning

Allusion

brief reference to a person, place, or event that exists outside the story

Apostrophe

when speaker turns away from actual audience to address an inanimate object or absent person

Euphemism

a polite rephrasing of a harsh term

Hyperbole

extreme exaggeration used to make a point

Irony

sharp difference between appearance and reality

Metaphor

compares two things by stating that one thing is another

Metonymy

an object, person, or idea is called by something closely linked to it (Ex: White House = POTUS)

Oxymoron

puts two opposite words together in one short phrase

Paradox

statement or situation that appears to self-contradict or go against common sense

Personification

author gives human traits, emotions, or actions to objects, animals, or ideas

Pun

form of wordplay that exploits multiple meanings of a word or similar-sounding words

Simile

directly compares two different things to show a common quality

Symbol

person, object, or place that means something more than its definition

Synaesthesia

author mixes two or more human senses

Synecdoche

a part of something stands in for the whole (Ex: Wheels = Car)

Understatement

writer intentionally makes situation seem less important