AP Lang Terms – Figurative Language – Flashcards
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Using a nicer sounding phrase to describe something else, usually a vulgar or unpleasant thing
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Euphemism
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Overstatement. Extreme over-exaggeration used for dramatic effect (ex. "If my parents don't buy me the new iPhone I'm going to die!")
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Hyperbole
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A very subtle literary technique. It plays with the audience's expectations by setting them up for one thing and then providing them with the opposite of what they are waiting for. Used for either humorous or dramatic effect
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Irony
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When a person says the opposite of what they mean AND the audience understands that the opposite was intended through context (sarcasm = verbal irony is controversial and could go either way)
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Verbal irony
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When the ACTIONS are the opposite of what is expected to happen (NOT THE SAME AS COINCIDENCE!)
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Situational irony
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Making a claim by denying the opposite (ex. You are not wrong)
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Litotes
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Comparing something to something else that is unrelated to better explain one of those things. Equated the two objects (ex. "Smoother than a fresh jar of Skippy")
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Metaphor
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Referring to something or someone by something that is associated with it but not a part of it (ex. Referring to movie studios as Hollywood; calling a royal person "the crown")
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Metonymy
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Two (or more) words that contradict each other (ex. Jumbo shrimp, icy hot, sounds of silence, sorry not sorry, terribly good, living dead)
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Oxymoron
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Two ideas or beliefs that contradict each other but may in fact be true (ex. If time travel was a reality, would it be possible for you to travel back in time and kill your grandfather as a child?)
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Paradox
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Giving human qualities to non-human things (not animals). (Ex. The snack that smiles back)
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Personification
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- A question that does not need to be answered. Used for dramatic effect - Type 1: questions where the answer is obvious. The answer to the R.Q. is the answer to the previous question - Type 2: questions where there really is not right answer ("Who do you think you are?" "Are you stupid?")
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Rhetorical question
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Comparing two unlike things to better explain one of them. Used "like" or "as" to make the connection not as strong as a metaphor (ex. "Life is like a box of chocolates; you never know what you're gonna get.")
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Simile
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Naming the part and meaning the whole, or naming the whole and meaning the part. In short, naming one and meaning the other (ex. "Don't worry, she's in good hands.", "Oakland won the game last night.", "The whole world hates me.")
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Synecdoche
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Intentionally representing something as less than it is (ex. "Tis but a scratch" after an arm being cut off)
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Understatement
