Snyder AP English 1st Semester Final
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578 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 exodus | a departure, usually of large numbers of people |
| exotic | foreign; charmingly unfamiliar or strikingly unusualy |
| expedient | (adj) advantageous to one's interests (n) an emergency course of action; a means to an end |
| exploit | (v) to use to the greatest possible advantage, offen selfishly (n) a brilliant or heroic deed |
| expound | to explain in detail |
| fabricate | a. to assemble or construct b. to make up with the intention of deceiving |
| facetious | not meant seriously; playful or humorous |
| facsimile | (n) an exact copy (adj) reproduced exactly |
| fallacy | a. faulty reasoning; an error in logic b. a false or mistaken notion |
| fathom | (n) a unit of length roughly equal to six feet and used primarily in teh measurement of marine depths (v) to get to the bottom of; to understand |
| fatuous | unconsciously foolish, stupid, or absurd |
| feasible | possible; both doable and workable |
| feign | to pretend or give a false appearance of |
| felicitous | agreeably suited to the purpose or occasion; aptly or gracefully expressed |
| fetish | a. an object belied among primitive peoples ot have magical powers b. an object of unreasonably excessive attention or reverence |
| fiasco | a complete and ridiculous failure |
| fickle | likely to change for no apparent reason; inconstant |
| filch | to steal slyly; especially small things |
| finesse | (n) skill, delicacy, or sublety in doing something or handling a situation (v) to accomplish by subtle or skillful maneuvering |
| flagrant | extremely and deliberately conspicuous; glaring |
| flaunt | to show off in a conspicuous or offensive way |
| flout | to treat openly with scorn or contempt |
| fluctuate | to change continually from one position to another |
| foible | a minor, often amusing, fault or weakness in character |
| forestall | to secure an advantage or prevent a loss by pervious action |
| formidable | a. arousing fear or admiration because of the unusual size or superiority of the thing involved b. difficult to do because of the size of the job involved |
| fortuitous | occurring by chance or accident |
| frugal | a. thrifty or econonomical in the use of money b. involving little expense; meager |
| fulsome | excessive and, for that reason, offensive to good taste and obviously insincere |
| futile | incapable of producing the desired result; unsuccessful or ineffective |
| gape | to stare open-mouthed in amazement; to open wide |
| garble | to distort in such a way as to make unintelligible |
| gloat | to regard with excessive or malicious satisfaction |
| goad | (n) a long pointed stick used for driving animals; anything that spurs a person on (v) to drive or urge on |
| graphic | a. relating to a drawn or pictorial representation; visual b. giving a clear and effective picture; vivid |
| gratuitous | a. freely given; done without recompense b. uncalled-for; unjustified |
| gregarious | a. tending to form or move in a herd or other group; social b. enjoying the company of others |
| grimace | (n) a twisted facial expression indicating pain, disgust, or disapproval (v) to contort the features of the face in order to indicate pain, digust, or disapproval |
| grope | to feel around uncertainly for |
| grueling | extremely demanding and exhausting |
| gruesome | causing great shock, horror, and repugnance |
| gullible | easily cheated or deceived |
| haggard | worn and exhausted from anxiety, disease, hunger, or fatigue |
| harangue | (n) a long emotional publich adress designed to arouse strong feelings or spur the audience on to action; a similar piece of writing (v) to deliver a harangue |
| harbringer | (n) a forerunner (v) to hearld the approach of |
| haughty | scornfully superior and aloof |
| heinous | grossly wicked or vile |
| ignominy | dishonor or disgrace usually resulting from some sort of shameful conduct |
| illicit | unlawful, illegal |
| immaculate | entierly free of stain, blemish, fault, or error; spotless |
| immunity | exemption frmo something, expecially a disease |
| immutable | not subject to change or modification |
| impasse | a deadlock or dead end |
| impediment | a hindrance or obstruction |
| impervious | incapable of being penetrated or affected |
| implacable | incapable of veing pacified or appeased; inflexible |
| implicit | a. understood, implied b. absolute, unquestioning |
| impugn | to call into question; to cast doubt on |
| incarcerate | to put in jail or otherwise confine |
| incense | to make violently angry |
| inception | the beginning of something |
| indigent | impoverished; needy |
| ingenious | showing remarkable originality, imagination, inventiveness, or skill; clever |
| inherent | existing as a natural or essential part of |
| innovation | somethign new; a change |
| insitgate | to stir up or urge on |
| insuperable | incapable of being overcome |
| intervene | to come between; to involv3e oneself in |
| intrepid | fearless and bold |
| inveigh | to protest bitterly or vehemently |
| irony | incongruity between what might be expected and what actually happens |
| jeopardize | to endanger |
| jettison | to throw overboard; to discard |
| judicious | having or exhibiting sound judgement |
| justify | to show to be just, right, vaild, or free of blame |
| kudos | the presitge or acclain that results from some noteworthy achievement or position |
| lackadaisical | sorely lacking in spirit, energy, or purpose |
| legacy | something left to a peroson in a will; something handed down from the past |
| liability | a. a debt or obligation, especially of a financial nature b. a hindrance or handicap |
| libel | (n) a public statement or picture that damages a person by falsely impugning his or her character, motives, or actions, or by unjustly exposing the person to public censure or ridicule (v) to slander publicly |
| litigation | legal action; a lawsuit |
| lucid | clear and intelligible to the understanding; mentally competent |
| lucrative | profitable |
| lurk | to sneak; to lie hidden or in wait |
| lush | a. luxuriant, plentiful; luxurious, opulent b. overelaborate or overripe |
| malapropism | an unconscious and usually ludicrous misuse of a word |
| malice | a desire to cause harm or suffering; deep-seated ill will |
| mammoth | (n) an extinct form of elephant; a giant or colossus (adj) gigantic |
| mandatory | required, obligatory |
| medium | the means by which some goal is achieved or the person through whom it is realized |
