AP Vocab 181-210

Question 1

Sestet

Answer 1

Six lines of poetry, OR the last six lines of a Petrarchan sonnet.

Question 2

Setting

Answer 2

Where and when a story takes place. Can be revealed either directly or indirectly.

Question 3

Sociological Novel

Answer 3

Narrative which depicts the injustices of society, making moral judgments and offering resolutions.

Question 4

Sonnet

Answer 4

A fourteen-line poem written in iambic pentameter with a specific rhyme scheme.

Question 5

Sonnet, Petrarchan (Italian)

Answer 5

Sonnet composed of an octave and a sestet, usually with the rhyme scheme abbaabba cdecde.

Question 6

Sonnet, Shakespearean (English)

Answer 6

Sonnet composed of three quatrains and a rhyming couplet with the rhyme scheme abab cdcd efef gg.

Question 7

Spenserian Stanza

Answer 7

A nine-line stanza with the rhyme scheme abaabbcbcc; the first eight lines are written in iambic pentameter and the last line (an alexandrine) is written in iambic hexameter.

Question 8

Sprung Rhythm

Answer 8

Meter in which the number of stressed syllables in each line is the same, while the number of unstressed syllables can vary. Intended to imitate natural speech patterns.

Question 9

Stanza

Answer 9

A division of a poem.

Question 10

Stereotype

Answer 10

A character whose attitudes, words, and actions fall within a widely-held idea of a “type”; may also be applied to plot.

Question 11

Stichomythia

Answer 11

Dialogue in which the endings and beginnings of each line echo each other, taking on a new meaning with each new line.

Question 12

Stream of Consciousness

Answer 12

A technique in which prose follows the logic and flow of a character (or multiple characters’) thought processes - associations, tangents, seemingly strange transition - rather than a more ordered narrative.

Question 13

Style

Answer 13

The way a literary work is written. Style is produced by an author’s choices in diction, syntax, imagery, figurative language, and other literary elements.

Question 14

Syllabic Verse

Answer 14

Poetry which contains the same number of syllables in each line or follows a pattern of syllables per line.

Question 15

Symbol

Answer 15

A setting, an object, or an event in a story that carries more than literal meaning and therefore represents something significant to understanding the meaning of a work in literature.

Question 16

Synecdoche

Answer 16

A figure of speech in which part of something is used to represent the whole.

Question 17

Syntax

Answer 17

The arrangement of words into phrases, clauses, and sentences in a prose passage. This includes word order; the length and structure of sentences, phrases, and clauses; the preference of various parts of speech over others; the use of connectors between and within sentences; and more.

Question 18

Syllogism

Answer 18

A form of logical reasoning that joins two or more premises to arrive at a conclusion.

Question 19

Tercet

Answer 19

Three lines of poetry that usually rhyme.

Question 20

Terza Rima

Answer 20

An interlocking three-line stanza with the rhyme scheme aba bcb cdc ded, etc.

Question 21

Theme

Answer 21

Underlying ideas or issues in a work.

Question 22

Thesis

Answer 22

The chief claim that a writer makes in any argumentative or expository piece of writing, usually stated in one sentence.

Question 23

Tone

Answer 23

A speaker’s attitude or stance as exposed through stylistic choices.

Question 24

Tragedy

Answer 24

A serious dramatic work in which the protagonist experiences a series of unfortunate reversals due to some character trait, referred to as a tragic flaw. Structurally, they usually progress from order to chaos.

Question 25

Transcendentalism

Answer 25

A 19th century movement in the Romantic tradition that was a reaction to both rationalism and empiricism. Emphasized the idea that humans can rise above materialism to a higher happiness through simplicity and communion with nature.

Question 26

Transition

Answer 26

A word or phrase that links ideas, signaling a shift from one idea to another.

Question 27

Understatement

Answer 27

The presentation of framing something as less important, urgent, important, awful, good, powerful, and so on than it actually is, often for satire or comical effect; the opposite of hyperbole.

Question 28

Villanelle

Answer 28

A form of poetry in which five tercets (rhyme scheme aba) are followed by a quatrain (rhyme scheme abaa). Lines 1 and 3 of the first tercet repeat alternately as refrains at the end of the subsequent tercets, and are used to conclude the quatrain.

Question 29

Wit

Answer 29

Cleverness and keen perception.

Question 30

Zeugma

Answer 30

A technique in which one verb is used with multiple (and often incongruous) objects, so that the definition of the verb is changed, complicated, or made both literal and figurative.