AP Language Most Common Key Terms You Need to Know! Flashcards
Understatement
Document Definition: Deliberate representation of something as much smaller, worse, or less important than it is in reality.
Personal Definition: Showing something as lesser than it is.
Example: “‘Tis but a scratch!” “A scratch? Your arm’s off!”
Overstatement
Document Definition: Deliberate representation of something as bigger, better, or more important than it is in reality.
Personal Definition: Showing something as greater than it is.
Example: “God himself could not sink this ship.”
Hyperbole
Document Definition: A figure of speech in which exaggeration is used for emphasis or effect.
Personal Definition: Exaggeration used to emphasize something.
Example: “Failing this test would be the end of the world.”
Metonymy
Document Definition: A figure of speech that replaces the name of a thing with the name of something else with which it is closely associated.
Personal Definition: A figure of speech where one thing is replaced with another thing it’s related to.
Example: “The pen is mightier than the sword.”
Synecdoche
Document Definition: A figure of speech in which a part of something represents the whole or it may use a whole to represent a part.
Personal Definition: A figure of speech where a part is used to define the whole or the whole is used to define a part.
Example: “Lend me a hand.”
Metaphor
Document Definition: A direct poetic comparison of two unlike things or ideas. Extended Metaphor—The author carries the comparison throughout a passage or entire piece often by making multiple comparisons.
Personal Definition: A comparison of two subjects, usually poetically.
Example: “Time is money.”
Simile
Document Definition: An indirect poetic comparison (uses like, as, than, etc.) of two unlike things or ideas. Usually, a simile is considered a slightly weaker comparison.
Personal Definition: Comparing two unlike things using a conjunction such as like or as.
Example: “Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re gonna get.”
Allusion
Document Definition: Reference to someone or something from literature or history.
Personal Definition: A reference to outside media.
Example: “It’s his Achilles’ heel.”
Antithesis
Document Definition: Putting two opposite ideas in the same sentence to highlight direct contrast or opposition.
Personal Definition: Putting two opposite ideas together to compare them.
Example: “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”
Personification
Document Definition: Assigning human characteristics to non-human objects including animals or ideas.
Personal Definition: A literary device giving human characteristics to a non-human subject.
Example: “The trees danced in the wind.”
Paradox
Document Definition: A true statement or group of statements that leads to a contradiction or a situation that defies intuition.
Personal Definition: A literary device that creates a contradiction using something true.
Example: “Less is more.”
Analogy
Document Definition: A logical comparison between two things allowing for knowledge of a familiar concept to an unfamiliar concept.
Personal Definition: A literary device that compares two subjects for clarification.
Example: “They’re as blind as a bat.”
Allegory
Document Definition: In literature, the use of narrative characters and events to represent abstract ideas or principles.
Personal Definition: Using subjects to represent concepts.
Example: “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson represents harmful traditions that persist.
Apostrophe
Document Definition: Addressing an absent or imaginary person, object, or concept as if it were the recipient of a letter or lecture.
Personal Definition: Addressing someone or something that isn’t there.
Example: “Are you there god?”
Oxymoron
Document Definition: A figure of speech that combines two normally contradictory terms.
Personal Definition: A figure of speech where two contradicting subjects are put together.
Example: “Deafening silence”
Juxtaposition
Document Definition: A literary technique in which two or more ideas, places, characters, and their actions are placed side by side to develop comparisons and contrasts.
Personal Definition: A literary device where two subjects are compared and contrasted.
Example: “They’re like night and day.”
Alliteration
Document Definition: The repetition of the same sound at the start of several words.
Personal Definition: Repeating the same sound to begin words in a sentence.
Example: “She sells seashells by the seashore.”
Parallelism
Document Definition: The use of identical or near identical syntax in corresponding phrases.
Personal Definition: A literary device where multiple sentences or phrases in a row are identical or similar grammatically.
Example: “You lied about religious views, you lied about your surgery, you lied about your accent and your past tense, all is perjury.”
Parallel Structure
Document Definition: Using the same pattern of words so that two or more ideas have the same level of importance.
Personal Definition: Using the same structure of words or phrases consecutively.
Example: “Ask not what your country can do for you-ask what you can do for your country.”
