Ap Lit Terms And Definitions

Front 1

alliteration

Back 1

Repeating a consonant sound in close proximity to others, or beginning several words with the same vowel sound.

buckets of big blueberries

Front 2

allusion

Back 2

A casual reference in literature to a person, place, event, or another passage of literature, often without explicit identification

Front 3

antagonist

Back 3

the character against whom the protagonist struggles or contends

Front 4

apostrophe

Back 4

the act of addressing some abstraction or personification that is not physically present

Front 5

assonance

Back 5

Repeating identical or similar vowels (especially in stressed syllabes) in nearby words

Front 6

blank verse

Back 6

Unrhymed lines of ten syllables each with the even-numbered syllables bearing the accents.

Front 7

direct/indirect characterization

Back 7

direct is what the character says, indirect is what the character does

Front 8

static/dynamic characterization

Back 8

static(flat) are characters whose personality doesn't change, dynamic(round) are those who undergo change

Front 9

conflict

Back 9

The opposition between two characters (such as a protagonist and an antagonist), between two large groups of people, or between the protagonist and a larger problem such as forces of nature, ideas, public mores, and so on

Front 10

connotation

Back 10

The extra tinge or taint of meaning each word carries beyond the minimal, strict definition found in a dictionary

Front 11

consonance

Back 11

A special type of alliteration in which the repeated pattern of consonants is marked by changes in the intervening vowels--i.e., the final consonants of the stressed syllables match each other but the vowels differ. ex: linger, longer

Front 12

couplet

Back 12

Two lines--the second line immediately following the first--of the same metrical length that end in a rhyme to form a complete unit

Front 13

denotation

Back 13

The minimal, strict definition of a word as found in a dictionary, disregarding any historical or emotional connotation.

Front 14

diction

Back 14

The choice of a particular word as opposed to others.

Front 15

end rhyme

Back 15

Rhyme in which the last word at the end of each verse is the word that rhymes

Front 16

enjambement

Back 16

A line having no pause or end punctuation but having uninterrupted grammatical meaning continuing into the next line

Front 17

foil

Back 17

A character that serves by contrast to highlight or emphasize opposing traits in another character

Front 18

foreshadowing

Back 18

Suggesting, hinting, indicating, or showing what will occur later in a narrative

Front 19

free verse

Back 19

Poetry based on the natural rhythms of phrases and normal pauses rather than the artificial constraints of metrical feet

Front 20

hyperbole

Back 20

over-exagerration

Front 21

imagery

Back 21

A common term of variable meaning, imagery includes the "mental pictures" that readers experience with a passage of literature.

Front 22

internal rhyme

Back 22

A poetic device in which a word in the middle of a line rhymes with a word at the end of the same metrical line.

Front 23

dramatic irony

Back 23

the reader knows something the character doesn't

Front 24

situational irony

Back 24

a trope in which accidental events occur that seem oddly appropriate

Front 25

verbal irony

Back 25

double meanings in someone's words

Front 26

implied metaphor

Back 26

a metaphor not explicitly stated or obvious that compares two things by using adjectives that commonly describe one thing, but are used to describe another comparing the two.

Front 27

extended metaphor

Back 27

a comparison of two things that on more than one level and goes on for a longer amount of time

Front 28

setting

Back 28

time, place, context of a piece of literature

Front 29

slant rhyme

Back 29

Rhymes created out of words with similar but not identical sounds

Front 30

personification

Back 30

giving human qualities to inanimate or non-tangible objects

Front 31

first person point of view

Back 31

the narrator speaks as "I" and the narrator is a character in the story who may or may not influence events within it

Front 32

third person limited point of view

Back 32

a narrator who is confined to what is experienced, thought, or felt by a single character, or at most a limited number of characters

Front 33

third person omniscient point of view

Back 33

a narrator who knows everything that needs to be known about the agents and events in the story, and is free to move at will in time and place, and who has privileged access to a character's thoughts, feelings, and motives

Front 34

protagonist

Back 34

main character

Front 35

refrain

Back 35

A line or set of lines at the end of a stanza or section of a longer poem or song--these lines repeat at regular intervals in other stanzas or sections of the same work.

Front 36

stanza

Back 36

An arrangement of lines of verse in a pattern usually repeated throughout the poem.

Front 37

symbol

Back 37

A word, place, character, or object that means something beyond what it is on a literal level.

Front 38

syntax

Back 38

the standard word order and sentence structure of a language

Front 39

theme

Back 39

A central idea or statement that unifies and controls an entire literary work

Front 40

tone

Back 40

The means of creating a relationship or conveying an attitude or mood.