AP English Language and Composition Exam Key Terms

On this page, youll find brief definitions of grammatical, literary, and rhetorical terms that have appeared on the multiple-choice and essay portions of the AP* English Language and Composition exam. For examples and more detailed explanations of the terms, follow the links to expanded articles. *AP is a registered trademark of the College Board, which neither sponsors nor endorses this glossary. Ad Hominem:  An argument based on the failings of an adversary rather than on the merits of the case; a logical fallacy that involves a personal attack.Adjective:  The part of speech (or word class) that modifies a noun or a pronoun.Adverb:  The part of speech (or word class) that modifies a verb, adjective, or another adverb.Allegory:  Extending a metaphor so that objects, persons, and actions in a text are equated with meanings that lie outside the text.Alliteration:  The repetition of an initial consonant sound.Allusion:  A brief, usually indirect reference to a person, place, or event—real or fictional.Ambiguity:  The presence of two or more possible meanings in any passage.Analogy:  Reasoning or arguing from parallel cases.Anaphora:  The repetition of the same word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses or verses.Antecedent:  The noun or noun phrase referred to by a pronoun.Antithesis:  The juxtaposition of contrasting ideas in balanced phr ases.Aphorism:  (1) A tersely phrased statement of a truth or opinion. (2) A brief statement of a principle.Apostrophe:  A rhetorical term for breaking off discourse to address some absent person or thing.Appeal to Authority:  A fallacy in which a speaker or writer seeks to persuade not by giving evidence but by appealing to the respect people have for a famous person or institution.Appeal to Ignorance:  A fallacy that uses an opponents inability to disprove a conclusion as proof of the conclusions correctness.Argument:  A course of reasoning aimed at demonstrating truth or falsehood.Assonance:  The identity or similarity in sound between internal vowels in neighboring words.Asyndeton:  The omission of conjunctions between words, phrases, or clauses (opposite of polysyndeton).Character:  An individual (usually a person) in a narrative (usually a work of fiction or creative nonfiction).Chiasmus:  A verbal pattern in which the second half of an expression is balanced against the first but with the parts reversed.Circular Argument:  An argument that commits the logical fallacy of assuming what it is attempting to prove.Claim:  An arguable statement, which may be a claim of fact, value, or policy.Clause:  A group of words that contains a subject and a predicate.Climax:  Mounting by degrees through words or sentences of increasing weight and in parallel construction with an emphasis on the high point or culmination of a series of events.Colloquial:  Characteristic of writing that seeks the effect of informal spoken language as distinct from formal or literary English.Comparison:  A rhetorical strategy in which a writer examines similarities and/or differences between two people, places, ideas, or objects.Complement:  A word or word group that completes the predicate in a sentence.Concession:  An argumentative strategy by which a speaker or writer acknowledges the validity of an opponents point.Confirmation:  The main part of a te xt in which logical arguments in support of a position are elaborated.Conjunction:  The part of speech (or word class) that serves to connect words, phrases, clauses, or sentences.Connotation:  The emotional implications and associations that a word may carry.Coordination:  The grammatical connection of two or more ideas to give them equal emphasis and importance. Contrast with subordination.Deduction:  A method of reasoning in which a conclusion follows necessarily from the stated premises.Denotation:  The direct or dictionary meaning of a word, in contrast to its figurative or associated meanings.Dialect:  A regional or social variety of a language distinguished by pronunciation, grammar, and/or vocabulary.Diction:  (1) The choice and use of words in speech or writing. (2) A way of speaking  usually assessed in terms of prevailing standards of pronunciation and elocution.Didactic:  Intended or inclined to teach or instruct, often excessively.Encomium:  A tribut e or eulogy in prose or verse glorifying people, objects, ideas, or events.Epiphora:  The repetition of a word or phrase at the end of several clauses. (Also known as epistrophe.)Epitaph:  (1) A short inscription in prose or verse on a tombstone or monument. (2) A statement or speech commemorating someone who has died: a funeral oration.Ethos:  A persuasive appeal based on the projected character of the speaker or narrator.Eulogy:  A formal expression of praise for someone who has recently died.Euphemism:  The substitution of an inoffensive term for one considered offensively explicit.Exposition:  A statement or type of composition intended to give information about (or an explanation of) an issue, subject, method, or idea.Extended Metaphor:  A comparison between two unlike things that continues throughout a series of sentences in a paragraph or lines in a poem.Fallacy:  An error in reasoning that renders an argument invalid.False Dilemma:  A fallacy of oversimplif ication that offers a limited number of options (usually two) when, in fact, more options are available.Figurative Language:  Language in which figures of speech (such as metaphors, similes, and hyperbole) freely occur.Figures of Speech:  The various uses of language that depart from customary construction, order, or significance.Flashback:  A shift in a narrative to an earlier event that interrupts the normal chronological development of a story.Genre:  A category of artistic composition, as in film or literature, marked by a distinctive style, form, or content.Hasty Generalization:  