AP Literary Terms

Question 1

The false assignment of an event, a person, a scene, language—anything, to a time when that event or thing or person was not in existence.

Example: Albert Einstein had an iphone

Answer 1

Anachronism

Question 2

In writing, its purpose is to explain the nature of an object, idea, or theme. In drama, it is another word for an introduction.

Example: “It’s a story about two star-crossed lovers from Verona that commit suicide because they can’t be together.”

Answer 2

Exposition

Question 3

A figure of speech familiar to a specific group of people which cannot be translated or understood literally into a second language.

Example: “it’s raining cats and dogs”

Answer 3

Idiom

Question 4

Anglo-Saxon figure of speech; two words put together to reference singular noun. (Can be “noun-noun” or “noun-verb”)

Example: Bookworm

Answer 4

Kenning

Question 5

a lengthy, narrative work of poetry typically dealing with extraordinary feats and adventures of characters from a distant past.

Example: Homer’s The Iliad and The Odyssey

Answer 5

Epic Poem

Question 6

One of the devices of repetition, in which the same expression (word or words) is repeated at the beginning of two or more lines, clauses, or sentences.

Example: “Go big or go home.”

Answer 6

Anaphora

Question 7

the implied or inferred meaning of a word; it could be the same as the denotation (definition) but it could mean something else by its context or inference.

Example: blue is a color, but it is also a word used to describe a feeling of sadness

Answer 7

Connotation

Question 8

a sustained and formal poem setting forth the poet’s meditations upon death or another solemn theme.

Example: Walt Whitman’s “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d.”

Answer 8

Elegy

Question 9

The use of a character in opposition to another character which brings out the qualities of each in greater distinction.

Example: Harry Potter’s rival Draco Malfoy

Answer 9

Foil

Question 10

A reliance on the intuition and the conscience. A movement in American literature represented by Emerson and Thoreau.

Example: “a man in debt is so far a slave” by Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Answer 10

Transcendentalism

Question 11

the repetition of a similar vowel sound in a line of poetry (Type of Internal Rhyme)

Example: “Patience always pays.”

Answer 11

Assonance

Question 12

a literary or dramatic work that seeks to ridicule by means of grotesque exaggeration or comic imitation

Example: works of Chaucer and Shakespeare and to the Graeco-Roman classics.

Answer 12

Burlesque

Question 13

The philosophical or theological teaching which interprets all ultimate control of man’s actions to God (Opposite of Free Will.) (Named for Swiss Reformer John Calvin)
Total depravity
Unconditional election
Limited atonement
Irresistibly of grace
Perseverance of the saints

Answer 13

Calvinism

Question 14

The name of a person who is so commonly associated with some widely recognized attribute that the name comes to stand for the attribute.

Example: Fahrenheit-Gabriel Daniel Fahrenheit is the physicist for whom this temperature measurement is named.

Answer 14

Eponym

Question 15

The use at the END of verses of words in which the final consonants in the stressed syllables agree but the vowels that precede them differ. It is also called “half-rhyme”

Example: Mike likes his new bike.

Answer 15

Consonance

Question 16

Most often used to describe domain-specific language. It might appear to be gibberish to someone outside that field.

Example: AWOL: Short for “absent without leave,” AWOL

Answer 16

Jargon

Question 17

an illustrative story answering a question or pointing to a moral or lesson

Example: “The Boy Who Cried Wolf” by Aesop

Answer 17

Parable

Question 18

referring to an original model or pattern from which something develops.

Example: mother figure in disney movies like the Fairy godmothers in Sleeping Beauty.

Answer 18

Archetype

Question 19

Repetition of words which appear at the beginning of a clause or sentence at the end of that same clause or sentence.

Example: mankind must put an end to war-or war will put an end to mankind.

