1. AP Language and Composition Tropes Figurative Language You will Encounter in Essays and On the Exam

2. Metaphor Implied comparison between two things alike Example: “A breeze blew through the room, blew the curtains in at one end and out the other…twisting them up towards the frosted wedding cake of a ceiling, and then rippled over the wine-colored rug…” Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

3. Simile Explicit comparison between two things of unlike nature Example: “Ah, my, said Eustacia, with a laugh which unclosed her lips so that the sun shone into her mouth as into a tulip and lent it as similar scarlet fire.” Hardy, The Return of the Native

4. Synecdoche Figure of speech in which a part stands for the whole Example: The British Crown has been plagued by scandal. There is no word from the Pentagon on the new rumors from Somalia.

5. Metonymy Substitution of some attributive of suggestive word for what is actually meant Literally means “name changing” Example: “I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat.” Churchill, 1940 “In Europe, we gave the cold shoulder to De Gualle, and now he gives the warm hand to Mao Tse- tung.” Nixon, 1960

6. Antanaclasis Repetition of a word in two different senses Example: “Your argument is sound…nothing but sound.” Ben Franklin "If you aren't fired with enthusiasm, you will be fired with enthusiasm.” Vince Lombardi

7. Personification Investing abstraction for inanimate objects Examples: “The night comes crawling in on all fours.” Lowery “O beware, my lord, of jealousy! It is the green-ey'd monster which doth mock The meat it feeds on.” Iago in Shakespeare's Othello 3.3.165-67

8. Hyperbole The use of exaggeration terms for the purpose of emphasis or heightened effect Example: I slept for a million hours! “We walked along a road in Cumberland and stopped, because the sky hung so low.” Wolfe, Look Homeward Angel

9. Litotes Deliberate use of understatement where an affirmation is made indirectly by denying its opposite; frequently with a negative assertion Example: “It isn't very serious. I have this tiny little tumor on the brain.” -J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye Oh, he never drinks. No, not a drop. Ever. Never.

10. Meiosis Deliberate use of an understatement when something is referred to in terms less important than it really deserves; it describes something that is very impressive with simplicity Example: “Tis but a flesh wound!” Monty Python It was just my duty, ma’am. (after he saves her life)

11. Rhetorical Question Asking a question, not for the purpose of eliciting an answer but for the purpose of asserting or denying something obliquely Example: “Isn’t it interesting that this person to whom you set on your knees in your most private session at night and you pray, doesn’t even look like you?” Malcolm X

12. Irony Use of a word in such a way as to convey a meaning opposite to the literal meaning of the word Dramatic Situational Verbal Example: Pushing that little girl into the mud was very king, indeed!

13. Onomatopoeia Use of words whose sounds echoes the sense Example: The snap of the bone made me cringe. She smacked him with the book!

14. Oxymoron The yoking of two terms which are ordinarily contradictory Example: “The unheard sounds came through, each melodic line existed of itself, stood out clearly from all the rest, said its piece, and waiting patiently for the other voices to speak.” Ralph Ellison, The Invisible Man The Old New South Church in Boston, MA

15. Paradox An apparently contradictory statement that nevertheless contains a measure of truth Example: He who loses life, shall find it. “And yet, it was a strangely satisfying experience for an invisible man to hear the silence of the sound.” Ralph Ellison, The Invisible Man

16. What is it? In thy youth learn some craft that in thy age thou mayest get thy living without craft. (antanaclasis) I cleaned the entire house just because I was bored. (meiosis) He took my hand in marriage. (metonymy/synecdoche)

17. The school decided on the schedule for next year. (synecdoche) Not bad. (litotes) "Ladies and gentlemen, I've been to Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan, and I can say without hyperbole that this is a million times worse than all of them put together." (hyperbole)

18. Format of Quiz An example of each one of these terms will be provided There will be no word bank Some words may be on the quiz more than once, some words may not be on the quiz at all **NOTE CARDS!**