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AP English Literary Terms > Literary Terms > Flashcards

Literary Terms Flashcards

1
Q

Alliteration

A

Close repetition of similar consonant sounds, especially at the beginning of words.

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2
Q

Allusion

A

A brief reference to a person or thing, most often from history, mythology, or religion.

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3
Q

Ambiguity

A

Multiple meanings.

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4
Q

Analogy

A

A resemblance between two different things which requires more explanation than a simile would require; using something familiar to explain the unfamiliar.

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5
Q

Apostrophe

A

A personified abstraction or the addressing of a person not present.

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6
Q

Assonance

A

The close repetition of similar vowel sounds.

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7
Q

Cacophony

A

Discordant or harsh sounds.

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8
Q

Chiasmus

A

A verbal pattern in which the second half of an expression is balanced against the first half with the parts reversed.

ie: fair is foul, and foul is fair.

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9
Q

Connotation

A

The implied or suggested meanings evoked by a word.

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10
Q

Consonance

A

Close repetition of identical consonant sounds before and after different vowels.
ie: “flip flop” and “east west”

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11
Q

Denotation

A

A word’s most literal and limited meaning.

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12
Q

Diction

A

Word choice.

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13
Q

Dissonance

A

Cacophony

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14
Q

Euphony

A

Agreeable sounds

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15
Q

Figurative language

A

Language which makes use of “figures of speech,” most of which are techniques for comparing dissimilar objects, to achieve effects beyond the range of literal language.

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16
Q

Genre

A

A literary type or class

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17
Q

Hyperbole

A

Exaggeration for effect

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18
Q

Imagery

A

The use of language to create visual pictures.

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19
Q

Inversion

A

The reversal of the normal order of words in a sentence.

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20
Q

Irony

A

A result opposite from what is expected.
ie:
Dramatic irony (when a character knows something the the rest doesn’t know, causing tension)
Situation irony (ex: soldier escapes war unscathed only to get hit by a car)
Verbal irony/sarcasm (and so it goes)

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21
Q

Litotes

A

Understatement for effect

22
Q

Meiosis

A

Litotes

23
Q

Metaphor

A

Comparing two fundamentally different things without using “like” or “as”; an indirect or implied conversation.

24
Q

Metonymy

A

Substituting one word or phrase for another that is very closely associated with it
(“The White House declared today..”)

25
Q

Neologism

A

A newly coined word or phrase

ie: Lewis Carroll invented many words
like “jabberwocky” to mean “nonsense” or “chortle” to mean “snort and chuckle at the same time”

26
Q

Onomatopoeia

A

Using words that sound like what they mean

27
Q

Oxymoron

A

A two-word apparent contradiction

28
Q

Paradox

A

An apparently contradictory statement that contains a basis of truth that reconcile the seemingly opposites.

29
Q

Parallel structure

A

The repetition of two or more items using identical grammatical structure within each item.

30
Q

Paraphrase

A

The restatement in different words if the sense of a piece of writing.

31
Q

Personification

A

Giving human or life-like qualities or actions to non-human or inanimate objects or abstract ideas.

32
Q

Polysyndeton

A

A list or series of words, phrases, or clauses connected with the repeated use of the same conjunction, most commonly ‘and’ and ‘or’

33
Q

Precis

A

A concise summary or abstract of a longer work.

34
Q

Pun

A

Word play involving either the use of words with two different meanings or two words spelled differently but with similar meanings.

35
Q

Repetition

A

A fundamental device in art; assonance, alliteration, consonance, and parallelism are all types of repetition.

36
Q

Rhetoric

A

The art of using words effectively in speaking or in writing.

37
Q

Sarcasm

A

Bitter, derisive expression; verbal irony

38
Q

Satire

A

Ridicule of any subject

Horatian satire is gently witty and amusing ridicule.
Juvenalian satire is bitter and ironic satire

39
Q

Solecism

A

Deviation from conventional grammar, syntax, or pronunciation.
(“I ain’t done nuffin”)

40
Q

Stream of consciousness

A

Writing that reflects the natural, realistic flow of a character’s thoughts
ie: Benjy

41
Q

Syllepsis

A

A figure of speech in which the same word (verb or preposition) is applied to two others in different senses

ie: She looked at the Big Mac with suspicion and a magnifying glass.

42
Q

Syllogism

A

A deduction from two prepositions

ie: All men are mortal, Greeks are men. Therefore all Greeks are mortal.

43
Q

Symbol

A

Something concrete that stands for something abstract

44
Q

Synecdoche

A

Substitution of a part for the whole

ie: all hands on deck

45
Q

Synesthesia

A

The intermingling of sensations/crossing the lines between the senses

ie: loud red, noisy yellow, white noise, a perfume green as a meadow

46
Q

Syntax

A

The arrangement of and relationships among words, phrases, and clauses forming sentences; sentence structure

47
Q

Tautology

A

Needless repetition of an idea using different words

ie: “died of a fatal dose of…”

48
Q

Tone

A

The author’s attitude towards his/her subject, an attitude shown indirectly, “in between the lines”

49
Q

Trope

A

In general, any rhetorical or figurative device

50
Q

Zeugma

A

Sullen sis

51
Q

Writing traits

A 
Diction
Voice
Sentence Fluency
Organization 
Content 
Writing Convention
52
Q

Allegory

A

An extended narrative that carried a second meaning along with the surface of the story.

AP English Literary Terms (2 decks)

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