AP English Language and Composition Exam: Rhetorical and Literary Terms 3

Ensure you're prepared for the AP English Language and Composition Exam by learning the words in this collection of essential vocabulary. Our lists cover the language you'll see in test questions and writing prompts, important rhetorical and literary terminology, and vocabulary related to writing and grammar.
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. allegory
    a style in which characters and events are symbolic
  2. alliteration
    use of the same consonant at the beginning of each word
  3. allusion
    passing reference or indirect mention
  4. figurative
    not literal
  5. foreshadowing
    the act of providing vague advance indications
  6. genre
    a kind of literary or artistic work
  7. hyperbole
    extravagant exaggeration
  8. imagery
    the use of vivid sensory language in literature
  9. irony
    incongruity between what might be expected and what occurs
  10. metaphor
    a figure of speech that suggests a non-literal similarity
  11. mood
    the prevailing psychological state
  12. onomatopoeia
    using words that imitate the sound they denote
  13. parody
    a composition that imitates or misrepresents a style
  14. personification
    attributing human characteristics to abstract ideas
  15. satire
    a literary genre that uses humor to ridicule human failings and vices
  16. simile
    a figure of speech expressing a resemblance between things
  17. style
    a mode of expression typical of a person, group, or period
  18. symbolism
    the practice of investing things with arbitrary meaning
  19. theme
    a unifying idea that is a recurrent element in literary work
  20. tone
    a quality that reveals the attitudes of the author
Created on Wed Feb 10 10:32:04 EST 2021 (updated Wed Feb 10 11:45:53 EST 2021)

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