Answer 19

Epanalepsis

Question 20

A light-hearted nonsense poem

Example: There was an Old Man in a Tree By: Edward Lear

Answer 20

Limerick

Question 21

a distinctive feature or dominant idea in an artistic or literary composition. (A motif can be a recurring situation or action. It can be a sound or smell, a temperature, even a color. The key aspect is that a motif repeats.)

Example: Repeated images of hand washing, mopping floors, and refreshing rain.

Answer 21

Motif

Question 22

The restraint or lack of emotion

Example: Focusing on the present moment and avoid emotional suffering for the past or the future.

Answer 22

Stoicism

Question 23

doubt of a generally accepted standard.

Example: when you always think the worst and have a hard time seeing the good in anyone.

Answer 23

Cynicism

Question 24

One who follows an art for the love of it rather than as a serious profession (i.e. “an amateur”) (The term can be used a derogatory remark, when putting someone down for not being “serious”)

Example: Home Cook

Answer 24

Dilettante

Question 25

conversation or speech characterized by quick, witty comments or replies. Example: ur mom

Answer 25

Repartee

Question 26

A speech in a play that is delivered by a character who is speaking to himself or alone. Example: “To Be or Not To Be” Speech, Hamlet, William Shakespeare

Answer 26

Soliloquy

Question 27

Inversion of the usual, normal, or logical order of the parts of a sentence. Example: “try not. Do or do not. There is no try.” - Yoda

Answer 27

Anastrophe

Question 28

The view of those who believe in a God who created the world and established laws, but does not intervene.

Answer 28

Deism

Question 29

Short and to the point; brief and without details Example: “Less is More”

Answer 29

Laconic

Question 30

Dark, evil, taboo, and sinister in nature; usually dealing with death. Example: skull tattoos

Answer 30

Macabre

Question 31

A short, pithy saying which contains a general or accepted truth. Example: Actions speak louder than words.

Answer 31

Aphorism

Question 32

(in verse) the continuation of a sentence without a pause beyond the end of a line, couplet, or stanza.(in verse) the continuation of a sentence without a pause beyond the end of a line, couplet, or stanza. Example: "I wonder, by my troth, what thou and I / Did, till we loved?

Answer 32

Enjambment

Question 33

a recurrent theme throughout a musical or literary composition, associated with a particular person, idea, or situation. Example: 'shark theme' in John Williams's score for Jaws

Answer 33

Leitmotif

Question 34

As a literary term, a character (or writer) who is short-sighted and “cannot see the forest for the trees.” Example: As a literary term, a character (or writer) who is short-sighted and “cannot see the forest for the trees.”

Answer 34

Myopic

Question 35

A group of words forming a phrase or sentence which are repeated at intervals in a poem, usually at the end of a stanza. Example: Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

Answer 35

Refrain

Question 36

the process by which the writer reveals the personality of a character. Example: “Bill was short and fat, and his bald spot was widening with every passing year.”

Answer 36

Characterization

Question 37

the author reveals to the reader what the character is like by describing how the character looks and dresses, by letting the reader hear what the character says, by revealing the character’s private thoughts and feelings, by revealing the characters effect on other people (showing how other characters feel or behave toward the character), or by showing the character in action. Common in modern literature Example: “John snapped at the man without warning,”

Answer 37

INDIRECT CHARACTERIZATION

Question 38

the author tells us directly what the character is like: sneaky, generous, mean to pets and so on. Romantic style literature relied more heavily on this form. Example: “John was short-tempered

Answer 38

DIRECT CHARACTERIZATION

Question 39

is one who changes in some important way as a result of the story’s action. Example: Alice in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

Answer 39

DYNAMIC CHARACTER

Question 40

has only one or two personality traits. They are one dimensional, like a piece of cardboard. They can be summed up in one phrase.

Answer 40

FLAT CHARACTER

Question 41

has more dimensions to their personalities---they are complex, just as real people are. Walter White in Breaking Bad

Answer 41

ROUND CHARACTER

Question 42

is a word or phrase, often a figure of speech, that has become lifeless because of overuse. Example: “Plenty of fish in the sea.”