| mercenary | (n) a hireling, especially a hired professional soldier (adj) motivated solely by a desire for material gain |
| moot | (adj) debatable and therefore unresolved (v) to bring up for discussion |
| morass | a swamp or bog; a confused or degrading situation that is difficult to get out of |
| motley | (n) a kind of multicolored cloth; a garment made from this cloth, especially the costume worn by a court jester or clown (adj) multicolored cloth; diverse or varied |
| mundane | wordly (as opposed to spiritual); humdrum or everyday |
| myriad | countless, innumerable |
| narcissistic | dominated by an excessive love or admiration of oneself |
| nebulous | hazy, vague, or indistinct |
| negligible | too small to be significant |
| nepotism | unwarranted favoritism show to relatives or friends by someone in high office |
| nomadic | wandering, roving |
| nominal | a. existing in name only b. insignificantly small |
| nostalgia | a longing to return to a sentimentalized past; homesickness |
| novice | a. a person who has just entered a religious order on a probationary basis b. a beginner of any kind |
| nuance | a slight or sublte variation in meaning, expression, tone, feeling, color, or the like |
| obscene | offensive to accepted standards of decency; repulsive |
| obsequious | excessibely submissive to another person's wishes or ideas, often for purely self-interested reasons |
| obsession | an irrational preoccupation with an idea or feeling that usually results in severe anxiety |
| obsolete | no longer in use; outmoded |
| officious | excessively forward in offering unwanted or unnecessary help or advice; meddlesome |
| ominous | foreshadowing evil; menacing or threatening |
| opportune | sutiable, appropriate, or timely |
| ostensible | apparent or professed |
| ostracize | to banish or exclude from a group; to shun |
| pandemonium | general disorder, confusion, noise, and commotion |
| paradox | a. a seemingly self-contradictory statement that, on closer examination, proves worthy of belief b. someone or something that is full of contradictions and inconsistenciesparaphrase |
| paraphrase | (v) to restate in other words or another form, often in order to clarify meaning or avoid difficulties (n) a restatement in other words or another form |
| parochial | a. located in, or supported by, a parish (a type of ecclesiatical district) b. restricted in score or range; narrow or limited |
| parody | (n) a comic imitation of the style, form, or content of a serious peice of work (n) a performance that is so bad as to constitue a mockery of the thing it is intended to represent (v) to imitate in a mocking or unworthy way |
| pensive | immeresed in deep, often melancholy, thought |
| peremptory | a. having the nature of a command in that it does not allow discussion, contradiction, or refusal b. determined, resolute c. offensively dictatorial |
| perjure | to lie deliberately while under oath to tell the truth |
| permeate | to spread through; to penetrate |
| pernicious | highly injurious or harmful |
| persevere | to continue steadfastly despite obsitcales or discouragment |
| phobia | an intense irrational fear of something; any strong aversion |
| plagiarism | the use of another person's writings or ideas as one's own without acknowledging their source |
| plaintive | sorrowful or melancholy; mournful |
| plethora | superabundance or excess |
| poignant | keenly touching or moving |
| precarious | dangerously insecure, unstable, or uncertain |
| precocious | developing unusually early |
| predatory | preying on, plundering, or piratical |
| prelude | an introductory piece of musid; anything that precedes or introduces something else |
| premise | (n) a statement upon which an arguement is based or from which a conclusion is drawn (v) to state or assume as the basis for something else; to offer in advance as an explanation of, or introduction to, something else |
| abjure | formally reject or disavow a formerly held belief, usually under pressure |
| abrogate | revoke formally |
| abstemious | marked by temperance in indulgence |
| acumen | shrewdness shown by keen insight |
| antebellum | belonging to a period before a war especially the American Civil War |
| auspicious | tending to favor or bring good luck |
| belie | represent falsely |
| bellicose | having or showing a ready disposition to fight |
| bowderlize | to remove offensive passages of a play or novel |
| chicanery | the use of tricks to deceive someone (usually to extract money from them) |
| chromosome | a threadlike body in the cell nucleus that carries the genes in a linear order |
| churlish | having a bad disposition |
| circumlocution | an indirect way of expressing something |
| cirumnavigate | to sail around the world |
| deciduous | (of plants and shrubs) shedding foliage at the end of the growing season |
| deleterious | harmful to living things |
| diffident | lacking self-confidence |
| enervate | weaken mentally or morally |
| enfranchise | grant freedom to |
| enthymeme | Logical reasoning with one premise by the overall context of a passage |
| epiphany | a divine manifestation |
| equinox | either of two times of the year when the sun crosses the plane of the earth's equator and day and night are of equal length |
| euro | the basic monetary unit of most members of the European Union (introduced in 1999) |
| evanescent | tending to vanish like vapor |
| expurgate | edit by omitting or modifying parts considered indelicate |
| facetious | cleverly amusing in tone |
| fatuous | complacently or inanely foolish |
| feckless | generally incompetent and ineffectual |
| fiduciary | a person who holds assets in trust for a beneficiary |
| filibuster | a tactic for delaying or obstructing legislation by making long speeches |
| gamete | a mature sexual reproductive cell having a single set of unpaired chromosomes |
| gauche | lacking social polish |
| gerrymander | an act of gerrymandering (dividing a voting area so as to give your own party an unfair advantage) |
| hegemony | the domination of one state over its allies |
| hemoglobin | a hemoprotein composed of globin and heme that gives red blood cells their characteristic color |
| hubris | overbearing pride or presumption |
| hypotenuse | the side of a right triangle opposite the right angle |
| impeach | charge with a crime or misdemeanor |
| incognito | without revealing one's identity |
| incontrovertible | impossible to deny or disprove |
| inculcate | teach and impress by frequent repetitions or admonitions |
| infrastructure | the basic structure or features of a system or organization |
| irony | incongruity between what might be expected and what actually occurs |
