tone and AP literary terms cumulative vocab
Terms
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- rhetorical question
- a question that expects no answer
- Cruel
- harsh
- apostrophe
- a figure of speech that directly addresses an absent or imaginary person or a personified abstraction, such as liberty or love. The effect may add familiarity or emotional intensity.
- Matter-of-fact
- direct; unemotional
- figurative
- language that is not literally true but uses words metaphorically
- assonance
- the repetition of vowel sounds in a series of words
- figurative language
- many compare dissimilar things
- allusion
- a direct or indirect reference to something which is presumably commonly known, such as an event, book, myth, place, or work of art. (historical, literary, religious, or mythical)
- Alarmed
- suddenly frightened
- solemn
- grave; serious
- sarcasm
- a taunting, sneering, cutting, or caustic remark; gibe or jeer
- Confused
- to perplex
- reactionary
- opposing progress
- pleading
- desperate; begging
- declarative sentence
- a sentence that makes a statement
- compound sentence
- contains two independent clauses joined by a coordinate conjunction (and, but, or) or by a semicolon
- Optimistic
- positive
- Factual
- real
- rhetoric
- the skill of using spoken or written communication effectively; art of guiding the reader or listener to agreement with the writer or speaker
- Nostalgic
- homesick
- connotation
- the non-literal, associative meaning of a word; the implied, suggested meaning; may involve ideas, emotions, or attitudes
- euphemism
- polite substitutes for unpleasant words or concepts
- pretentious
- exaggerating importance
- Haughty
- proud; arrogant
- Informal
- colloquial
- mood
- the atmosphere of the literary work; in verbs, an expression of the manner in which the action is done; 3 of these: indicative, which states the action as an actual fact; imperative, stating a command; subjunctive, expressing a wish or a conditional statement
- style
- a group of different aspects of writing that have to do with the writer's way of saying something (as opposed to the ideas or content of the text)
- Mournful
- sad
- sincere
- genuine; frank
- Detached
- aloof
- Authoritative
- dictatorial
- Dramatic
- starting; sensational
- Learned
- scholarly
- superior
- above others
- Lighthearted
- carefree; cheerful
- Delirious
- wild with excitement and enthusiasm
- Offended
- to cause resentment in
- Moralistic
- principled; preaching morality
- anticlimax
- Using a sequence of ideas that abruptly diminish in dignity or importance at the end of a sentence, generally for satirical effect.
- Depressed
- sad and gloomy
- narrative
- the telling of any story, or the story itself, the plot
- Cynical
- distrusting the motives of others
- epistle
- a formal letter addressed to a distant person or group of people; carefully-crafted works of literature, intended for a general audience
- sarcastic
- sneering/cutting remarks
- motif
- a main theme or subject
- theatrical
- extravagant
- zealous
- overly enthusiastic
- atmosphere
- the emotional mood created by a literary work
- sweet
- kind
- sentence structure
- how a speaker or author constructs a sentence affects what the audience understands. the inverted order of an interrogative sentence cues the reader or listener to a question that creates a tension between speaker and listener. similarly short sentences are often emphatic or flippant, whereas longer setences suggest the writer's thoughtful response
- Lugubrious
- mournful to a ludicrous degree
- Audacious
- recklessly brave
- Insipid
- uninteresting
- wary
- guarded; alert
- trite
- is applied to something, especially an expression or idea which through repeated use or application has lost its original freshness
- homily
- a sermon or morally instructive lecture
- literal
- language that employs words in their ordinary meanings
- vernacular
- using the native language of a country or place; commonly spoken by the people of a country or place
- Cold
- dispassionate
- syllogism
- an argument or form of reasoning in which two statements or premises are made and a logical conclusion drawn from them
- Laudatory
- expressing praise
- upset
- angry
- hollow
- insincere; meaningless
- patronizing
- offensively condescending
- synecdoche
- a form of a metaphor; when a part of something is used to signify the whole, the whole represents the part, the container represents the thing being contained, or the material from which an object is made stands for the object itself
- onomatopoeia
- the use of words that sound like what they mean
- complex sentence
- contains one or more principal clauses and one or more subordinate clauses
- tragedy
- a serious play typically dealing with the problems of a central character, leading to an unhappy or disastrous ending brought on, as in ancient drama, by fate and a tragic flaw in this character, or in modern drama, usually by moral weakness, psychological maladjustment, or social pressures
- Concerned
- interested; affected; troubled
- denotation
- the strict, literal, dictionary definition of a word, devoid of any emotion, attitude, or color
- impassioned
- filled with passion and emotion
- Cheerful
- in good spirits
- poignant
- strongly moving
- Compassionate
- sympathizing; pity, tender
- Disbelieving
- to refuse or reject belief in
- urgent
- imperative
- Clinical
- objective; realistic
- allegory
- The device of using character and/or story elements symbolically to represent an abstraction in addition to the literal meaning. In some allegories, for example, an author may intend the characters to personify an abstraction like hope or freedom. The allegorical meaning usually deals with moral truth or a generalization about human existence.
