AP Lit Vocab over Summer

Allegory

A story, poem, or picture that can interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one

Alliteration

The occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words

Allusion

An expression designed to call something to mind without mentioning it explicitly; an indirect or passing reference

Ambiguity

The quality of being open to more than one interpretation; inexactness

Anaphora

The use of a word referring to or replacing a word used earlier in a sentence, to avoid repetition

Antecedent

A thing or event that existed before or logically precedes another

Antithesis

A person or thing that is the direct opposite of someone or something else

Aphorism

A pithy observation that contains a general truth, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”

Apostrophe

A punctuation mark "( ‘ ) used to indicate either possession or the omission of letters or numbers

Assonance

In poetry, the repetition of the sound of a vowel or dipthong in non rhyming stressed syllables near enough to each other for the echo to be discernible

Asyndetion

The omission or absence of a conjunction between parts of a sentence

Atmosphere

The pervading tone or mood of a place, situation, or work of art

Attitude

A settled way of thinking or feeling about someone or something, typically one that is reflected in a person’s behavior

Ballad

A slow sentimental or romantic song; a poem or song narrating a story in short stanzas. Traditional ballads are typically of unknown authorship having passed orally

Bildungsroman

A novel dealing with one person’s formative years or spiritual education

Blank verse

Verse without rhyme, especially that which used iambic pentameter

Caesura

Metrical pause or break in a verse where one phrase ends and another phase begins; only interruption or break

Dynamic Character

Changes throughout the story

Static Character

Doesn’t change throughout the story

Round Character

Lifelike figures with complex, multifaced personalities. They’re deep

Flat Character

Lacks complexity in several facets

Direct Characterization

Literary device used to tell conclusive details about a character to the reader with little to no ambiguity. Fact about a character

Indirect

Literary device that reveals details about a character without stating them explicitly

Chiasmus

Grammatical constructions, or concepts are repeated in reverse order, in the same or a modified form

Clause

A group of words containing a subject and predicate and functioning as a member of a complex or compound sentence

Colloquialism

A word or phrase that is not formal or literary, typically one used in ordinary or familiar conversation

Conceit

A fanciful expression in writing or speech; an elaborate metaphor

External conflict

Conflict within literature that occurs outside of the main character

Internal conflict

Conflict within literature that occurs inside of a main character, when a character experiences tensions within themselves

Connotation

An idea or feeling that a word invokes in addition to its literal or primary menaing

Couplet

Two lines of verse, usually in the same meter and joined by rhyme, that form a unit

Heroic couplet

A pair of rhyming iambic pentameters, much used by Chaucer and the poets of the 17th and 18th centuries such as Alexander Pope.

Denotation

The literal or primary meaning of a word, in contrast to the feelings or ideas that the word suggests

Details

A particular item of information that supports an idea or contributes to an overall impression

Devices of sound

Elements of literature and poetry that emphasize sound. Repetition, rhyme, alliteration, and assonance

Diction

The choice and use of words and phrases in speech or writing

Didactic

Intended to teach, particularly in having moral instructions as an ulterior motive. Teach than entertain

Digression

A temporary departure from the main subject in speech or writing

Elegy

A poem of serious reflection, typically a lament for the dead

End-stopped

Having a pause at the end of each line of a poem

Enjambment

The continuation of a sentence without a pause beyond the end of the line, couplet, or stanza

Epic

A long poem, typically one derived from ancient oral tradition, narrating the deeds and adventures or heroic or legendary figures or the history of a nation

Epic Simile

a detailed comparison in the form of a simile that are many lines in length

Epigram

A pithy, saying or remark expressing on idea in a clever and amusing way

Epilogue

A section or speech at the end of a book or play that serves as a comment on or a conclusion to what happen

Epiphany

The sudden and striking realization that comes from an experience

Epistle

A letter

Ethos

The characteristic spirit of a culture, era, or community as manifested in its beliefs and aspirations

Euphemism

A mild or indirect word or expression substituted for one considered too harsh or blunt when referring to something unpleasant or embarrassing

Exposition

A comprehensive description and explanation of an idea or theory. The insertion of background information within a story or narrative

Figurative language

The use of words in a way that deviates from the conventional order and meaning in order to convey a complicated meaning, colorful writing, clarity, or evocative comparison

Foil

A character who is presented as a contrast to a second character so as to point to or show to advantage some aspect of the second character

Free indirect style

Technique of presenting a character’s voice partly mediated by the voice of the author

Free verse

Open form of poetry. Doesn’t use consistent meter patterns, rhyme, or any musical pattern

Gothicism

A genre that places strong emphasis on intense emotion, pairing terror with pleasure, death with romance

Grotesque

A bizarre or twisted character, becoming as such through some kind of obsession. May be physical or mental.

