AP Test Vocab

Question 1

abject

Answer 1

utterly hopeless, miserable, humiliating, or wretched

Question 2

ambivalence

Answer 2

uncertainty or fluctuation, especially when caused by the inability to make a choice or by a simultaneous desire to say or do two opposite or conflicting things.
2.
Psychology. the coexistence within an individual of positive and negative feelings toward the same person, object, or action, simultaneously drawing him or her in opposite directions.

Question 3

Disparage

Answer 3

to speak of or treat slightingly; depreciate; belittle:
Do not disparage good manners.
2.
to bring reproach or discredit upon; lower the estimation of:
Your behavior will disparage the whole family.

Question 4

elegiac

Answer 4

used in, suitable for, or resembling an elegy.
2.
expressing sorrow or lamentation:
elegiac strains.
3.
Classical Prosody. noting a distich or couplet the first line of which is a dactylic hexameter and the second a pentameter, or a verse differing from the hexameter by suppression of the arsis or metrically unaccented part of the third and the sixth foot.

a poem in such distichs or verses.

Question 5

epiphany

Answer 5

(initial capital letter) a Christian festival, observed on January 6, commemorating the manifestation of Christ to the gentiles in the persons of the Magi; Twelfth-day.
2.
an appearance or manifestation, especially of a deity.
3.
a sudden, intuitive perception of or insight into the reality or essential meaning of something, usually initiated by some simple, homely, or commonplace occurrence or experience.
4.
a literary work or section of a work presenting, usually symbolically, such a moment of revelation and insight.
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Question 6

exhort

Answer 6

to urge, advise, or caution earnestly; admonish urgently.
verb (used without object)
2.
to give urgent advice, recommendations, or warnings.

Question 7

lament

Answer 7

to feel or express sorrow or regret for:

Question 8

pragmatic

Answer 8

Logic, Philosophy. the branch of semiotics dealing with the causal and other relations between words, expressions, or symbols and their users.
2.
Linguistics. the analysis of language in terms of the situational context within which utterances are made, including the knowledge and beliefs of the speaker and the relation between speaker and listener.
3.
practical considerations.

Question 9

reciprocate

Answer 9

to give, feel, etc., in return.

Question 10

spurn

Answer 10

to reject with disdain; scorn.

Question 11

surrealism

Answer 11

a style of art and literature developed principally in the 20th century, stressing the subconscious or nonrational significance of imagery arrived at by automatism or the exploitation of chance effects, unexpected juxtapositions, etc.

Question 12

Synecdoche

Answer 12

• A literary device in which a part of something represents the whole or it may use a whole to represent a part.

o Synecdoche may also use larger groups to refer to smaller groups or vice versa. It may also call a thing by the name of the material it is made of or it may refer to a thing in a container or packing by the name of that container or packing.
o Synecdoche refers to the whole of a thing by the name of any one of its parts. For example, calling a car “wheels” is a synecdoche because a part of a car “wheels” stands for the whole car.
o The phrase “gray beard” refers to an old man.
o The word “sails” refers to a whole ship.

Question 13

whimsical

Answer 13

given to whimsy or fanciful notions; capricious: