AP LANG tone/diction words

Tone

• admiring--complimentary, favorable

• • alarmed--excited

• •allusive--suggestive, hinting

• • aloof--haughty, distant

• • ambivalent--indecisive, having mixed emotions angry--irate

• • anxious--uneasy, brooding apathetic--uncaring, uninvolved

• • apologetic--regretful audacious--bold, insolent

• • belligerent--contentious

• • benevolent--kindly

• • bitter--hating, malicious, resentful, rancorous

• • candid--frank, truthful

• •captious--ready to detect trivial faults

• • censorious--severely critical, condemnatory

• • clinical--detached, coolly dispassionate

• • cold--unemotional

• • complacent--self-satisfied, smug

• • condescending-showing superiority, patronizing

• • confident--certain, full of conviction

• • confused--perplexed, disconcerted

• • contemptuous--scornful, disdainful, disrespectful, irrelevant

• • critical-judging harshly

• • cynical--contemptuously distrustful of human nature and motives, misanthropic

• • delirious--suggesting frenzied excitement

• • depressed--dejected

• • desperate--showing a loss of hope

• • detached--unconcerned, aloof, distant, unbiased

• • didactic--instructive

• • dispassionate-unaffected by strong feeling; showing coolness of judgment

• • dogmatic--authoritative, assertive, arrogant

• • dreamy--vague, in a state of reverie, appearing tranquil

• • effusive--excessively demonstrative, gushing

• • elated--joyful; happy

• • elegiac--expressing sorrow

• • fanciful--whimsical

• • flippant-lacking proper respect or seriousness

• • forgiving--pardoning, excusing

• • frivolous--lacking seriousness, playful, silly

• • giddy--lightheartedly silly

• • hesitant--reluctant

• • impartial--unbiased, objective

• • impassioned--ardent, fervent, fervid

• • importunate-overly persistent in demand

• • incredulous--not believing

• • indignant--showing anger at injustice

• • insolent--arrogant, overbearing, impudent

• • ironic--expressing the opposite of literal meaning

• • irreverent--disrespectful

• • jocular--joking, humorous

• • lugubrious--dismal, mournful

• • matter-of-fact--concerned with fact only, not imaginative or fanciful; objective

• • melancholy--depressed, dejected, sad

• • optimistic-inclined to expect the best possible outcome

• • pedantic-narrowly or unimaginatively academic; ostentatiously learned

• • pessimistic--inclined to expect the worst possible outcome, fatalistic

• • pompous--arrogant, self-important

• • puerile--childish, juvenile

• • pungent--caustic, stinging, biting

• • restrained--reserved

• • sardonic--disdainfully humorous, sarcastic

• • satirical--ridiculing, ironic, mocking, taunting

• • sentimental--affectedly emotional, maudlin

• • skeptical--questioning, doubting

• • somber--serious, solemn, gloomy, grave, melancholy

• • supercilious--haughtily contemptuous

• • sympathetic--favoring, pitying

• • tongue-in-cheek--ironic, facetious, sarcastic

• • threatening--menacing

• • urgent--urging insistently, earnest

• • vexed--annoyed, agitated

• • vindictive-vengeful, spiteful, vicious

• • zealous--eager, passionate, fervent

  
  Diction

• artificial: - Fake

• Colloquial-  informal

• Colorful- vivid 

• Concrete- solid 

• Connotative- suggestive

• Cultured- ethnic

• elevated - raised

• emotional, - enthusiastic 

• Esoteric-  obscure

• Euphemistic- polite substitute 

• Exact-precise

• grotesque, - deformed 

• homespun, unsophisticated  

• idiomatic, - vernacular 

• Insipid- blind/weak

• jargon, - slang/ vernacular 

• learned, - taught 

• moralistic, - admonishing

• obscure, - unclear 

• pedantic, overdone

• picturesque, - vivid

• Plain- simple

• poetic, - lyrical 

• precise, - exact 

• pretentious, - pompous 

• prosaic - unimaginative 

• scholarly, - academic 

• sensuous, - sexual/ aesthetic 

• simple, - casual 

• slang, - dialect 

• symbolic, - representative

• Vulgar -inappropriate