12 AP Lang Terms (Exemplification-Understatement)

satire (example)

Stephen Colbert

synecdoche (example)

"Ask for her hand in marriage"

sarcasm (example)

"Did you come up with that all by yourself?"

hyperbole (example)

"My backpack weighs tons!"

understatement (example)

"My mom's a little irritated I crashed the car-I'm grounded for the next 24 months."

exemplification (example)

"The Town Beautification Funds are being sorely misused; the streets are full of litter, the parks are full of broken equipment, and City Hall's facade is drab and crumbling."

idiom (example)

"This costs an arm and a leg!" meaning "This is very expensive."

onomatopoeia (example)

"We heard an ominous hiss from the kitchen."

parallelism (example)

"We went to sea; we went to war; we went to bed."

personification (example)

The sun was shining happily today.

paradox (example)

These phrases include "dark angel," "fresh rot," "blissful hell," etc.

parody (example)

Weird AI is the master of the musical parody genre.

idiom (def)

a commonly used phrase that signifies something very different than its literal meaning

satire (def)

a genre of humorous and mocking criticism to expose the ignorance and/or ills of society

paradox (def)

a phrase or assertion that appears to contradicts itself (but the contradiction itself may have it own meaning)

understatement (def)

deliberately minimizing something, usually for humorous effect

personification (def)

giving human characters to a nonhuman object or idea

sarcasm (def)

mockingly stating the opposite of what you mean, easier to convey in the spoken word than via writing

hyperbole (def)

overstating a situation for humorous or dramatic effect

exemplification (def)

providing examples in service of a point

synecdoche (def)

referring to one part of something as a way to refer to the whole

parallelism (def)

repeated structural elements in a sentence

onomatopoeia (def)

using "sound-effect" words

parody (def)

using the form of something to mimic and make fun of it