APLANG vocab 6
Abstruse - (adjective) Hard to comprehend.
Example: Everyone else in the class understood geometry easily, but John found the subject abstruse.
Accede - (verb) To agree.
Example: When the class asked the teacher whether they could play baseball instead of learning grammar they expected him to refuse, but instead he acceded to their request.
Accentuate - (verb) To stress or highlight.
Example: Psychologists agree that those people who are happiest accentuate the positive in life.
Acclaim - (noun) High praise.
Example: Greg’s excellent poem won the acclaim of his friends.
Accommodating - (adjective) Helpful, obliging, polite.
Example: Though the apartment was not big enough for three people, Arnold, Mark, and Zebulon were all friends and were accommodating to each other.
Diacope - Repetition of a word or phrase after an intervening word or phrase: word/phrase X … word/phrase X.
Example: We will do it, I tell you; we will do it.
Example: “We give thanks to thee, O God, we give thanks.” – Psalm 75:1
Diction - Related to style, diction refers to the writer’s word choices, especially with regard to their correctness, clearness, or effectiveness. For the AP exam, you should be able to describe an author’s diction (for example, formal or informal, ornate or plain) and understand the ways in which diction can complement the author’s purpose. Diction, combined with syntax, figurative language, literary devices, etc., creates an author’s style.
Didactic (dahy-dak-tik) - From the Greek, didactic literally means “teaching.” Didactic works have the primary aim of teaching or instructing, especially the teaching of moral or ethical principles.
Enumeration - Figure of amplification in which a subject is divided into constituent parts or details, and may indicate a listing of causes, effects, problems, solutions, conditions, and consequences; the listing of or detailing of the parts of something.
Example: I love her eyes, her hair, her nose, her cheeks, her lips.
Example: “Who’s gonna turn down a Junior Mint? It’s chocolate, it’s peppermint, it’s delicious … it’s very refreshing.” – Kramer (Seinfeld)
Explicative (ek-spli-tiv) - Figure of emphasis in which a single word or short phrase, usually interrupting normal speech, is used to lend emphasis to the words on either side of the expletive.
Examples: in fact, of course, to be sure, indeed, I suppose, I hope, you know,you see, clearly, in any event, in effect, certainly, remarkably