| interpolate | insert words into texts, often falsifying it thereby |
| jejune | lacking interest or significance |
| kinetic | characterized by motion |
| kowtow | bend the knees and bow in a servile manner |
| laissez-faire | a policy based on the idea that bovernment sould play as small a role as possible in the ecomony |
| loquacious | full of trivial conversation |
| lugubrious | excessively mournful |
| metamorphosis | a complete change of physical form or substance especially as by magic or witchcraft |
| mitosis | cell division in which the nucleus divides into nuclei containing the same number of chromosomes |
| moiety | one of two (approximately) equal parts |
| nanotechnology | the branch of engineering that deals with things smaller than 100 nanometers (especially with the manipulation of individual molecules) |
| nihilism | complete denial of all established authority and institutions |
| nomenclature | technical names or naming system in an art or scienceq |
| notarize | to certify legally |
| obsequious | attempting to win favor from influential people by flattery |
| oligarchy | a political system governed by a few people |
| omnipotent | having unlimited power |
| orthography | a method of representing the sounds of a language by written or printed symbols |
| oxidize | add oxygen to or combine with oxygen |
| parabola | a plane curve formed by the intersection of a right circular cone and a plane parallel to an element of the curve |
| paradigm | a standard or typical example |
| parameter | any factor that defines a system and determines (or limits) its performance |
| pecuniary | relating to or involving money |
| photosynthesis | process by which plants and some other organisms use light energy to convert water and carbon dioxide into oxygen and high-energy carbohydrates such as sugars and starches |
| plagiarize | take without referencing from someone else's writing or speech |
| plasma | colorless watery fluid of blood and lymph containing no cells and in which erythrocytes and leukocytes and platelets are suspended |
| polymer | a naturally occurring or synthetic compound consisting of large molecules made up of a linked series of repeated simple monomers |
| precipitous | extremely steep |
| quasar | a starlike object that may send out radio waves and other forms of energy |
| quotidian | found in the ordinary course of events |
| recapitulate | summarize briefly |
| reciprocal | (mathematics) one of a pair of numbers whose product is 1: the reciprocal of 2/3 is 3/2 |
| reparation | compensation (given or received) for an insult or injury |
| respiration | the bodily process of inhalation and exhalation |
| sanguine | inclined to a healthy reddish color often associated with outdoor life |
| soliloquy | a (usually long) dramatic speech intended to give the illusion of unspoken reflections |
| speculation | continuous and profound contemplation or musing on a subject or series of subjects of a deep or abstruse nature |
| subjugate | make subservient |
| suffragist | an advocate of the extension of voting rights (especially to women) |
| syllogism | deductive reasoning in which a conclusion is derived from two premises |
| supercilious | having or showing arrogant superiority to and disdain of those one views as unworthy |
| tautology | useless repetition |
| tectonic | pertaining to the structure or movement of the earth's crust |
| tempestuous | (of the elements) as if showing violent anger |
| totalitarian | characterized by a government in which the political authority exercises absolute and centralized control |
| unctuous | unpleasantly and excessively suave or ingratiating in manner or speech |
| usurp | seize and take control without authority and possibly with force |
| vacuous | devoid of significance or point |
| vehement | marked by extreme intensity of emotions or convictions |
| wrought | shaped to fit by or as if by altering the contours of a pliable mass (as by work or effort) |
| winnow | treat by exposure to a current of air so that waste matter is eliminated |
| xenophobe | person afraid of foreigners |
| yeoman | in former times was free and cultivated his own land |
| ziggurat | a rectangular tiered temple or terraced mound erected by the ancient Assyrians and Babylonians |
| abstract | (n) an abbreviated synopsis of a longer work of scholarship or research (adj) dealing with or tending to deal with a subject apart from a particular or specific instance |
| ad hominem | directed to or appealing to feelings or prejudices instead of to intellect or reason |
| adgae | a saying or proverb containing a truth based on experience and often couched in metaphorical language |
| allegory | a story in which a second meaning is to be read beneath the surface |
| alliteration | the repetition of one or more initial consonants in a group of wors or lines in a poem |
| allusion | a reference to a person, place, or event meant to create an effect or enhance the meaning of an idea |
| ambiguity | a vagueness of meaning; a conscious lack of clarity meant to evoke multiple meanings or interpretations |
| anachronism | a person, scene, event, or orther element that fails to correspond with the appropriate time or era |
| analogy | a comparison that points out similarities between two dissimilar things; a passage that points out several similarities between two unlike things is called an extended analogy |
| anecdote | a brief narative often used to illustrat an idea or make a point |
| annotation | a brief explanation, summary, or evaluation of a text or work of literature |
| antagonist | a character or force in a work of literature that, by opposing the protagonist, produces tension or conflict |
| antecedent | a word to which a pronoun refers |
| antithesis | a rhetorical opposition or contrast of ideas by means of a grammatical arrangement of words, clauses, or sentences |
| aphorsim | a short, pithy statement of generally accepted truth or sentiment |
| appolonian | it refers to teh most noble, godlike qualities of human nature and behavior |
| arch | (adj) characterized by clever or sly humor, often saucy, playful, and somewhat irreverent |
| archetype | an abstract or ideal conception of a type; a perfectly typical example; an original model or form |
| assonance | the repition of two or more vowel sounds in a group of words in prose or poetry |
| bard | a poet; in olden times, a performer who told heroic stories to musical accompaniment |
| bathos | insincere or overdone sentimentality |
| belle-lettres | a French term for the world of books, criticism, and literature in general |
