AP Lang Terminology
Alliteration: The repetition of the same sound or letter at the beginning of consecutive words or syllables.
Allusion: An indirect reference, often to another text or an historic event.
Analogy: An extended comparison between two seemingly dissimilar things.
Anaphora: The repetition of words at the beginning of successive clauses.
Anecdote: A short account of an interesting event.
Antecedent: The noun to which a later pronoun refers.
Aphorism: A short, astute statement of a general truth.
Archaic diction: The use of words common to an earlier time period; antiquated language.
Asyndeton: Leaving out conjunctions between words, phrases, clauses.
Attitude: The speaker’s position on a subject as revealed through his or her tone.
Audience: One’s listener or readership; those to whom a speech or piece of writing is addressed.
Authority: A reliable, respected source—someone with knowledge.
Bias: Prejudice or predisposition toward one side of a subject or issue.
Colloquial/ism: An informal or conversational use of language.
Common ground: Shared beliefs, values, or positions.
Complex sentence: A sentence that includes one independent clause and at least one dependent clause.
Concession: A reluctant acknowledgment or yielding.
Connotation: That which is implied by a word, as opposed to the word’s literal meaning (see denotation).
Coordination: Grammatical equivalence between parts of a sentence, often through a coordinating conjunction such as and, or but.
Context: The factors around the text at its inception, including the time, place, history, etc.
Counterargument: A challenge to a position; an opposing argument.
Declarative sentence: A sentence that makes a statement.
Deduction: Reasoning from general to specific.
Denotation: The literal meaning of a word; its dictionary definition.
Diction: Word choice.
Ethos: A Greek term referring to the character of a person; one of Aristotle’s three rhetorical appeals (see logos and pathos).
Exigence: The moment or event that motivates the speaker to write or speak about an issue, topic, or situation.
Figurative language: The use of tropes or figures of speech; going beyond literal meaning to achieve literary effect.
Figure of speech: An expression that strives for literary effect rather than conveying a literal meaning.
Hyperbole: Exaggeration for the purpose of emphasis.
Imagery: Vivid use of language that evokes a reader’s senses (sight, smell, taste, touch, hearing).
Imperative sentence: A sentence that requests or commands.
Induction: Reasoning from specific to general.
Irony: A contradiction between what is said and what is meant; incongruity between action and result.
Juxtaposition: Placement of two things side by side for emphasis.
Logos: A Greek term that means “word”; an appeal to logic; one of Aristotle’s three rhetorical appeals (see ethos and pathos) .
Metaphor: A figure of speech or trope through which one thing is spoken of as though it were something else, thus making an implicit comparison.
Metonymy: Use of an aspect of something to represent the whole.
Oxymoron: A figure of speech that combines two contradictory terms.
Paradox: A statement that seems contradictory but is actually true.
Parallelism: The repetition of similar grammatical or syntactical patterns.
Parody: A piece that imitates and exaggerates the prominent features of another; used for comic effect or ridicule.
Pathos: A Greek term that refers to suffering but has come to be associated with broader appeals to emotion; one of Aristotle’s three rhetorical appeals (see ethos and logos).
Persona: The speaker, voice, or character assumed by the author of a piece of writing.
Personification: Assigning lifelike characteristics to inanimate objects.
Polysyndeton: The deliberate use of a series of conjunctions.
Propaganda: A negative term for writing designed to sway opinion rather than present information.
Purpose: One’s intention or objective in a speech or piece of writing.
Refute: To discredit an argument, particularly a counterargument.
Rhetoric: The study of effective, persuasive language use; according to Aristotle, use of the “available means of persuasion.”
Rhetorical modes: Patterns of organization developed to achieve a specific purpose; modes include but are not limited to narration, description, comparison and contrast, cause and effect, definition, exemplification, classification and division, process analysis, and argumentation.
Rhetorical question: A question asked more to produce an effect than to summon an answer.
Satire: An ironic, sarcastic, or witty composition that claims to argue for something, but actually argues against it.
Scheme: A pattern of words or sentence construction used for rhetorical effect.
Sentence patterns: The arrangement of independent and dependent clauses into known sentence constructions—such as simple, compound, complex, or compound-complex.
Simile: A figure of speech that uses “like” or “as” to compare two things.
Simple sentence: A statement containing a subject and predicate; an independent clause.
Speaker: A term used for the author, speaker, or the person whose perspective (real or imagined) is being advanced in a speech or piece of writing.
Straw man: A logical fallacy that involves the creation of an easily refutable position; misrepresenting, then attacking an opponent’s position.
Style: The distinctive quality of speech or writing created by the selection and arrangement of words and figures of speech.
Subordinate clause: Created by a subordinating conjunction, a clause that modifies an independent clause.
Subordination: The dependence of one syntactic element on another in a sentence.
Syntax: Sentence structure.
Synthesize: Combining or bringing together two or more elements to produce something more complex.
Thesis: The central idea in a work to which all parts of the work refer.
Thesis statement: A statement of the central idea in a work, may be explicit or implicit.
Tone: The speaker’s attitude toward the subject or audience.
Topic sentence: A sentence, most often appearing at the beginning of a paragraph, that announces the paragraph’s idea and often unites it with the work’s thesis.
Understatement: Lack of emphasis in a statement or point; restraint in language often used for ironic effect.
Voice: In grammar, a term for the relationship between a verb and a noun (active or passive voice). In rhetoric, a distinctive quality in the style and tone of writing.