Upgrade to remove ads
Only $2.99/month

AP Lit Exam

Terms in this set (27)

Alliteration
the occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words
Allusion
an indirect or passing reference
Assonance
the repetition of the sound of a vowel or diphthong in nonrhyming stressed syllables near enough to each other for the echo to be discernible
Catastrophe
an event causing great and often sudden damage or suffering
Chiasmus
the figure of speech in which two or more clauses are related to each other through a reversal of structures in order to make a larger point
Conceit
an elaborate metaphor
Drama
an exciting, emotional, or unexpected series of events or set of circumstances
Epic Hero
...
Epiphany
...
Hyperbole
exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally
Internal Rhyme
rhyme that occurs within a single line of verse, or between internal phrases across multiple lines
Kenning
a type of circumlocution, in the form of a compound that employs figurative language in place of a more concrete single-word noun
Metaphor
a word or phrase that is used to make a comparison between two people, things, animals, or places
Novel
a fictitious prose narrative of book length, typically representing character and action with some degree of realism
Onomatopoeia
the formation of a word from a sound associated with what is named
Oxymoron
a figure of speech in which apparently contradictory terms appear in conjunction
Paradox
a statement or proposition that, despite sound (or apparently sound) reasoning from acceptable premises, leads to a conclusion that seems senseless, logically unacceptable
Personification
figure of speech where human qualities are given to animals, objects or ideas
Prose
written or spoken language in its ordinary form, without metrical structure
Repetition
the action of repeating something that has already been said or written
Scansion
Describing the rhythms of poetry by dividing the lines into feet, marking the locations of stressed and unstressed syllables, and counting the syllables
Simile
a figure of speech involving the comparison of one thing with another thing of a different kind
Synecdoche
a figure of speech in which a part is made to represent the whole or vice versa
Symbol
a thing that represents or stands for something else, especially a material object representing something abstract
Theme
the subject of a talk, a piece of writing, a person's thoughts, or an exhibition; a topic
Tragedy
form of drama based on human suffering that invokes an accompanying catharsis or pleasure in audiences
Trochee
a metrical foot consisting of a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed one
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE...