better ap lit terms

1. a story in which people, things, and actions represent an idea about life; they often have a strong lesson: Allegory

2. the repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words: Alliteration

3. a reference in a literary work to a person, place, or thing in history or another work of literature. They are often indirect or brief references to well-known characters or events: Allusion

4. a comparison of two or more like objects that suggests if they are alike in certain respects, they will probably be alike in other ways as well: Analogy

5. an actor’s speech, directed to the audience, that is not supposed to be heard by other actors on stage. Used to let the audience know what a character is about to do or what he or she is thinking: Aside

6. repetition of vowel sounds within a line of poetry:Assonance

7. unrhymed iambic pentameter: Blank verse

8. a pause or a sudden break in a line of poetry: Caesura

9. the repetition of consonant sounds anywhere within a line of poetry: Consonance

10. a rhymed pair of lines in a poem: Couplet

11. a form of language that is spoken in a particular place or by a particular group of people: Dialect

12. a literary device that is used when a character reveals his or her innermost thoughts and feelings, those that are hidden throughout the course of the story line, through a poem or a speech. This speech, where only one character speaks, is recited while other characters are present onstage: Dramatic Monologue

13. a literary song or poem that expresses sorrow or lamentation, usually for one who has died: Elegy

14. in poetry, the running over of a line or thought into the next of verse: Enjambment

15. a figure of speech that compares two essentially unlike things in great length: Extended Metaphor

16. an interruption of the chronological sequence of an event of earlier occurrence: Flashback

17. a character who contrasts with another character—usually with the protagonist—in order to highlight particular qualities of the other character: Foil

18. a unit of meter within a line of poetry: Foot

19. when the writer provides clues or hints that suggest or predict future event in a story: Foreshadowing

20. poetry without regular patterns of rhyme and rhythm. Often used to capture the sounds and rhythms of ordinary speech: free verse

21. a couplet consisting of two successive rhyming lines that contain a complete thought: heroic couplet

22. fiction that explores a past time period and may contain references to actual people and events: historical fiction

23. a figure of speech in which the truth is exaggerated for emphasis or humorous effect: hyperbole

24. a phrase or expression that means something different from what the words actually say (for example, using the phrase “over his head” instead of “He doesn’t understand”): idiom

25. the use of words and phrases that appeal to the five senses. Writers use sensory details to help readers imagine how things look, feel, smell, sound, and taste: imagery

26. a contrast between what is expected and what actually exists or happens: irony

27. when the speaker means something different than what he or she is saying: verbal irony

28. when the audience knows something the characters don’t know: dramatic irony

29. the difference between what is expected to happen and the way events actually work out: situation irony

30. an autobiographical writing that covers only a piece of the writer’s life: memoir

31. the regular pattern of accented and unaccented syllables: meter

32. the metaphorical substitution of one word or phrase for another related word or phrase. Example: “The pen is mightier than the sword.” The word “pen” is used in place of “words” and the word “sword” is used to represent the idea of fighting or war: metonymy

33. the feeling that a literary work conveys to readers: mood

34. a recurring object, concept, or structure in a work of literature. It is important because it allows one to see main points and themes that the author is trying to express, in order that one might be able to interpret the work more accurately: motif

35. the use of words whose sound suggest their meaning (ex. buzz, bang, hiss): onomatopoeia

36. a form of figurative language combining contradictory words or ideas (ex. jumbo shrimp, bittersweet): oxymoron

37. a statement that seems to contradict itself but is, nevertheless, true: paradox

38. the use of similar grammatical constructions to express ideas that are related or equal in importance. For example: The sun rises. The sun sets: parallelism

39. the person telling the story is one of the characters in the story. It is the “I” point of view. It is the most limited among the types because the narrator can only state what he or she sees, feels, and hears: first person point of view

40. the person telling the story is not one of the characters in the story. He or she is an outside observer. The reader only knows the thoughts and feelings of ONE character in the story: third person limited

41. the person telling the story is also an outside observer, but this narrator is able to know the thoughts and feelings of ALL the characters in the story: third person omniscient

42. a technique in which a sound, word, phrase, or line is repeated for effect or emphasis: repetition

43. a literary technique in which ideas or customs are ridiculed for the purpose of improving society: satire

44. a speech delivered by a character who is alone on the stage: soliloquy

45. usually written in iambic pentameter. It consists first of an octave, or eight lines, which asks a question or states a problem or proposition and follows the rhyme scheme a-b-ba, a-b-b-a: The Italian or Petrarchan sonnet

46. three quatrains, each having its own independent rhyme scheme typically rhyming every other line, and ending with a rhyme couplet: English or Shakespearean sonnet

47. using something specific to stand for something else, especially an idea. It is a person, place, object or action that for something beyond itself: symbolism

48. a literary technique in which the whole is represented by naming one of its parts. Example: “You've got to come take a look at my new set of wheels.” The vehicle is represented by its parts, or wheels: synecdoche

49. the writer’s attitude or feeling about his or her subject: tone