| bibliography | a list of works cited or otherwise relevant to a particular subject |
| bombast | inflated, pretentious language |
| burlesque | a work of literature meant to ridicule a subject; a grotesque imitation |
| cacophony | grating, inharmonious sounds |
| canon | the works considered most important in a national literature or period; works widely read and studied |
| caricature | a grotesque likeness of striking qualities in person and things |
| carpe diem | literally, "sieze the day"' enjoy life while you can, a common theme in life and literature |
| circumlocution | literally, "talking around" a subject; i.e., discourse that avoids direct reference to a subject |
| classic | a highly regarded work of literature or other art form that has withstood the test of time |
| classical, classicism | deriving from the orderly qualities of ancient Greek and Roman cultures; implies formality, objectivity, simplicity, and restraint |
| clause | a structural element of a sentence, consisting of a grammatical subject and a predicate |
| climax | the high point, or turning point, of a story or play |
| comparison and contrast | a mode of discourse in which two or more things are compared and contrasted |
| conceit | a witty or ingenious thought; a diverting or highly fanciful idea, often stated in figurative language |
| concrete detail | a highly specif, particular, often real, actual, or tangible detail; the opposite of abstract |
| connotation | teh suggested or implied meaning of a word of phrase |
| consonance | the repetition of two or more consonant sounds in a group of words or a unit or speech or writing |
| critique | an analysis or assessment of a thing or situation fro the purpose of determining its nature, its limitation, adn its conformity to a set of standards |
| cynic | one who expects and observes nothing but the worst of human conduct |
| deductive reasoning | a method of reasoning by which specific definitions, conclusions, and theorems are drawn from general principles |
| denotation | the dictionary definitino of a word |
| denouement | the resolution that occurs at the end of a narrative or drama, real or imagined |
| descriptive detail | graphic,e xact, and accurat presentation of the characteristics of a person, place, or thing |
| deus ex machina | in literature, the use of an artificial device or gimmick to solve a problem |
| diction | the choice of words in oral and written discourse |
| didactic | having an instructive purpose; intending to convey information or teach a lesson, usually in a dry, pompous manner |
| digression | that portion of discourse that wanders or departs from the main subject or topic |
| disonysain | the word refers to sensual, pleasure-seeking impulses |
| dramatic irony | a circumstance in which teh audience or reader knows more about a situation than a character |
| elegy | a peom or prose selection that laments or meditates on the passing or death of someone or something of value |
| epigram | a concise but ingenious, witty, and thoughtful statement |
| euphony | pleasing, harmonious sounds |
| epithet | and adjective or phrase that expresses a striking quality of a person of thing |
| eponymous | a term for the title character of a work of literature |
| euphemism | a mild or less negative usage for a harsh or blunt term |
| exegesis | a detailed analysis or interpretation of a work of prose or poetry |
| espose | a piece of writing that reveals weaknesses, faults, frailites, or other shortcomings |
| exposition | the background and events that lead to the presentations of the main idea or purpose of an essay or other work; setting for the meaning or purpose of a piece of writing or discourse |
| explication | the interpretation or analysis of a text |
| extended metaphor | a series of comparisions between two unlike objects |
| fable | a short tale often with nonhuman characters from which a useful lesson may be drawn |
| fallacy, fallacious reasoning | an incorrect belief or supposition based on faulty data, defective evidence, or false information |
| fantasy | a story containing unreal, imaginary features |
| farce | a comdy that contains an extravagant and non-sensical disregard of seriousness, although it may have a serious, scornful purpose |
| figure of speech, figurative language | in contrast to literal language, impies meanings, metaphor, simile, and personification |
| frame | a structure that provides a premise or setting for a narrative or other discourse |
| genre | a term used to descrive literary forms, such as novel, play, and essay |
| harangue | a forceful sermon, lecture, or tirade |
| homily | a lecture or sermon on a religious or moral theme meant to guide human behavior |
| hubris | excessive pride that often affects tone |
| humanism | a belief that emphasizes fiath and optimism in human potential and creativity |
| hyperbole | overstatement; gross exaggeration for rhetorical effect |
| idyll | a lyric poem or passage that describes a kind of ideal life or place |
| image | a word or phrase representing that which can be seen, touched, tasted, smelled, or felt |
| indirect quotatoin | a rendering of a quotation in which acutal words are not stated but only approximated or paraphrased |
| inductive reasoning | a method of reasoning in which a number of specific facts or examples are used to make a generalization |
| inference | a conclusion or propostion arrived at by considering facts, observations, or some other specific data |
| invective | a direct verbal assault; a denunciation; casting blame on someone or something |
| irony | a mode of expression in which the intended meaning is the opposite of what is stated, often implying ridicule or light sarcasm; a state of affairs or events that is the reverse of what might have been expected |
| kenning | a device employed in Anglo-Sacxon poetry in which the name of a thing is replaced by on of its functions or qualities |
| lampoon | a mocking, satirical assault on a person or situation |
| litotes | a form of understatements in which the negative of the contrary is used to achieve emphasis or intensity |
| loose sentence | a sentence that follows the customary word order of English sentences |
| lyrical prose | personal, reflective prose that reveals the speaker's thoughts and feelings about the subject |
| malapropism | a confused use of words in which the appropriate word is replaced by one with a similar sound but inappropriate |
| maxim | a saying or proverb expressing common wisdom or truth |
| melodrama | a literary from in which events are exaggerated in order to create an extreme emotional respone |
| metaphor | a figure of speech that compares unlike objects |