Rhetoric
Document Definition: The art or study of using language effectively and persuasively.
Personal Definition: The study of language that attempts to convince an audience to act, think about, or react to a topic.
Example: A politician studying past speeches to find out how to make them persuasive.
Anecodte
Document Definition: A short account of an incident related to the main point.
Personal Definition: A story that relates to the current topic.
Example: A politician telling a story about poverty when discussing the issue at a political convention.
Qualify
Document Definition: To describe by specifying characteristics or qualities; To characterize.
Personal Definition: Words or phrases that change the meaning of other words.
Example: “He walked over.” and “He lazily walked over.” convey different meanings.
Modes of Discourse
Document Definition: Narration, description, exposition, and persuasion.
Narration: Relating a series of events usually in chronological order.
Description: Explaining what things are like according to the five senses.
Exposition: Informative writing with several subtypes including process analysis, comparison, etc.
Persuasion: Argument that seeks to convince an audience through logic and other means.
Personal Definition: There are four modes of discourse, those being narration (talking about events in order), description (explaining what things are), exposition (explaining something), and persuasion (convincing someone about something).
Example: “I walked in the park after eating breakfast (narration) when I saw a brown wasp nest in the ground (description). wasps around 70 people per year (exposition) and should have their nests destroyed in public areas (persuasion).
Ambiguity
Document Definition: Having two or more possible meanings; open to interpretation.
Personal Definition: Having multiple meanings and being up to interpretation.
Example: “I saw her duck.”
Appeals to Authority
Document Definition: Relying on testimony of authority instead of facts. It is a logical fallacy because a testimony is neither an argument nor a fact.
Personal Definition: Using authorities as evidence to prove points even when not credible to speak on the topic or as the only evidence.
Example: “Peace is a good political strategy because Albert Einstein said so.”
Straw Man
Document Definition: A misrepresentation of an opponent’s argument that can be easily refuted or defeated.
Personal Definition: Misinterpreting someone’s argument purposefully to make it sound worse.
Example: “We should focus on making our schools safer” “So you’re saying we need to arm teachers.”
Circular Reasoning
Document Definition: A form of logical fallacy in which a proposition is supported by the premises, which is supported by the proposition, creating a circle in reasoning where no useful information is being shared.
Personal Definition: Repeating an argument’s conclusion to defend it without actually having proven anything.
Example: “You should go to bed because it’s your bedtime, which means you should go to bed”.
Begging the Question
Document Definition: A form of logical fallacy in which a statement or claim is assumed to be true without evidence other than the statement or claim itself.
Personal Definition: Using the fact that there’s no evidence proving a point to disprove a point, or vice versa.
Example: “Ghosts must be real because there’s no evidence that they’re not real.”
Dependent Clause
Document Definition: A clause that cannot stand alone as a full sentence and functions as a noun, adjective, or adverb within a sentence.
Personal Definition: A clause that needs an independent clause to make sense as a sentence.
Example: “because I’m hungry.” needs an independent clause like “I need to eat.”
Declarative Sentences
Document Definition: A sentence in the form of a statement (in contrast to a command, a question, or an exclamation). Usually, declarative sentences have a subject that precedes the verb and end in a period.
Personal Definition: A sentence that provides a statement, information, or an explanation.
Example: “Dogs are good pets.”
Periodic Sentence
Document Definition: A sentence in which the main clause or its predicate is withheld until the end.
Personal Definition: A sentence where the main point is at the end of the sentence.
Example: “Despite everything, it’s still you.”
Passive Voice
Document Definition: In a sentence using passive voice, the subject is acted upon; he or she receives the action expressed by the verb.
Personal Definition: A sentence where the subject being acted upon comes before the actor.
Example: “The cake is a lie.”
Antecedent
Document Definition: The word, phrase, or clause referred to by a pronoun (or pro-verb, or pro-adverb, etc).
Personal Definition: A noun that establishes the meaning of a pronoun.
Example: “The president finished their speech.”
Ellipses
Document Definition: A series of three dots indicating an intentional omission of a word, sentence, or whole section from a text without altering its original meaning.
Personal Definition: An omission of a section of a quote, a pause, or a trailing thought.
