AP Lit Terms Test
Terms
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- masculine rhyme
- when one syllable of a word rhymes with another word (send/bend)
- slant rhyme
- a rhyme based on an imperfect or incomplete correspondence of end syllable sounds
- anapest
- three syllables with the stress of the last syllable
- parody
- imitation of a known work often involves mocking
- heptameter
- seven-foot line
- verbal irony
- saying the opposite of what one means
- Italian sonnet
- divided between an octave and sestet (Petrarchan)
- onomatopoeia
- the use of a word to imitate/represent natural sounds (buzz, crunch)
- anecdote
- a short and often personal story used to emphasize a point, to develop a character or theme or to inject humor
- rhyme scheme
- the pattern or sequence in which the rhyme occurs (1=a, 2=b, 3=c etc)
- denotation
- dictionary definition of the word
- Spenserian sonnet
- nine-line stanza consisting of eight iambic pentameter lines followed by a line of iambic hexameter (from Edmund Spenser's Faerie Queen)
- connotation
- the associations called up by a word that go beyond its dictionary definition
- iamb
- two-syllable foot with the stress of the second syllable
- enjambment
- the running over of a sentence from one verse or stanza onto the next without stopping at the end of the first
- narrative
- a story that describes a sequence of events
- metonymy
- the substitution of a word naming an object for a another word closely associated with it (Pay tribute to the crown)
- hamartia
- tragic flaw
- metaphor
- a comparison between two unlike things without using like or as
- limerick
- a five-line nonsense poem with anapestic meter (a-a-b-b-a)
- hyperbole
- overstatement
- pun
- humorous play on words that have several meanings or words that sound the same but have different meanings
- internal rhyme
- the similarity occurring between two or more words in the same line of verse
- pastoral
- a poem, play or story that celebrates and idealizes the simple life of sheperds
- imagery
- anything that affects or appeals to the reader's senses (sight, sound, touch, taste, smell)
- septet
- seven-line stanza
- rhyme royal
- stanza consisting of 7 lines in iambic pentanmeter
- end rhyme
- consists of the similarity occurring at the end of two or more lines
- aside
- an actor speaks to the audience; he/she is not heard by the other characters
- dimeter
- two-foot line
- litotes
- understatement
- dactyl
- 3 syllables with a stress on the first syllable
- hexameter
- six-foot line
- triple rhyme
- occurs when the last three syllables of a word or line rhyme (victorious/glorious)
- alliteration
- the repetition of the initial letter/sound in two or more words in a line of verse
- hubris
- excessive pride
- octameter
- eight-foot line
- couplet
- two-line stanza
- deus ex machina
- when the Gods intervene
- apostrophe
- type of soliloquy where nature is addressed as though human
- couplet
- two-line stanza
- tetrameter
- four-foot line
- dramatic irony
- the audience knows something the characters do not
- quatrain
- four-line stanza
- allegory
- a narrative/description having a second meaning beneath the surface
- villanelle
- consists of five tercets and a quatrain in which the first and third lines of the opening tercet recur alternately at the end of the other tercets and together as the last two lines of the quatrain
- elegy
- a poem that mourns that death of an individual
- sestet
- six-line stanza
- peripetia
- turning point (for the worse)
- caesura
- a long pause that breaks a line of verse; usually done with punctuation
- pentameter
- five-foot line
- simile
- a comparison between two unlike things using like or as
- refrain
- the repetition of one or more phrases or lines at intervals on a poem, usually at the end of a stanza
- monometer
- one-foot line
- allusion
- a reference in literature to previous lit, history, mythology, current events or the Bible
- consonance
- repetition of consonant sounds within a line of verse (but Such a tide aS moving SeemS aSleep)
- anachronism
- an element in a story that is out of its time frame; sometimes used to create a humorous or jarring effect, but sometimes the result of poor research on the author's part
- antecedent
- the word or phrase to which a pronoun refers
- oxymoron
- combining of two contradictory words placed side by side (bitter sweet)
- parable
- a short story illustrating a moral or religious lesson
- denouement
- series of events that follow the climax/conclusion
- quintet
- five-line stanza
- trochee
- a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable
- personification
- the giving of human characteristics to inanimate objects
- free verse
- don't have regular meter and don't contain rhyme
- ottava rima
- consists of eight iambic pentameter lines with the rhyme scheme of a-b-a-b-a-b-c-c
- English Sonnet
- three quatrains and a concluding couplet (Shakespearean)
- synecdoche
- the technique of mentioning a part of something to represent the whole (All hands on deck)
- antithesis
- balancing or contrasting one term against another
- rhymed verse
- verse with end rhyme and usually with a regular meter
- paradox
- a statement or situation containing apparent contradictory or incompatible elements
- foot
- unit of meter
- archetype
- a generic, idealized model of a person, object, or concept from which similar instances are derived, copied, patterned, or emulated
- meter
- the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables established in a line of poetry
- feminine rhyme
- when the last two syllables of a word rhyme with one another (lawful/awful, lighting/fighting)
- catastrophe
- final resolution in a Tragedy
- monologue
- extended, uninterrupted speech by a single person
- situational irony
- the outcome is different than what was predicted
- ad hominem
- attacking the person presenting the argument rather than the argument
- terza rima
- a three-line stanza form with an interlaced rhyme scheme a-b-a, b-c-b, c-d-c, d-e-d etc.
- bathos
- unintentional incongruity
- trimeter
- three-foot line
- unities
- three rules for drama (action, place, time)
- aphorism
- a terse statement that expresses a general truth or moral principle (folk proverb)
- anthropomorphism
- when the Gods' have human-like characteristics
- epithet
- a descriptive word or phrase (swift-footed Achilles)
- invective
- insulting, abusive language/name calling
- ballad stanza
- consists of four lines with a rhyme scheme of a-b-c-b; the 1st/3rd line=tetrameter and the 2nd/4th line=trimeter
- ode
- an exalted, complex rapturous lyric poem written about a dignified, lofty subject
- assonance
- the similarity/repetition of a vowel sound in two or more words (base and fate)
- anagnorisis
- recognition of tragic flaw
- symbol
- a word or image that signifies something other than what it literally represents
- heroic couplet
- consists or two successive rhyming verses that contain a complete thought within two lines
- blank verse
- lines of iambic pentameter without end rhyme