| metaphysical | a term describing poetry that uses elaborate conceits, expresses the complexities of love and life, and is highly intellectual. |
| metonymy | A figure of speech that uses the name of one thing to represent something else with which it is associated |
| Middle English | The language spoken in England roughly between 1150 and 1500 AD |
| mock epic | a parody of traditional epic form |
| mock solemnity | feigned or deliberately antificial seriousness, often for satirical purposes |
| mode | the general form, pattern, and manner of expressino of a piece of discourse |
| montage | a quick succession of images or impressions used to express an idea |
| mood | the emotional tone or prevailing atmosphere in a work of literature or other discourse. In grammar, the intent of a particular sentence |
| moral | a brief and often simplistic lesson that a reader may infer from a work of literature |
| motif | a phrase, idea, or event that through repetition serves to unify or convey a theme in an essay or other discourse |
| muse | (n) one of the ancient Greek goddesses presiding over the arts; the imaginary source of inspiration for an artist or writer (v) to reflect deeply; to ponder |
| myth | an imaginary story that has become an accepted part of the cultural or religious tradition of a group or society |
| narrative | a form of verse or prose (both fiction and nonfiction) that tells a story. |
| naturalism | a term often used as a synonym for realis; also a view of experience that is generally characterized as bleak and pessimistic |
| non sequitar | a statement or idea that fails to follow logically from the one before |
| objective | (adj) of or relating to facts and reality, as opposed to private and personal feelings and attitudes. |
| ode | a lyric poem usually marked by serious, respectful, and exalted feelings toward the subject |
| Old English | the Anglo-Saxon language spoken from approximately 450 to 1150 AD in what is now Great Britain |
| omniscient narrator | a narrator with unlimited awareness, understanding, and insight of characters, setting, background, and all other elements of the story |
| oxymoron | a term consisting of contradictory elements juxtaposed to create a paradoxical effect |
| parable | a story consisting of events from which a moral or spiritual truth may be derived |
| paradox | a statement that seems self-contradictory but is nevertheless true |
| parallel structure | the structure required for expressing two or more grammatical elements of equal rank. coordinate ideas, compared and contrasted ideas, and correlative constructions call for this |
| parody | an imitation of a work meant to ridicule its style and subject |
| paraphrase | a version of text put into simpler, everyday words |
| pastoral | a work of literature dealing with rural life |
| pathetic fallacy | faulty reasoning that inappropriately ascrives human feelings to nature or nonhuman objects |
| pathos | the element in literature that stimulates pity or sorrow |
| pedantic | narrowly academic instead of broad and humane; excessively petty and meticulous |
| peridoic sentence | a sentence that departs from the usual word order of English sentences by expressing its main thought only at the end. In other words, the particulars in the sentence are presented before the idea they support |
| persona | the role or facade that a character assumes or depicts to a reader or other audience |
| personification | a figure of speech in which objects and animals are given human characteristics |
| plot | the interrelationship among the events in a story |
| point of view | the relation in which a narrator or speaker stands to a subject of discourse |
| predicate | the part of a sentence that is not the grammatical sujbect. It often says something about the subject. A noun that provides another name for the subject is called a predicate nominative |
| prose | any discourse that is not poetry |
| proverb | a short pithy statement of a general truth, one that condenses common experience into memorable form |
| pseudonym | a false name or alias used by writers |
| pulp fiction | novels written for mass consuption, often emphasizing exciting and titilalating plots |
| pun | a humorous play on words, using similar-sounding or identical words to suggest different meanings |
| realism | teh depiction of people, things, and events as they really are without idealization or exaggeration for effect |
| rebuttal or refutation | the part of discourse wherein opposing arguments are anticipated and answered |
| reiteration | repetition of an idea using different words, often for emphasis or other effect |
| repetition | reuse of the same words, phrases, or ideas for rhetorical effect, usually to emphasize a point |
| retraction | the withdrawal of a previously stated idea or opinion |
| rhetoric | the language of a work and its style; words, often highly emotional, used to convey or sway an audience |
| rhetorical mode | a general term that identifies discourse according to its chief purpose. |
| rhetorical question | a question to which the audience already knows the answer; a question asked merely for effect with no answer expected |
| rhetorical stance | language that conveys a speaker's attitude or opinion with regard to a particular subject |
| rhyme | the repetition of similar sounds at regular intervals, used mostly in poetry but not unheard of in prose |
| rhythm | the patterns of stressed and unstressed syllables that make up speech and writting |
| romance | an extended narrative about improbable events and extraoridnary people in exotic places |
| sarcasm | a sharp, caustic attitude conveyed in words through jibes, tanuts, or other remarks; differs from irony, which is more subtle |
| satire | a literary style used to poke fun at, attack, or ridicule an idea, vice, or foible, often for the purpose of inducing change |
| sentence structure | the arrangement of parts of a sentence. May be simple, compound, or complex |
| sentiment | a synonym for view or feeling; also a refined and tender emotion in literature |
| setting | an environment that consists of time, place, historical milieu, and social, political, and even spiritual circumstances |
| simile | a figurative comparison using the words like or as |
| stream of consciousness | a style of writing in which the author tries to reproduce teh random flow of thoughts in the human mind |
| style | the manner in which an author uses and arranges words, shapes ideas, forms sentences, and created structure to convey ideas |