- ambiguity
- The multiple meanings, either intentional or unintentional, of a word, phrase, sentence, or passage
- Joking
- mocking
- Boring
- dull; tiresome; tedious
- clause
- a grammatical unit containing both a subject and a verb; an independent, or main, clause expresses a complete thought and can stand alone as a sentence; a dependent, or subordinate, clause cannot and must be accompanied by an independent clause
- periodic sentence
- sentence that postpones the main idea to the end, adding information at the beginning to build interest or tension
- horrific
- terrifying
- pedantic
- overly concerned with minute details
- Disdainful
- scornful
- tone
- the writer's or speaker's attitude toward the subject and the audience
- impious
- not religious
- Arrogant
- insolently proud
- rhyme scheme
- a regular pattern of rhyming words in a poem
- remorseful
- feeling pain or sorrow for some sin or offense
- sentence inversion
- predicate comes before the subject
- conceit
- a surprising analogy or extended metaphor between two unlike things
- bathos
- an abrupt change from the lofty to the ordinary or trivial in writing or speech; anticlimax
- Mock-heroic
- imitating that which is heroic
- Grim
- morbid air
- Burlesque
- mock dignity
- Neutral
- unbiased
- objective
- scientific and impartial
- Dreamy
- soothing; vague
- peaceful
- serene; tranquil
- parallelism (2)
- refers to the repeated use of phrases, clauses, or sentences that are similar in structure and meaning
- Complacent
- pleased
- proud
- arrogant
- sardonic
- scornful; mocking
- Joyous
- happy
- incisive
- cutting; biting
- didactic
- literally means "teaching"; these works have the primary aim of teaching or instructing, especially the teaching or moral or ethical principles
- metaphor
- a comparison like a simile but usually implied and without a comparative word such as "like" or "as"
- irony
- an implied contrast
- natural order of a sentence
- this involves constructing a sentence so the subject comes before the predicate
- Argumentative
- disputatious
- imagery
- anything in a literary work that calls up sensations of sight, taste, smell, touch, heat, pressure
- simile
- the comparison of two different things or ideas through the use of the words "like" or "as"
- respectful
- reverent
- diction
- related to style; refers to the writer's word choices, especially with regard to their correctness, clearness, or effectiveness; combined with syntax, figurative language, literary devices, etc., creates an author's style
- understatement (meiosis)
- the opposite of hyperbole; a kind of irony that deliberately represents something as being much less than it really is
- epanalepsis
- opening and closing a sentence with the same word or phrase
- scornful
- extreme contempt
- Giddy
- lighthearted; impulsive
- silly
- childish; goofy
- Bitter
- piercing; stinging; distressful
- Ironic
- contrary to what is expected
- Melancholy
- gloomy
- whimsical
- given to whim; unpredictable
- hyperbole
- exaggeration
- Flippant
- disrespectful; shallow
- tired
- exhausted
- Happy
- delighted; glad
- litotes
- understatements employed for the purpose of enhancing the effect of the ideas expressed
- romance
- a story that presents remote or imaginative incidents rather than ordinary, commonplace experiences
- Disgusted
- extreme dislike or revulsion
- point of view
- in fiction, it is the person or intelligence the writer creates to tell the story to the reader
- self-pitying
- feeling bad for oneself
- compound-complex sentence
- contains two or more principal clauses and one or more subordinate clauses
- genre
- kind or type of literature
- euphony
- the quality of having a pleasing sound
- paradox
- a statement that seems contradictory, unbelievable, or absurd but that may actually be true in fact
- sonnet
- a 14-line lyric poem focused on a single theme
- inference/infer
- derive by reasoning
- juxtaposition
- a device in which normally unassociated ideas, words, or phrases are placed next to one another
- Didactic
- teaching
- Admiring
- to regard with wonder, pleasure, or approval
- Excited
- stirred to action
- soliloquy
- lines in a drama in which a character reveals his thoughts to the audience, but not to the other characters, by speaking as if to himself
- lyric
- a melodic poem that expresses the observations and feelings of a single speaker
- Joyful