Example: “To be continued…”
Prepositional Phrase
Document Definition: A phrase that consists of a preposition and its object. Prepositional phrases usually function as either an adverb or adjective.
Personal Definition: A phrase that begins with a preposition and gives information about a subject, usually when, where, and how something happens.
Example: “In a galaxy far, far away…”
Pronoun
Document Definition: A word that is used in place of a noun or noun phrase.
Personal Definition: A word used in place of something’s name.
Example: “Jack ran away.” replaced with “He ran away.”
Participle Phrase
Document Definition: A participle phrase is an adjective phrase that starts with a participle.
Personal Definition: A sentence that begins with a participle that acts as an adjective.
Example: “Running up that hill, running up that building.”
Elegy/Elegiac
Document Definition: A poem or song composed especially as a lament for a deceased person.
Personal Definition: A poem or song written in honor, usually for someone who died.
Example: “Candle in the Wind” by Elton John was a song written in memory of Marilyn Monroe.
Satire
Document Definition: The use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people’s stupidity or vices, particularly in contemporary politics and other topical issues.
Personal Definition: A fictional story or situation used to commentate on real-world issues, usually in a comedic manner.
Example: “The Stanley Parable” is a satirical game that focuses on the concepts of choice and narrative control in video games, playing with what players expect and the nature of storytelling.
Parody
Document Definition: A literary or artistic work that imitates the characteristic style of an author or work for comic effect or ridicule
Personal Definition: A piece of media that imitates something else, usually in a mocking or comedic manner.
Example: “Weird Al” Yankovic is well-known for making musical parodies of existing songs.
Didactic
Document Definition: Writing or speech intended to teach, particularly in having moral instruction as an ulterior motive.
Personal Definition: Pieces of media meant to teach audiences something, usually morals or values.
Example: “Aesop’s Fables” is a series of fables that give morals at the end of their stories.
Euphemism
Document Definition: substituting a mild, indirect, or vague term for one that is considered harsh, blunt, or offensive.
Personal Definition: Indirect words or expressions that soften harsh terms.
Example: Saying “passed away” instead of “died.”
Colloquial
Document Definition: Words or expressions better suited for informal conversation than formal writing.
Personal Definition: Words or terms that are usually used in informal speech.
Example: Any type of slang is considered colloquial language.
Denotation
Document Definition: Literal or dictionary meanings of a word in contrast to its connotative or figurative meanings.
Personal Definition: The literal meanings of subjects.
Example: The denotation of a rose is a type of flower
Connotation
Document Definition: An idea or feeling that a word invokes in addition to its literal or primary
meaning.
Personal Definition: The meaning of a subject that people interpret. which isn’t necessarily what its intended meaning is.
Example: A rose’s connotation means it’s associated with love and romantic settings.
Formal
Document Definition: (define this)
Personal Definition: A setting and way of speech where proper language and manners must be used.
Example: An office, school, or conference are examples of formal settings, where formal language should be used.
Informal
Document Definition: (define this)
Personal Definition: A setting and way of speech where there is no need for proper language or manners.
Example: Your home, public parks, and the internet are examples of informal settings.
Ethos
Document Definition: (define this)
Personal Definition: Persuasive language that seeks to improve the credibility of the speaker.
Example: “You should get vaccinated, and you know you can trust me because I’m a doctor.”
Logos
Document Definition: (define this)
Personal Definition: Persuasive language that seeks to use logic to support an argument
Example: “All salmon are fish. Jerry is a salmon, therefore he is a fish.”
Pathos
Document Definition: (define this)
Personal Definition: Persuasive language that seeks to invoke emotion in an audience.
Example: “Think about how it feels to not have a home; you can help prevent that for other families by donating to this cause.”
Exigence
Document Definition: (define this)
Personal Definition: Something that is urgently needed or demanded.
Example: Wartime creates an exigency for resources in a country.
Audience
Document Definition: (define this)
Personal Definition: The people or group of people that are consuming a piece of media.
Example: A politician speaks to an audience of people deciding whether to support them.
Purpose
Document Definition: (define this)
Personal Definition: The reasoning behind why something is done, said, or exists.
Example: The purpose of seat belts is to save more people in car accidents.