A fallacy in which a conclusion is not logically justified by sufficient or unbiased evidence.Hyperbole:  A figure of speech in which exaggeration is used for emphasis or effect; an extravagant statement.Imagery:  Vivid descriptive language that appeals to one or more of the senses.Induction:  A method of reasoning by which a rhetor collects a number of instances and forms a generalizat ion that is meant to apply to all instances.Invective:  Denunciatory or abusive language;  discourse  that casts blame on somebody or something.Irony:  The use of words to convey the opposite of their literal meaning. A statement or situation where the meaning is directly contradicted by the appearance or presentation of the idea.Isocolon:  A succession of phrases of approximately equal length and corresponding structure.Jargon:  The specialized language of a professional, occupational, or other group, often meaningless to outsiders.Litotes:  A figure of speech consisting of an understatement in which an affirmative is expressed by negating its opposite.Loose Sentence:  A sentence structure in which a main clause is followed by subordinate phrases and clauses. Contrast with  periodic  sentence.Metaphor:  A figure of speech in which an implied comparison is made between  two  unlike things that actually have something important in common.Metonymy:  A figur e of speech in which one word or phrase is substituted for another with which it is closely associated (such as crown for royalty).Mode of Discourse:  The way in which information is presented in a text. The four traditional modes are narration, description, exposition, and argument.Mood:  (1) The quality of a verb that conveys the writers attitude toward a subject. (2) The emotion evoked by a text.Narrative:  A rhetorical strategy that recounts a sequence of events, usually in chronological order.Noun:  The part of speech (or word class) that is used to name a person, place, thing, quality, or action.Onomatopoeia:  The formation or use of words that imitate the sounds associated with the objects or actions they refer to.Oxymoron:  A figure of speech in which incongruous or contradictory terms appear side by side.Paradox:  A statement that appears to contradict itself.Parallelism:  The similarity of structure in a pair or series of related words, phrases, or clauses. Parody:  A literary or artistic work that imitates the characteristic style of an author or a work for comic effect or ridicule.Pathos:  The means of persuasion that appeals to the audiences emotions.Periodic Sentence:  A long and frequently involved sentence, marked by suspended syntax, in which the sense is not completed until the final word--usually with an emphatic climax.Personification:  A figure of speech in which an inanimate object or abstraction is endowed with human qualities or abilities.Point of View:  The perspective from which a speaker or writer tells a story or presents information.Predicate:  One of the two main parts of a sentence or clause, modifying the subject and including the verb, objects, or phrases governed by the verb.Pronoun:  A word (a part of speech or word class) that takes the place of a noun.Prose:  Ordinary writing (both fiction and nonfiction) as distinguished from  verse.Refutation:  The part of an argument wherein a speaker o r writer anticipates and counters opposing points of view.Repetition:  An instance of using a word, phrase, or clause more than once in a short passage--dwelling on a point.Rhetoric:  The study and practice of effective communication.Rhetorical Question:  A question asked merely for effect with no answer expected.Running Style:  Sentence style that appears to follow the mind as it worries a problem through, mimicking the rambling, associative syntax of conversation—the opposite of periodic sentence style.Sarcasm:  A mocking, often ironic or satirical remark.Satire:  A text or performance that uses irony, derision, or wit to expose or attack human vice, foolishness, or stupidity.Simile:  A figure of speech in which two fundamentally unlike things are explicitly compared, usually in a phrase introduced by like or asStyle:  Narrowly interpreted as those figures that ornament speech or writing; broadly, as representing a manifestation of the person speaking or wri ting.Subject:  The part of a sentence or clause that indicates what it is about.Syllogism:  A form of deductive reasoning consisting of a major premise, a minor premise, and a conclusion.Subordination:  Words, phrases, and clauses that make one element of a sentence dependent on (or  subordinate  to) another. Contrast with coordination.Symbol:  A person, place, action, or thing that (by association, resemblance, or convention) represents something other than itself.Synecdoche:  A figure of speech in which a part is used to represent the whole or the whole for a part.Syntax:  (1) The study of the rules that govern the way words combine to form phrases, clauses, and sentences. (2) The arrangement of words in a sentence.Thesis:  The main idea of an essay or report, often written as a single declarative sentence.Tone:  A writers attitude toward the subject and audience. Tone is primarily conveyed through diction,  point  of view, syntax, and level of formality.Tr ansition:  The connection between two parts of a piece of writing, contributing to coherence.Understatement:  A figure of speech in which a writer deliberately makes a situation seem less important or serious than it is.Verb:  The part of speech (or word class) that describes an action or occurrence or indicates a state of being.Voice:  (1) The quality of a verb that indicates whether its subject acts (active voice) or is acted upon (passive voice). (2) The distinctive style or manner of expression of an author or narrator.Zeugma:  The use of a word to modify or govern two or more words, although its use may be grammatically or logically correct with only one.