ap lang

  • Allegory – A story where characters/events stand for bigger ideas or events (ex: Animal Farm = Russian Revolution).

  • Alliteration – Repeating the same beginning consonant sound (ex: Peter Piper picked…).

  • Allusion – A reference to something well-known (history, Bible, mythology, pop culture).

  • Analogy – A comparison showing how two things are similar.

  • Anaphora – Repeating the same word(s) at the start of sentences/clauses for emphasis.

  • Anastrophe – Switching the usual word order for effect (like Yoda: “Strong in the Force, you are”).

  • Antithesis – Two opposite ideas balanced in one sentence (ex: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times”).

  • Apostrophe – Talking to someone absent, dead, or nonhuman as if they could respond.

  • Assonance – Repeating vowel sounds in nearby words (ex: “The cat ran after the man”).

  • Asyndeton – Leaving out conjunctions between words/phrases (ex: “I came, I saw, I conquered”).

  • Chiasmus – Reversing word order in parallel phrases (ex: “Ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country”).

  • Colloquialism – Informal, everyday speech (ex: gonna, y’all, ain’t).

  • Conceit – A long or unusual metaphor comparing very different things.

  • Connotation – The feelings/ideas a word suggests beyond its dictionary meaning (ex: home = comfort, family).

  • Didactic – Writing meant to teach a lesson or moral.

  • Elegy – A sad poem mourning someone’s death.

  • Epanalepsis – Starting and ending a sentence/line with the same word (ex: “The king is dead; long live the king.”).

  • Epigraph – A quote at the beginning of a book/work that hints at its theme.

  • Hyperbole – Extreme exaggeration (ex: “I’m so hungry I could eat a horse”).

  • Irony – A contrast between expectation and reality.

    • Verbal irony: saying the opposite of what you mean.

    • Situational irony: outcome is the opposite of what’s expected.

    • Dramatic irony: audience knows something the character doesn’t.

  • Juxtaposition – Putting two very different ideas/images side by side for contrast.

  • Litotes – Saying something by denying the opposite (ex: “Not bad” = good).

  • Metonymy – Using something closely related to represent it (ex: “the crown” = king/queen).

  • Polysyndeton – Using lots of conjunctions (ex: “I want cookies and cake and pie and candy”).

  • Synecdoche – Using a part to represent the whole (ex: “wheels” = car).