| stylistic devices | a general term referring to diction, syntax, tone, figurative language, and all other elements that contribute to the manner of a given piece of discourse |
| subject complement | the name of a grammatical unit that is comprised of predicate nominatives and predicate adjectives |
| subjective | (adj) of or relating to privat and personal feelings and attitudes as opposed to facts and reality |
| subtext | the implied meaning that underlines the main meaning of an essay or other work |
| syllogism | a form of deductive reasoning in which given certain ideas or facts, other ideas or facts must follow |
| symbolism | the use of one object to evoke ideas and associations not literally part of the original object |
| synecdoche | a figure of speech in which a part signifies the whole or the whole signifies the part |
| syntax | the organization of language into meaningful structuer; every sentence has a particular pattern of words |
| theme | the main idea or meaning, often an abstract idea upon which an essay or other form of discourse is built |
| thesis | the main idea of a piece of discourse; the statement or proposition that a speaker or writer wishes to advance, illustrate, prove, or defend |
| tone | the author's attitude toward the subject being written about. |
| tragedy | a form of literature in which the hero is destroyed by some character flaw and by a set of forces that cause the hero considerable anguish |
| transition | a stylistic device used to create a link between ideas |
| trope | the generic name for a figure of speech such as image, symbol, simile, and metaphor |
| understatement | a restrained statement that departs from what could be said; a studies avoidance of emphasis or exaggeration, often to creat a particular effect |
| verbal irony | a descrepancy between the true meaning of a situation and the literal meaning of the written or spoken word |
| verse | a synonym for poetry, also a group of lines in a song or poem; also a single line of poetry |
| verisimilitude | similar to the truth; the quality of realism in a work that persuades readers that they are getting a vision of life as it is |
| voice | the real or assumed personality used by a writer or speaker. In grammer, refers to the use of verbs |
| whimsy | an object, device, or creation that is fanciful or rooted in unreality |
| wit | the quickness of intellect and the power and talent for saying brilliant things that surprise and delight by their unexpectedness; the power to comment subtly and pointedly on the foibles of the passing scene |
| allegory | the device of using character and/or story elemnts symbolically to represent an abstraction in addition to the literal meaning |
| alliteration | the repetition of sounds, especially initial consonants sounds in two or more neighboring words |
| allusion | a direct or indirect reference to something which is presumable commonly known, such as an event, book, myth, place, or work of art |
| ambiguity | the multople meanings, either intentional or unintentional, of a word, phrase, sentence or passage |
| anadiplosis | the repetition of a key word, especially the last one, at the beginning of the next sentence or clause |
| analogy | a similarity or comparison between two different things or teh relationship between them |
| anapestic | a foot in poetry with two unstressed syllables followed by one stressed syllable |
| anaphora | the rhetorical device of repeating a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses or sentences for emphasis and rhythm |
| anathema | a thing or person accursed or damned; a thing or person greatly detested; a formal curse or condemnation excommunicating a person from a church or damning something; any strong curse |
| antecedent | the word, phrase, or clause referred to by a pronoun |
| anticlimax | using a sequence of ideas that abruptly diminish in dignity or importance at the end of a sentence, generally for satirical effect |
| antimetabole | repeating words in reverse order for surprise and emphasis |
| antithesis | a contrast or opposition of thoughts, usually in two phrases, clauses, or sentences |
| aphorism | a terse statement of known authorship which expresses a general truth or a moral principle |
| apostrophe | a figure of speech that directly addresses an absent or imaginary person or a personified abstraction, such as liberty or love |
| archetype | the original patter, or model from which all other things of the same kind are made; a perfect example of a type or group |
| assonance | the repetition of vowel sounds in a series of words |
| asyndeton | the practice of leaving out the usual conjunctions between coordinate sentence elements |
| atmosphere | the emotional mood created by the entirety of a literary work, established partly by the author's choice of objects that are described |
| attitude | the position or posture assumed in connection with an action, feeling, mood |
| balanced sentence | the phrases or clauses balance each other by virtue of their lickness of structure, meaning, or length |
| bathos | an abrupt change from the lofty to the ordinary or tivial in writing or speech; anticlimax |
| blank verse | poetry written in unrhymed iambic pentameter |
| caccophony | harsh sounding, jarring sound; dissonance |
| caesura | a pause or break in the middle of a line of poetry |
| chiasmus | similar to antimetabole, but reversing the grammatical elements rather than just words for emphasis |
| clause | a grammatical unit containing both a subject and a verb |
| cliche | an overused, worn-out, hackneyed expression that used to be fresh but is no more |
| climax | arranging words, clauses, or sentences in the order of their importance, teh least focible coming first and the others rising in power until the last |
| colloquial/colloquialism | the use of slang or informalities in speech or writing |
| complex sentence | one or more principal clauses and one or more subordinate clauses |
| compound sentence | two independent clauses joined by a coordinate conjunction |
| compount-complex sentence | two or more principal clauses and one or more subordinate clauses |
| conceit | a fanciful expression, ususally in the form of an extended metaphor or suprising analogy between seemingly dissimilar objects |
| connotation | the non-literal, associative meaning of a word; the implied, suggested meaning |
| consonance | the repetition of a consonant sound within a series of words to produce a harmonious effect |
| cumulative sentence | sentence that begins with the main idea and adds additional information, usually for description |
| dactylic | a foot in poetry with one stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables |
