Ralph Jones Jr.

A. Luster, Instructor
AP English Literature And Compostion/1A
December 6, 2009

Literary Term Glossary

active voice, (the voice used to indicate that the

grammatical subject of the verb is performing the
action or causing the happening denoted by the
verb) "`The boy threw the ball' uses the active voice"

ad hominem (appealing to personal considerations

(rather than to fact or reason)) "ad hominem
arguments"

alliteration (use of the same consonant at the

beginning of each stressed syllable in a line of verse)
"around the rock the ragged rascal ran"

allusion (passing reference or indirect mention)

anadiplosis (repetition of the final words of a

sentence or line at the beginning of the next)

analogy (drawing a comparison in order to show a

similarity in some respect) "the operation of a
computer presents and interesting analogy to the
working of the brain"; "the models show by analogy
how matter is built up"

anaphora (repetition of a word or phrase at the

beginning of successive clauses)
anastrophe (the reversal of the normal order of
words)

antithesis (exact opposite) "his theory is the

antithesis of mine"

aphorism (a short pithy instructive saying)

apostrophe (address to an absent or imaginary

person)

appositive (relating to or being in apposition) "an

appositive noun"

asyndeton (the omission of conjunctions where they

would normally be used)

bandwagon (a popular trend that attracts growing

support) "when they saw how things were going
everybody jumped on the bandwagon"
chiasmus (inversion in the second of two parallel
phrases)

connotation (an idea that is implied or suggested)

deductive (relating to logical deduction) "deductive

reasoning"

denotation (the most direct or specific meaning of a

word or expression; the class of objects that an
expression refers to) "the extension of `satellite of
Mars' is the set containing only Demos and Phobos"
dialect (the usage or vocabulary that is
characteristic of a specific group of people) "the
immigrants spoke an odd dialect of English"; "he has
a strong German accent"; "it has been said that a
language is a dialect with an army and navy"

diction (the manner in which something is

expressed in words) "use concise military verbiage"-
G.S.Patton

ellipsis (omission or suppression of parts of words or

sentences)

epanalepsis (repetition after intervening words)

epistrophe (repetition of the ends of two or more

successive sentences, verses, etc.)

ethos ((anthropology) the distinctive spirit of a

culture or an era) "the Greek ethos"

etymology (the study of the sources and

development of words)

euphemism (an inoffensive or indirect expression

that is substituted for one that is considered
offensive or too harsh)

fallacy (a misconception resulting from incorrect

reasoning)

false dilemma (false state of uncertainty or

perplexity especially as requiring a choice between
equally unfavorable options)
gerund (a noun formed from a verb (such as the `-
ing' form of an English verb when used as a noun))

hyperbole (extravagant exaggeration)

imagery (the ability to form mental images of things

or events) "he could still hear her in his imagination"

inductive (of reasoning; proceeding from particular

facts to a general conclusion) "inductive reasoning"

irony (incongruity between what might be expected

and what actually occurs) "the irony of Ireland's
copying the nation she most hated"

jargon (specialized technical terminology

characteristic of a particular subject)

juxtaposition (the act of positioning close together

(or side by side)) "it is the result of the juxtaposition
of contrasting colors"

Logos (the divine word of God; the second person in

the Trinity (incarnate in Jesus))

loose sentence (a complex sentence in which the

main clause comes first and the subordinate clause
follows)

malapropism (the unintentional misuse of a word

by confusion with one that sounds similar)

metaphor (a figure of speech in which an expression

is used to refer to something that it does not literally
denote in order to suggest a similarity)

metonymy (substituting the name of an attribute or

feature for the name of the thing itself (as in `they
counted heads'))

non sequitur (a reply that has no relevance to what

preceded it)

onomatopoeia (using words that imitate the sound

they denote)

oxymoron (conjoining contradictory terms (as in

`deafening silence'))

paradox ((logic) a statement that contradicts itself)

"`I always lie' is a paradox because if it is true it
must be false"

parallelism (similarity by virtue of corresponding)

parentheticals (an expression in parentheses) "his

writing was full of parentheticals"

passive voice (the voice used to indicate that the

grammatical subject of the verb is the recipient (not
the source) of the action denoted by the verb) "`The
ball was thrown by the boy' uses the passive voice";
"`The ball was thrown' is an abbreviated passive"

pathos (a feeling of sympathy and sorrow for the

misfortunes of others) "the blind are too often
objects of pity"
periodic sentence (a complex sentence in which
the main clause comes last and is preceded by the
subordinate clause)

personification (a person who represents an

abstract quality) "she is the personification of
optimism"

point of view (a mental position from which things

are viewed) "we should consider this problem from
the viewpoint of the Russians"; "teaching history
gave him a special point of view toward current
events"

polysyndeton (using several conjunctions in close

succession, especially where some might be omitted
(as in `he ran and jumped and laughed for joy'))

premise (set forth beforehand, often as an

explanation) "He premised these remarks so that his
readers might understand"

pun (make a play on words) "Japanese like to pun--

their language is well suited to punning"

red herring (any diversion intended to distract

attention from the main issue)

repetition (the repeated use of the same word or

word pattern as a rhetorical device)

rhetorical question (a statement that is formulated

as a question but that is not supposed to be
answered) "he liked to make his points with
rhetorical questions"

simile (a figure of speech that expresses a

resemblance between things of different kinds
(usually formed with `like' or `as'))

domino theory (the political theory that if one

nation comes under communist control then
neighboring nations will also come under communist
control)

stem ((linguistics) the form of a word after all affixes

are removed) "thematic vowels are part of the stem"

straw man (a weak or sham argument set up to be

easily refuted)

syllogism (deductive reasoning in which a

conclusion is derived from two premises)

synecdoche (substituting a more inclusive term for

a less inclusive one or vice versa)

synthesis (reasoning from the general to the

particular (or from cause to effect))

theme (a unifying idea that is a recurrent element in

literary or artistic work) "it was the usual `boy gets
girl' theme"

thesis (an unproved statement put forward as a

premise in an argument)

understatement (a statement that is restrained in

ironic contrast to what might have been said)
zeugma (use of a word to govern two or more words
though appropriate to only one) "`Mr. Pickwick took
his hat and his leave' is an example of zeugma"