- delightful
- Determined
- resolute
- Apologetic
- sorry; regretful
- pun
- play on words that are identical or similar in sound but have sharply diverse meanings
- shift
- a change of feelings by the speaker from the beginning to the end, paying particular attention to the conclusion of the literature (progression)
- sentimental
- emotional
- Benign
- gracious; kind
- device
- a plan; something used to gain an artistic effect
- shocking
- surprising
- antimetabole
- repeating words in reverse order for surprise and emphasis
- satiric
- making fun of something
- surprised
- sudden astonishment
- urbane
- sophisticated; refined
- novel
- a fictional prose narrative, usually long enough to be published in a book by itself
- indignant
- infuriated
- Forgiving
- to excuse; pardon
- Biting
- cutting; sarcastic
- restrained
- holding back
- Childish
- weak; silly; simple
- Cathartic
- emotionally purging
- Anxious
- greatly worried
- loose sentence
- sentence that begins with the main idea and adds additional information
- semantics
- teh nature, structure, development and changes of the meanings of speech forms or contextual meaning
- pedantic
- an unnecessary display of scholarship lacking in judgement or sense of proportion
- Biased
- showing prejudice
- Comic
- funny
- straightforward
- to the point
- symbol/symbolism
- a thing or action that is made to mean more than itself
- satire
- a literary work that ridicules various aspects of human behavior
- antecedent
- the word, phrase, or clause referred to by a pronoun.
- theme
- what the author is saying bout the subjects in his work
- anadiplosis
- the repetition of a key word, especially the last one, at the beginning of the next sentence or clause
- sharp
- harsh
- Benevolent
- kind; charitable
- wistful
- yearning
- Amused
- pleasurably entertained
- split order of a sentence
- sentence that divides the predicate into two parts with the subject coming in the middle
- Facetious
- lacking seriousness; amusing
- regretful
- sorrowful
- analogy
- a similarity or comparison between two different things or the relationship between them
- myth
- a fictional tale that explains the actions of gods or heroes or the causes of natural phenomena
- rhetorical modes/forms of discourse
- narrative, descriptive, expository, and argumentative
- consonance
- repetition of a consonant sound within a series of words to produce a harmonious effect
- repetition
- a device in which words, sounds, and ideas are used more than once to enhance rhythm and create emphasis
- epigram
- a short poem with a witty or satirical point
- uncertain
- not sure
- Bantering
- to speak to in a playful or teasing way
- Inspiring
- to influence; impel
- Diffident
- lacking confidence in oneself; timid
- aphorism
- a concise statement of known authorship which expresses a general truth or a moral principle. (if the authorship is unknown, the statement is generally considered to be a folk proverb); can be a memorable summation of the author's point
- impartial
- unbiased
- Contentious
- quarrelsome
- ellipsis
- the omission of a word or words
- sad
- unhappy
- balanced sentence
- when the phrases or clauses balance each other by virtue of their likeness of structure, meaning or length
- pessimistic
- negative
- sympathetic
- compassionate
- elegy
- a poem or song of lament and praise for the dead
- anaphora
- repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses or sentences for emphasis and rhythm
- Formal
- methodical; ceremonious
- worshipful
- respecting as god-like
- revengeful
- a desire to hurt
- whining
- complaining
- invective
- a violent verbal attack
- language
- the entire body of words used in a text
- Confident
- sure; bold
- metonymy
- the use of the name of one thing for that of another associated with or suggested by it
- unctuous
- excessively pious or moralistic
- chiasmus
- similar to antimetabole, but reversing the grammatical elements rather than just words, for emphasis
- provocative
- belligerent
- playful
- fun and humorous
- mock heroic
- burlesquing or mocking heroic manner, action, or character
- Malicious
- evil
- vignette
- a short, delicate literary sketch
- vindictive
- vengeful
- oxymoron
- a figure of speech in which opposite or contradictory ideas or terms are combined
- Outraged
- angry
- pitiful
- pathetic
- humorous
- funny
- Allusive