Answer 42

Cliche

Question 43

a way of speaking that is characteristic of a certain social group or of the inhabitants of a certain geographical area. Example: southerners say “buggie” while northerners would say “shopping cart” or british people say “trolly”

Answer 43

Dialect

Question 44

a type of comedy in which ridiculous and often stereotyped characters are involved in silly, far-fetched situations. Example: Ace Ventura

Answer 44

Farce

Question 45

a figure of speech in which a person, place, or thing, is referred to by something closely associated with it. Example: Crown. (For the power of a king.)

Answer 45

Metonymy

Question 46

sentence which uses a conjunction with NO commas to separate the items in a series. Example: 'Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers. '

Answer 46

Polysyndeton

Question 47

reference to someone or something that is known from history, literature, religion, politics, sports, science, or another branch of culture. Example: "Chocolate cake is my Achilles heel."

Answer 47

Allusion

Question 48

a word or phrase in everyday use in conversation and informal writing but is inappropriate for formal situations. Example: “Y’all”

Answer 48

Colloquialism

Question 49

Device of repetition in which the same expression (single word or phrase) is repeated at the end of two or more lines, clauses, or sentences (it is the opposite of anaphora). Example: Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address

Answer 49

Epistrophe

Question 50

does not state explicitly the two terms of the comparison. Example: "a mule standing his ground."

Answer 50

Implied Metaphor

Question 51

is a metaphor that is extended or developed as far as the writer wants to take it. Example: “You're a snake! Everything you hiss out of your mouth is a lie. You frighten children, and you have no spine.”

Answer 51

Extended Metaphor

Question 52

is a metaphor that has been used so often that the comparison is no longer vivid Example: Cliché

Answer 52

Dead Metaphor

Question 53

is a metaphor that has gotten out of control and mixes its terms so that they are visually or imaginatively incompatible. Example: The test is easy; it's not rocket surgery. It's not rocket science. It's not brain surgery.

Answer 53

Mixed Metaphor

Question 54

deliberately suggesting two or more different, and sometimes conflicting, meanings in a work. An event or situation that may be interpreted in more than one way. Example: The dog liked to guard the house and the postman could not make it to the door because he was barking viciously.

Answer 54

Ambiguity

Question 55

a quotation or aphorism at the beginning of a literary work suggestive of the theme. Example: Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Answer 55

Epigraph

Question 56

a work that makes fun of another work by imitating some aspect of the writer’s style. Example: Pride and Prejudice With Zombies

Answer 56

Parody

Question 57

a movement that began in Europe in the seventeenth century, which held that we can arrive at truth by using our reason rather than relying on the authority of the past, on the authority of the Church, or an institution. ALSO CALLED NEOCLASSICISM AND AGE OF REASON Example: Educators attempting to pull knowledge out of students

Answer 57

Rationalism

Question 58

a movement in the arts and literature that originated in the late 18th century as a revolt against Rationalism, emphasizing inspiration, subjectivity, and the primacy of the individual. Example: the publication Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge.

Answer 58

Romanticism

Question 59

Brief story, told to illustrate a point or serve as an example of something, often shows character of an individual Example: If a group of coworkers are discussing pets, and one coworker tells a story about how her cat comes downstairs at only a certain time of the night, then that one coworker has just told an anecdote.

Answer 59

Anecdote

Question 60

a form of understatement in which the positive form is emphasized through the negation of a negative form. Example: “You are not as young as you used to be.”

Answer 60

Litotes

Question 61

a figure of speech that combines opposite or contradictory terms in a brief phrase. Example: “bittersweet”

Answer 61

Oxymoron

Question 62

Art of effective communication, especially persuasive discourse. Example: Advertisers create catchy slogans to get people to buy products. (subway eat fresh.)

Answer 62

Rhetoric