La Costa Canyon AP English Lit Terms

Ms. Monahan (United States of America)
La Costa Canyon High school's list of terms (originally selected by J.Lax)
93 words 657 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. allegory
    a short moral story
  2. alliteration
    use of the same consonant at the beginning of each word
  3. allusion
    passing reference or indirect mention
  4. ambiguity
    unclearness by virtue of having more than one meaning
  5. anecdote
    short account of an incident
  6. antagonist
    someone who offers opposition
  7. anticlimax
    a disappointing decline after a previous rise
  8. antihero
    a protagonist who does not act brave or morally good
  9. apostrophe
    an address to an absent or imaginary person
  10. aside
    out of the way (especially away from one's thoughts)
  11. assonance
    the repetition of similar vowels in successive words
  12. blank verse
    unrhymed poetry, usually in iambic pentameter
  13. cacophony
    loud confusing disagreeable sounds
  14. cadence
    the accent in a metrical foot of verse
  15. caesura
    a break or pause in the middle of a verse line
  16. caricature
    a representation of a person exaggerated for comic effect
  17. catastrophe
    a state of extreme ruin and misfortune
  18. catharsis
    purging of emotional tensions
  19. climax
    the decisive moment in a novel or play
  20. conflict
    opposition in a work of fiction between characters or forces
  21. connotation
    an idea that is implied or suggested
  22. consonance
    the repetition of sounds especially at the ends of words
  23. couplet
    a stanza consisting of two successive lines of verse
  24. denotation
    the most direct or specific meaning of a word or expression
  25. denouement
    the outcome of a complex sequence of events
  26. diction
    the manner in which something is expressed in words
  27. dissonance
    disagreeable sounds
  28. dramatic irony
    when the audience understands something the characters don't
  29. enjambment
    continuation from one line of verse into the next line
  30. epic
    a long narrative poem telling of a hero's deeds
  31. epiphany
    a divine manifestation
  32. epithet
    descriptive word or phrase
  33. euphony
    any pleasing and harmonious sounds
  34. existential
    relating to or dealing with the state of being
  35. flashback
    a transition in a story to an earlier event or scene
  36. foreshadowing
    the act of providing vague advance indications
  37. free verse
    poetry that does not rhyme or have a regular meter
  38. hubris
    overbearing pride or presumption
  39. hyperbole
    extravagant exaggeration
  40. iamb
    a metrical unit with unstressed-stressed syllables
  41. imagery
    the ability to form mental pictures of things or events
    using any of the five senses.
  42. irony
    incongruity between what might be expected and what occurs
  43. malapropism
    misuse of a word by confusion with one that sounds similar
  44. pentameter
    a verse line having five metrical feet
  45. metaphor
    a figure of speech that suggests a non-literal similarity
  46. meter
    a basic unit of length (approximately 1.094 yards)
  47. metonymy
    substituting the name of a feature for the name of the thing
  48. monologue
    a dramatic speech by a single actor
  49. moral
    the significance of a story or event
  50. motif
    a recurrent element in a literary or artistic work
  51. myth
    a traditional story serving to explain a world view
  52. objective
    undistorted by emotion or personal bias
  53. octave
    a rhythmic group of eight lines of verse
  54. ode
    a lyric poem with complex stanza forms
  55. onomatopoeia
    using words that imitate the sound they denote
  56. oxymoron
    conjoined contradictory terms
  57. paradox
    a statement that contradicts itself
  58. parallelism
    similarity by virtue of corresponding
    similar patterns of grammatical structure and/or length.
  59. persona
    an image of oneself that one presents to the world
  60. personification
    attributing human characteristics to abstract ideas
  61. plot
    the story that is told, as in a novel, play, movie, etc.
  62. prologue
    an introductory section of a novel or other literary work
  63. prose
    ordinary writing as distinguished from verse
  64. protagonist
    the principal character in a work of fiction
  65. pun
    a humorous play on words
  66. quatrain
    a stanza of four lines
  67. refrain
    part of a song or poem that recurs at regular intervals
    The line or lines that are repeated in poetry or song. The "chorus."
  68. Renaissance
    period of European history at the close of the Middle Ages
  69. rhyme
    correspondence in the final sounds of two or more lines
  70. rhythm
    alternation of stressed and unstressed elements in speech
  71. satire
    witty language used to convey insults or scorn
  72. sestet
    a group of six lines of verse
  73. setting
    the context and environment in which something is situated
  74. simile
    a figure of speech expressing a resemblance between things
  75. soliloquy
    a dramatic speech giving the illusion of unspoken reflection
    speaker is not talking to anyone else. Usually alone on stage. The truth.
  76. sonnet
    a verse form of 14 lines with a fixed rhyme scheme
  77. stanza
    a fixed number of lines of verse forming a unit of a poem
  78. subjective
    taking place within the mind and modified by individual bias
  79. stream of consciousness
    the continuous flow of ideas and feelings in one's mind
  80. suspense
    excited anticipation of an approaching climax
  81. symbol
    something visible that represents something invisible
  82. synesthesia
    a sensation that occurs when a different sense is stimulated
  83. synecdoche
    using part of something to refer to the whole thing
    using a part of something to represent the whole.
  84. syntax
    the grammatical arrangement of words in sentences
  85. theme
    a unifying idea that is a recurrent element in literary work
  86. tragedy
    drama exciting terror or pity
  87. tragic flaw
    the error of a hero in a drama that leads to his downfall
  88. trilogy
    a set of three literary or dramatic works related in subject
  89. turning point
    an event marking a unique or important historical change of course or one on which important developments depend
  90. verisimilitude
    the appearance of truth; the quality of seeming to be true
  91. vernacular
    a characteristic language of a particular group
  92. verse
    literature in metrical form
  93. wit
    verbal skill that has the power to evoke laughter
Created on Tue Apr 23 16:38:33 EDT 2013 (updated Thu Apr 25 13:15:43 EDT 2013)

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