Since the 2019 update to the CED, many teachers are wondering what literary terms the students need to know going into the exam. These are the words mentioned directly or indirectly in the CED. Remember that, according to the College Board, these are the only literary terms that could show up on the multiple choice section of the exam.
Keep reading past this list for a few other words to know when teaching AP English Literature!
1st Person POV
The narrator is a character in the story and uses “I” and “my” language. We see their thoughts and feelings.
2nd Person POV
The narrator speaks directly to the reader and gives directions. There is little focus on the narrator.
3rd Person Limited POV
The narrator is outside of the story but has insight into a main character, presenting their thoughts and feelings.
3rd Person Omniscient POV
The narrator is outside of the story and has insight into multiple characters’ thoughts and feelings.
Alliteration
The repetition of initial consonant sounds in adjacent words.
Allusion
An allusion is a reference to something outside a text. This can be a reference to an event or person from history, history, mythology, pop culture, or something else.
Archetype
An archetype is a commonly used character type, which often acts as a symbol.
Assonance
The repetition of vowel sounds in adjacent words.
Caesura
Caesura refers to a pause within a line of poetry, indicated by punctuation.
Catharsis
The cleansing or purging of emotion in or caused by a literary work.
Closed Form Poetry
Poetry that sticks to predictable patterns and structures.
Conceit
A startling or extended metaphor is stretched over several lines or an entire work.
Connotation
Connotations are the associated feelings or ideas that a particular word evokes.
Dialect
Dialect is a change of diction to reflect a character’s particular place of origin or community of origin
Diction
Diction refers to the author’s choice of words. To analyze diction, you want to use precise adjectives to clarify what type of diction the author uses.
Dramatic Irony
When the reader or audience member knows something that a character does not.
Dynamic Character
A dynamic character undergoes a significant character change throughout a narrative.
Enjambment
Enjambment occurs when a line of poetry continues onto the next line without any punctuation.
Epiphany
An epiphany refers to a sudden realization or discovery of the truth or meaning of things.
Flashback
A flashback is a scene that interrupts the established linear narrative of a text. Flashbacks often introduce character backgrounds and other important details for a text.
Foil
A foil is a character who contrasts with the protagonist. While foils share some similarities, they have a major contrast, from which we can learn about the protagonist.
Free Verse
Poems that do not have any organizational patterns are written in free verse.
Hyperbole
Hyperbole is the use of extravagant exaggeration for a figurative effect.
Imagery
Imagery refers to the sensory images contained in or evoked by a text. It can be figurative or directly described.
Implied Metaphor
An implied metaphor is not as directly stated as a regular metaphor.
In Medias Res
In medias res is Latin for “in the midst of things.” It refers to a narrative that starts in the middle of the plot as opposed to its exposition.
Juxtaposition
Juxtaposition is the act of contrasting two objects or images side by side and studying the effects of this contrast.
Line
Each poem is constructed in lines. The poet decides when to move onto the next line and closed form poems are often very constricting in these choices.
Metaphor
A metaphor is a subtle or implied comparison between two unlike things.
Meter
A pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables. Regular meter makes a poem sound more rhythmic.
Narrator
The narrator is the voice or persona telling a story.
Open Form Poetry
Open form poetry does not follow expected or predictable patterns.
Paradox
A paradox is a statement that contradicts itself, or that must be both true and untrue at the same time.
Personification
Personification is the act of giving human qualities to a non-human object, emotion, or entity.
Perspective
Perspective is how narrators, characters, or speakers understand their circumstances, and is informed by background, personality traits, biases, and relationships.
Point of View
Point of view refers to the perspective used in a text, which affects how a story is told.
Rhyme
When a vowel and consonant sound is repeated in different words (ex: end and bend). Many closed form poems use rhyme in alternating lines.
Setting
Setting includes the time and place of a story, but it can also include the historical and cultural background of a text.
Simile
A simile is a direct comparison between two unlike things. You can spot it by the use of words “like,” “as,” “than,” or “resembles.”
Situational Irony
Situational irony occurs when the expected action is turned on its head and the opposite happens instead.
Speaker
The voice in a poem; the equivalent of a narrator in poetry.
Stanza
A group of lines in a poem. Closed form poems often organize stanzas by rhyme
Static Character
A static character remains unchanged throughout the course of a narrative.
Symbol
A tangible object that represents something intangible or abstract.
Syntax
Syntax refers to the arrangement of words in a line of poetry or in a sentence of prose.
Understatement
A remark that deliberately minimizes in a figurative way.
Other words to know in AP Lit
Besides literary terms, there are some other words thrown around in the community of AP Lit and by College Board. They might help as you approach the course!
Complexity
This word gets used in most writing prompts since the 2019 update. There are several ways to define it and it varies across subject matter, but my students understand it best as two contrasting things. For example, characters’ relationships may be loving but bitter. A speaker’s outlook might be bleak and proud. A community might react with both fear and hope. Basically, zero in on a strong contrast and characterize both sides of it for a complex thesis.
Line of Reasoning
One new addition to the writing rubric is the nebulous line of reasoning, an often-discussed but seldom-defined concept in AP Lit. Lines of reasoning should be established in the introduction or at the very least the first body paragraph and run throughout an essay. They differ from a claim as the claim responds to the prompt, while the line of reasoning applies the prompt to the text. Strong lines of reasoning are thematic or reflect universal conflicts.
APSI
This stands for AP Summer Institute, week-long courses for new and existing AP Lit teachers. These are offered online and in-person in the summer all over the nation and even some in Europe!
MOWAW
This stands for the meaning of the work as a whole, a common phrase on older Q3 prompts. While this phrase doesn’t show up on most prompts after 2019, it refers to the broader themes of a text, rather than thinking in isolated examples and episodes.
Sophistication Point – also called the Unicorn point
One of the hardest points on the six-point rubric is for sophistication. This point is so rare it is often referred to as the unicorn point, referring to its mythical nature. I myself work as an AP scorer and usually don’t give out more than 15 sophistication points in the course of a reading. Students can earn this point for making a unique argument, for applying their argument to concepts outside the text, for being a very persuasive writer, or for having an outside-the-box interpretation of the text. Despite having four ways to earn the point, it is still rarely given out.
MCQ
Stands for multiple choice question.
Bluebook
This is the software used in the online AP exam to ensure secure test-taking.
Conclusion
I know there are endless words I could include on here for AP Lit students, but I tried to keep this list focused on teacher needs. Any list of arbitrary literary terms could be endless, but this list consists of only the words on the CED. I also tried to include words or acronyms that are often thrown around in the AP Lit community that sometimes leave teachers confused. If there are any other teacher-centric words that you think I missed, please leave them in the comments!
Love this! I shared this post with students and they found it useful. I may add terms such as “referents” and “antecedents,” especially for teaching poetry. Students need to know that an author may include words or phrases with ambiguous antecedents to emphasize a character’s confusion or intensity of emotional feeling. This can be a fruitful literary technique to discuss in FRQ #1, it all aligns with 5B in unit 1, and it’s not so likely they analyzed poems with that level of attention in earlier classes.