AP Terms (26-50) Flashcards
Litotes
deliberate use of understatement
“Last week I saw a woman flayed, and you will hardly believe how much it altered her appearance for the worse.”
“It isn’t very serious. I have this tiny little tumor on the brain.”
Rhetorical Question
Asking a question, not to get an answer but to assert or deny an answer implicitly
“Sir, at long last, have you left no sense of decency?”
Irony
Use of a word to convey a meaning opposite to the literal meaning of the word
(1) verbal irony - when the words literally state the opposite of the writer’s (or speaker’s) meaning
(2) situational irony - when events turn out the opposite of what was expected; when what the characters and readers think ought to happen is not what does happen
(3) dramatic irony - when facts or events are unknown to a character in a play or piece of fiction but known to the reader, audience, or other characters in the work
“This plan means that one generation pays for another. Now that’s just dandy.”
Onomatopoeia
Use of words whose sound echoes the sense
“Snap, crackle, pop!”
Oxymoron
The joining of two terms which are ordinarily contradictory
“cruel kindness”, “visible darkness”
Paradox
A contradictory statement that contains a measure of truth
“And yet, it was a strangely satisfying experience for an invisible man to hear the silence of sound.”
Allegory
A story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one
For example, an author may intend the characters to personify an abstraction like hope of freedom. The allegorical meaning usually deals with moral truth or generalization about human existence.
Ex) Orwell’s Animal Farm is a(n) ______ of the brutality and dishonesty of the Soviet communist system.
Allusion
A direct or indirect reference to something which is presumably commonly known, such as an event, book, myth, place, or work of art.
____________ can be historical, literary, religious, topical, or mythical. There are many more possibilities, and a work may simultaneously use multiple layers of ________.
“He was destined to fall; he always flew too close to the sun”
Analogy
A similarity or comparison between two different things or the relationship between them.
An analogy can explain something unfamiliar by associating it with or pointing out its similarity to something more familiar. Analogies can make writing more vivid, imaginative, or intellectually engaging.
“Getting politicians to agree is like herding cats”
Antecedent
The word, phrase, or clause referred to by a pronoun.
“But it is the grandeur of all truth which can occupy a very high place in human interests that is never absolutely novel to the meanest of minds; it exist eternally, by way of germ of latent principle, in the lowest as in the highest, needing to be developed but never to be planted.”
The antecedent of “it” is all truth.`
Aphorism
A terse statement of known authorship which expresses a general truth or a moral principle.
A pithy observation that contains a general truth
“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
“A lie told often enough becomes the truth.”
Atmosphere
The emotional nod created by the entirety of a literary work, established partly by the setting and partly by the author’s choice of objects that are described. Even such elements as a description of the weather can contribute to the atmosphere. Frequently atmosphere foreshadows events. Perhaps it can create a mood.
Caricature
A verbal description, the purpose of which is to exaggerate or distort, for comic effect, a person’s distinctive physical features or other characteristics.
Clause
A grammatical unit that contains both a subject and a verb. A dependent, or subordinate clause, cannot stand alone as a sentence and must be accompanied by an independent clause.
Colloquial/Colloquialism
The use of slang or informalities in speech or writing. Not generally acceptable for formal writing, colloquialisms give a work a conversational, familiar tone. Colloquial expressions in writing include local or regional dialects.
