AP Lang Terminology

The repetition of the same sound or letter at the beginning of consecutive words or syllables

• Alliteration

• Connotation

• Rhetoric

• Subordination

An indirect reference, often to another text or an historic event

• Metaphor

• Allusion

• Documentation

• Parody

An extended comparison between two seemingly dissimilar things

• Metaphor

• Simile

• Analogy

• Irony

A short account of an interesting event

• Documentation

• Exigence

• Straw man

• Anecdote

Explanatory or critical notes added to a text

• Annotation

• Figurative language

• Subordinate clause

• Introduction

The noun to which a later pronoun refers to

• Syntax

• Antecedent

• Anecdote

• Subject

A short, astute statement of a general truth

• Thesis

• Argument

• Aphorism

• Topic sentence

A word or phrase that renames a nearby noun or pronoun

Ex. Thomas Edison, the inventor of the lightbulb, was born in 1847

• Diction

• Straw man

• Syntax

• Appositive

A statement put forth and supported by evidence

• Argument

• Ethos

• Anecdote

• Topic sentence

A belief or statement taken for granted without proof

• Simple sentence

• Assumption

• Understatement

• Subordination