| denotations | the strict, literal, dictionary definition of a word, devoid of any emotion, attitude, or color |
| device | a plan |
| diction | related to style, refers to the writer's word choices, especially wiht regard to their correctness, clearness, or effectiveness |
| didactic | from the Greek, literaly means "teaching" |
| dimeter | a verse written in two-foot lines |
| dirge | a funeral hymn; a slow, sad song, poem, or musical compostition expressing grief or mourning |
| elegy | a poem or song of lament and praise for the dead |
| ellipsis | the emission of a word or words necessary for complete grammatical construction but understood in the context. ... |
| enjambment | in poetry, the running on of a sentence from one line or couplet to the next, with little or no pause |
| epanalepsis | opening and closing a sentence with the same word or phrase for surprise and emphasis |
| epic | a long narrative poem in a dignified style about the deeds of a hero or heroes,w ho in some way embody the cultural values of their society |
| epigram | a short poem with a witty or satirical point; any terse, witty, pointed statement, often antithetical |
| epistles | a literary letter; a formal compostion written in the form of a letter addressed to a distant person or group of people |
| euphemism | from the Greek for "good speech"; polite substitutes for unpleasant words or concepts |
| epitaph | an inscription on a tomb or gravestone in memory of the person buried there; a short compostion in prose or verse, written as a tribute to a dead person |
| euphony | the quality of having a pleasing sound; pleasant combination of agreeable sounds |
| extended parallelism | the repetition of words or grammatical elements to achieve cumulative force and rhythm |
| extended metaphor | a metaphor developed at great length, occurring frequently in or throughout a work |
| fable | a brief story, usually with animal characters, that teaches a lesson, or moral |
| figurative language | a device used to produce figurative language |
| genre | kinds or types of literature |
| homily | a sermon or morally instructive lecture |
| hyperbole | an overstatement or exaggerated way of saying something |
| iambic | a foot in poetry with one unstressed syllable followed by one stressed syllable |
| imagery | anything in a literary work that calls up sensations of sight, taste, smell, touch, heat, pressure |
| inference/infer | to conclude or decide from something known or assumed; derive by reasoning |
| invective | a violent verbal attack; strong criticism, curses; an abusive term |
| irony | an implied contrast |
| juxtapostion | a poetic and rhetorical device in which normally unassociated ideas, words, or phrases are placed next to one another, creating an effect of surprise and wit |
| language | the entire body of words used in a test, not simply isolated bits of diction |
| literal/figurative | literal language employs words in their ordinary meanings. figurative language is not literally true but uses words metaphorically |
| litotes | understatement employed for the purpose of enhancing the effect of the ideas expressed |
| loose sentence | sentence that begins with the main idea and adds additional information, usually for description |
| lyric | a melodic poem that expresses teh obervations and feelings of a single speaker |
| metaphor | a comparison like a simile but usually implied and without a comparative word such as like or as |
| metonymy | the use of the name of one thing for that of another associated with or suggested by it |
| mock heroic | burlesquing or mocking, heroic manner, action, or character |
| monometere | a verse written in one-foot lines |
| mood | the atmosphere of the literary work |
| motif | a main theme or subject |
| myth | a fictional tale that explains the actions of gods or heroes or the cuses of natural phenomena |
| narrative | the telling of a story |
| natural order of a sentence | constructing a sentence so the subject comes before the predicate |
| novel | a fictional prose narrative, usually long enough to be published in a book by itself |
| onomatopeia | the use of words that sound like what they mean |
| oxymoron | a figure of speech in which opposite or contradictory ideas or terms are combined |
| parable | aa brief story, usually with human characters, that teaches a moral lesson |
| paradox | a statement that seems contradictory, unbelievable, or absurd but that may actually be true in fact |
| parallelism | (1) refers to a grammatical or structural similarity between sentences or parts of a sentence (2) refers to teh repeated use of phrases, clauses, or sentences that are similar in structure and meaning |
| parody | a literary work that makes fun of another work, type of work, or specific author, usually by imitating and exaggerating the qualitites of its subject |
| pedantic | an unnecessary display of scholarship lacking in judgement or sense of proportion |
| pentameter | a verse written in five-foot lines |
| periodic sentence | sentence that postpones the main idea to the end, adding information at teh beginning to build interest or tension |
| personification | the treatment of an object or an abstract idea as if it were a person |
| point of view | the person or intelligence the writer creates to tell the story to the reader |
| prose | the oridinary form of written or spoken language, without rhyme or meter; speech or writing that is not poetry |
| prosody | the science or art of versification, including the study of metrical structure, thyme, stanza forms |
| pun | play on words that are identical or similar in sound but have sharply diverse meanings |
| repetition | a device in which words, sounds, and ideas are used more than once to enhance rhythm and create emphasis |
| rhetoric | the skill of using spoken or written communicatino effectively |
| rhetorical mood or forms of discourse | narrative, dexcriptive, expository, and argumentatve |
| rhetorical question | a question that expects no answer |
| rhyme scheme | a regualr pattern of rhyming words in a poem |
| romance | a story that presents remote or imaginative incidents rather than ordinary, commonplace experiences |
| sarcasm | a taunting, sneering, cutting, or caustic remark; gibe or jeer |
| catire | a literary work that ridicule various aspects of human behavior |
| semantics | the nature, structure, development and changes of the meanings of speech forms or with contextual meaning |
| sentence structure | how a speaker or author constructs a sentence affects what the audience understands |
| shift | a change of feelings by the speaker from the beginning to the end |