Hexameter

A line of verse consisting of six metrical feet, especially of six dactyls.

Hyperbole

Exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally

Iamb

A metrical foot consisting of an unaccented syllable followed by an accented syllable

Imagery

Visually descriptive or figurative language

Internal rhyme

A rhyme involving a word in the middle of a line and another at the end of the line or in the middle of the next

Verbal irony

A statement in which the speaker’s words are incongruous with the speaker’s intent

Situational

The irony of something happening that is very different to what was expected

Dramatic

Literary device by which the audience’s or reader’s understanding of events or individuals in a work surpasses that of its characters

Jargon

Special words or expressions that are used by a particular profession in a group and are different for others to understand

Juxtaposition

The fact of two things being seen or placed close together with contrasting effects

Litote

A phrase that uses negation to create an affirmative understatement

Logos

To appeal to the audience’s sense of reason or logic

Loose sentence

The independent clause is the beginning followed by one or more dependent clauses

Cumulative loose sentence

An independent clause followed by one or more modifiers

Lyrical

A formal type of poetry which expresses personal emotions or feelings, typically spoken in the first person

Malapropism

Verbal blunder in which one word is replaced by another similar in sound but different meaning

Metaphor

A comparison between two things that are otherwise unrelated

Metonymy

The substitution of the name of an attribute or adjunct for that of the thing meant

Mood

The atmosphere of the narrative. The emotional response that the writer wishes to evoke in the reader through a story

Motif

Distinctive feature or idea that recurs across a story, often helps develop other narrative elements

Narrative techniques

The way in which a writer coneys what they want to say to their reader and the methods that they use to develop a story

Ode

A formal, often ceremonious lyric poem that addresses and often celebrates a person, place, thing, or idea

Omniscient point of view

The narrator knows everything, and isn’t limited to the viewpoint of any character

Onomatopoeia

The naming of a thing or action by imitation of natural sounds

Oxymoron

A words or group of words that is self-contradicting

Parable

A short simple story illustrating a moral or a spiritual truth

Paradox

Literary device that appears to contradict itself but contains some truth, theme, or humor

Parallel structure

The repetition of a chosen grammatical form within a sentence

Parallelism

Coordinate ideas are arranged in phrases, sentences, and paragraphs that balance one element with another or equal importance and similar wording

Parody

An imitation of the style of a particular writer, artist, or genre with deliberate exaggeration for comic effect

Pathos

A quality that evokes pity or sadness

Pentameter

A line of verse containing five metrical feet

Periodic sentence

The main point (independent clause) occurs at the end of the sentence, after one or more side points (dependent clause) lend up to the main point

Personification

Figuratively describing it with human traits in order to craft vivid images of that object in your reader’s mind

Point of view

The writer’s way of deciding who is telling the story to whom

First person point of view

The narrator is a person in the story, telling it from their point of view

Third person point of view

The narrator exists outside the events of the story, and relates the actions of the characters by referring to their names or by the third-person pronouns

Limited person point of view

The narrator tells the story from the perspective of a single protaganist

Polysyndeton

A rhetorical and literary technique in which a conjunction appears over and over again to join different thoughts in one sentence

Prose

Verbal or written language that follows the natural flow of speech

Realism

A literary movement that represents reality by portraying mundane, everyday experiences as they are in real life

Reliability

The ability to be relied on or dependent on, as for accuracy, honesty, or achievement

Resources of language

Written and spoken corpora, computational lexica, terminology databases, speech collection

Rhetoric

The study and uses of written, spoken and visual languages; The art of effective or persuasive speaking or writing, especially the use of figures of speech and other compositional techiques