AP Lang Schemes and Tropes (new)

alliteration

repetition of initial or medial consonants in two or more

adjacent words

anadiplosis

repetition of the last word of one clause at the beginning of

the following clause

anaphora

repetition of the same word or group of words at the beginning

of successive clauses

anastrophe

inversion of the natural or usual word order

antimetabole

repetition of words, in successive clauses, in reverse

grammatical order

antithesis

the juxtaposition of contrasting ideas, often in parallel structure

apposition

placing side by side two co-ordinate elements, the second of

which serves as an explanation or modification of the first

assonance

the repetition of similar vowel forms, preceded and followed by

different consonants, in the stressed syllables of adjacent words

asyndeton

deliberate omission of conjunctions between a series

chiasmus

reversal of grammatical structures in a successive clauses (but

no repetition of words)

climax

arrangement of words, phrases, or clauses in an order of increasing

importance

ellipsis

the deliberate omission of a word or of words readily implied by the

context

epanalepsis

repetition at the end of a clause of the word that occurred at

the beginning of the clause

epistrophe

repetition of the same word or group of words at the ends of

successive clauses

isocolon

similarity not only of structure but of length

parallelism

similarity of structure in a pair of series of related words,

phrases, or clauses

parenthesis

insertion of some verbal unit in a position that interrupts the

normal syntactical flow of the sentence

polyptoton

repetition of words derived from the same root

polysyndeton

deliberate use of many conjunctions

(artful use of diction; figure of speech)

antanaclasis

repetition of a word in two different senses

anthimeria

the substitution of one part of speech for another

hyperbole

the use of exaggerated terms for the purpose of emphasis or

heightened effect

irony

use of a word in such a way as to convey a meaning opposite to the

literal meaning of the word

litotes

deliberate use of understatement

metaphor

implied comparison between two things of unlike nature

metonymy

substitution of some attributive or suggestive word for what is

actually meant

onomatopoeia

use of words whose sound echoes the sense or function of

the that which it is describing

oxymoron

the yoking of two terms which are ordinarily contradictory

paradox

an apparently contradictory statement that nevertheless contains

a measure of truth

paronomasis

use of words alike in sound, but different in meaning

periphrasis (antonomasia)

substitution of a descriptive word or phrase

for a proper name or of a proper name for a quality associated with the name

personification (prosopopoeia)

investing abstractions for inanimate

objects with human qualities or abilities

rhetorical question

asking a question, not for the purpose of eliciting an

answer but for the purpose of asserting or denying something obliquely

simile

explicit comparison between two things of unlike nature

syllepsis

use of a word understood differently in relation to two or more

other words, which it modifies or governs

synecdoche

figure of speech in which a part stands for the whole