| simile | the comparison of two different things or ideas through the use of the words like or as |
| simple sentence | contains one subject and one verb |
| soliloquy | lines in drama in which a character reveals his thoughts to the audience, but not to the other characters, by speaking as if to himself |
| sonnet | a fourteen-line lyric poem focused on a single theme |
| split order of a sentence | divides the predicate into two parts with the subject coming in the middle |
| stream of consciousness | a narrative technique that presents thoughts as if they were coming directly from a character's mind |
| style | a group of different aspects of writing that have to do with the writer's way of saying something |
| syllogism | an argument or form of reasoning in which two statements or premises are made and a logical conclusion drawn from them |
| symbol/symbolism | a thing or action that is made to mean more than itself |
| synecdoche | a form of a metaphor in which a part of something is used to signify the whole |
| synesthetic imagery | detail that moves from the stimulation of one sense to a response by another sense |
| syntax | sentence structure and word order |
| tetrameter | a verse written in four-foot lines |
| theme | what the author is saying about the subject |
| tone | the writer's or speaker's attitude toward the subject and the audience |
| tragedy | a serious play typically dealing with the problems of a central charcter, leading to an unhappy or disastrous ending brought on, as in ancient drama, by fate and a tragic flaw in this characer, or, in modern drama, usually by moral weakness, psychological maladjustment, or soical pressures |
| trimeter | a verse written in three-foot lines |
| trite | applied to an expression or idea which through repeated use or application has lost its original freshness |
| trochaic | a foot in poetry with one stressed syllable followed by one unstressed syllable |
| understatement (meiosis) | the opposite of hyperbole. a kind of irony thta deliberately represents something as being much less than it really is |
| vernacular | using the native language of a country or place; commonly spoken by the people of a particular country or place |
| vignette | a short, delicate literary sketch |
| rhetoical strategies | methods of development |
| argument and persuasion | propounding opinions and proposals |
| cause and effect | asking how and why things happen |
| classification | sorting into kinds |
| definition | tracing boundaries |
| descroption | writing with the senses |
| analysis | slicing into parts |
| process analysis | explaining step by step |
| example | pointing to instances |
| narration | telling a story |
| induction | a process in logic that involves moving from a number of particular cases to a general conclusion that all instances of teh type investigated will conform to that type |
| inductive leap | because we cannot test every instance, we take the leap from most or some to all. we reach a generalization |
| tests for generalization | 1. a fair number of instances must be investigated 2. instances investicated must be typical 3. negative instances must be explained. show that they are not typical and, therefore, need not be considered as significant |
| analogy | inductive reasoning in which we assume that if two instance are alike in a number of important points, they will be alike in the point in question |
| deduction | a process in logic that involes reasoning from stated premises to the formally valid conclusion; reasoning from general to the particular |
| syllogism | the formula of deductive reasoning |
| distributed middle term | in order that syllogism be valid, the word that is the subject of the sentence in the major premise must be part of the predicate in a minor premise |
| begging the question | assuming something to be true that really needs proof |
| ignoring the question | a question is set up so that argument is shifted to new ground, or an appeal is made to some emotional attitude having nothing to do with the logic of the case |
| equivocation | using the same term with different meaning |
| non-sequitur | "it does not follow" the conclusion does not follow from the preceding arguments |
| faulty dilemma | the major premise presents a choice that does not exhaust the possibilites |
| post hoc ergo propter hoc | "after this, therefore because of that" it attempts to prove that because a second event followed a first event, the second event it the result of the first |
| argumentum ad hominem | "the argument to the man" turning from the issue to the character involved, usually as an attack |
| ad misericordiam | an appeal for sympathy |
| hypothesis contrary to fact | beginning with a premise that is not necessarily true and drawing conclusions from it |
| composition | arguing that a group must have the same qualities or characteristics as its members |
| division | arguing that an individual must have teh characteristics of the group |
| dicto simpliciter | an argument based on unqualified generalization |
| contradictory premises | the main premises contraditc each other |
| over-generalizing (Hasty Generalization) | too few instances are presented to reach an accurate conclusion |
| premise and the common ground | too few instances are presented to reach an accurate conclusion |
| false analogy | wrongful comparisons of dissimlar situations |
| ad vericundiam | an appeal to general authority |
| ad populum | appeal to a crowd |
| self-evident truths | proceeding from an unwarranted assumption to a foregone conclusion |
| guilt (innocence) by association | use of irrelevant connections to accuse or vindicate |
| either/or fallacy | requires absolutes which do not allow for intermediate cases |
| appeals | rational, ethical, emotional |
| argument | data, claim, warrant |
| classicism | an approach to literature and teh other arts that stresses reason, balance, clarity, ideal beauty, and orderly form in imitation of the arts of ancient Greece and Rome |
| romanticism | a literary and artistic movement of the nineteenth century |
| naturalism | a literary movement among novelists at the end of the nineteenth century and during the early days of the twentieth |
| transcendentalism | an American literary and philosophical movement of the nineteenth century |
| modernism | attempted to capture the essence of modern life in the twentieth century in both form and content of their work |
| postmodernism | the collection of literary movements that have developed in the decades following World War II |
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