AP English Language & Composition Terms for Vocabulary Quiz #1

  1. alliteration:repetition of the same sound beginning several words in a sequence
  2. allusion:a reference to a person, event, or place, real or fictitious, or to a work of art
  3. anaphora:the repetition of the same or phrase at the beginning of a series of clauses, or sentences
  4. antimetabole:repetition of words, in successive clauses, in reverse grammatical order
  5. antithesis:opposition, or contrast of ideas or words in a balanced or parallel construction
  6. archaic:old-fashioned or outdated
  7. assonance:the repetition of vowel sounds in successive words
  8. assumption:a belief regarded as true, upon which other claims are based
  9. colloquial:characteristic of or appropriate to ordinary or familiar conversation rather than formal speech or writing; informal
  10. concede:to acknowledge as true, just, or proper; admit
  11. connotation:the interpretive level of a word based on its associated images rather than its literal meaning
  12. context:the words and sentences that surround any part of a discourse and that help to determine its meaning
  13. hyperbole:figure of speech in which an overstatement or exaggeration occurs
  14. imagery:vivid descriptive language that appeals to one or more of the senses: sight, taste, touch, hearing, and smell
  15. inversion:inverted order of words in a sentence
  16. juxtaposition:placement of two things closely together to emphasize comparisons or contrasts
  17. metaphor: a figure of speech that states one thing is another in order to explain by comparison
  18. oxymoron:placing two ordinarily opposing terms adjacent to one another
  19. persona:an identity or role that somebody adopts in a literary work
  20. personification:attribution of a lifelike quality to an inanimate object or idea
  21. polemical:an aggressive and passionate attack on or rejection of the opinions or principles of another
  22. propaganda:information, rumors, ideas, and artwork spread deliberately to help or harm another specific group, movement, belief, institution, or government (mostly negative).
  23. rhetorical question:a question posed for a purpose other than to obtain the information the question asks
  24. speaker:the voice in a piece of writing
  25. zeugma:when one part of speech (most often the main verb, but sometimes a noun) governs two or more other parts of a sentence (often in a series)