- having reference to something implied or inferred
- Colloquial
- slang
- extended metaphor
- a metaphor developed throughout a work
- insolent
- boldly disrespectful
- Effusive
- overflowing; gushy
- Fanciful
- imaginary; whimsical
- fable
- a brief story that teaches a lesson or moral
- turgid
- excessively ornate and complex
- stream of consciousness
- a narrative technique that presents thoughts as if they were coming directly from a character's mind
- Ambivalent
- uncertainty or fluctuation between two conflicting or opposite things
- cacophony
- harsh sounding, jarring sound; dissonance
- tragic
- extremely mournful
- cumulative sentence
- sentence that begins with the main idea and adds additional information, usually for description; also called a loose sentence
- parable
- a brief story, usually with human characters, that teaches a moral lesson
- threatening
- ominous; sinister
- cliché
- an overused, worn-out, hackneyed expression that used to be fresh but is no more
- Irreverent
- disrespectful
- anathema
- a thing or person accursed or damned; a thing or person greatly detested; a formal curse or condemnation excommunicating a person from a church or damning something; any strong curse
- Critical
- judging with severity
- Candid
- frank or sincere
- Desperate
- hopeless
- colloquialism
- the use of slang or informalities in speech or writing; give a conversational, familiar tone
- obsequious
- servile deference
- antithesis
- a contrast or opposition of thoughts, usually in two phrases, cluases, or sentences; the exact opposite
- Informative
- giving information; instructive
- attitude
- the position or posture assumed in connection with an action, feeling, mood. A manner of acting, feeling, or thinking that shows one's disposition, opinion, or mental set, etc.
- serious
- deeply thoughtful
- archetype
- the original pattern, or model from which all other things of the same kind are made; a perfect example of a type or group
- Afraid
- fearful
- Contemptuous
- arrogant; supercilious
- epic
- a long narrative poem in a dignified style about the deeds of a hero
- seductive
- alluring; tempting
- prosody
- the science or art of versification, including the study of metrical structure, rhyme, stanza forms, etc
- puzzled
- confused
- prose
- the ordinary form of written or spoken language, without rhyme or meter; speech or writing that is not poetry
- tolerant
- able to endure
- Elegiac
- expressing sorrow or lamentation
- Fearful
- scared
- Frivolous
- not serious
- asyndeton
- omission of conjunctions
- epitaph
- an inscription on a tomb or gravestone in memory of the person buried there; written as a tribute to a dead person
- parallelism (1)
- grammatical or structural similarity between sentences or parts of a sentence
- taunting
- making fun of
- synesthetic imagery
- detail that moves from the stimulation of one sense to a response by another sense, as a certain odor induces the visualization of a certain color
- alliteration
- the repetition of sounds, especially initial consonant sounds in two or more neighboring words
- petty
- of little importance
- Hesitant
- unsure
- Complimentary
- praising
- Angry
- provoked, irritated, mad
- vexed
- irritated; annoyed
- climax
- arranging words, clauses, or sentences in the order of their importance, the least forcible coming first and the others rising in power until the last
- simple sentence
- contains one subject and one verb
- Inflammatory
- angry
- Ecstatic
- joyful or delighted
- preachy
- tediously or pretentiously didactic
- peevish
- annoying
- somber
- gloomy; dismal
- vibrant
- energetic; lively
- Comforting
- feeling of pleasurable ease and contentment
- syntax
- sentence structure and word order
- Mock-serious
- pretending to be serious
- Grotesque
- bizarre
- personification
- the treatment of an object or an abstract idea as if it were a person
- parody
- a literary work that makes fun of another work, type of work, or specific author, usually by imitating and exaggerating the qualitis of its subject
- sorrowful
- grieving; sad
- Outspoken
- frank; bold
- dirge
- a funeral hymn; a slow, sad song, poem, or musical composition expressing grief or mourning
- extended parallelism
- the repetition of words or grammatical elements for cumulative force and rhythm
- Condescending
- looking down upon; belittling
- Distressed
- to cause strain, anxiety or suffering