English IV AP
Vocabulary
Please note that there are two types of vocabulary for this course:
1. AP English Literature Exam Vocabulary – literary terms and tone words
2. Everyday Vocabulary – words to improve your writing and everyday speech
AP English Literature Exam Vocabulary
See separate list of Literary Terms AND Tone Words. You are responsible for knowing ALL of these
words. Instead of a traditional vocabulary quiz every week, you will be creating a DICTIONARY for
these terms, and take an assessment on the Dictionary due dates.
Directions for AP English Exam Vocab Dictionary:
1. Use a marble notebook.
2. Leave the first 4-5 pages blank to create a Table of Contents.
3. AFTER the blank pages (Table of Contents), start numbering your notebook, starting at ONE (1).
You may number front and back OR just the front – whatever your preference.
4. One term per page for Literary Terms (Tone Words – fit as many as you can per page).
For each Literary Term, please do the following:
 Write the term
 Write the dictionary definition or an interpretation in your own words of the dictionary
definition
 At least one textual example demonstrating the term – it may be from a work of
literature or an example that you crafted yourself. Do not merely list a title – you must
DEMONSTRATE an actual example. So, for example, do not merely write the title
Macbeth as an example. You must explain WHY Macbeth represents that literary term.
Extra credit available if you have 3+ examples for multiple terms.
 You may also use pictures or visual images to help you remember the term.
For each Tone Word, please do the following:
 Write the term
 Write the dictionary definition or an interpretation in your own words of the dictionary
definition (some tone phrases have more than one word you will have to look up)
 Fit as many Tone Words as you can on one page – do NOT use one page per Tone word.
5. Your dictionaries will be collected for a grade AND you will have a VOCABULARY TEST for
words due on each due date – see schedule below for due dates of terms.
Due Dates and Test Dates for AP English Literature Exam Vocabulary:
LITERARY TERMS:
 List 1 (41 words): DUE FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 27
o For this first list – you MUST have at least 100 pages labeled in book and your first 40 words
listed in the Table of Contents with a correctly corresponding page number.
 List 2 (37 words): DUE MONDAY, OCTOBER 28
o For this list – add the next group of words to the Table of Contents with a correctly
corresponding page number.
TONE WORDS:
 ALL 57 Tone Words: DUE FRIDAY, DECEMBER 6
o For this list – add the Tone words to the Table of Contents with a correctly corresponding
page number (more than one tone word will be on the same page).
Budget your time accordingly - due dates are spread out for your benefit!
EVERYDAY VOCABULARY
Below is the calendar for Everyday Vocabulary Quizzes – you are responsible for learning the
assigned lists by the quiz date. Lists are available on my website.
Vocab Workshop Unit 1 – Friday, Aug. 30
Vocab Workshop Unit 2 – Friday, Sept. 13
Vocab Workshop Unit 3 – Friday, Oct. 4
Cumulative Test Unit 1-3 – Week of Oct. 21 (on mid-term)
Vocab List 1 –
Vocab List 2 –
Vocab List 3 –
Vocab List 4 –
Friday, Nov. 1
Friday, Nov. 15
Wednesday, Nov. 27
Friday, Dec. 13
Due Dates are subject to change per teacher’s discretion and school schedule changes
AP English Literature Exam Vocabulary
Literary Terms List 1 – due Friday, 9-27
1. Abstractions
2. Allegory
3. Allusion
4. Process Analysis (or analysis of a process)
5. Anecdoctal narrative
6. Antecedent
7. Anticlimax
8. Apostrophe (not the punctuation)
9. Biblical allusions
10. Categorical assertion
11. Cause and effect analysis
12. Central metaphor
13. Classification and comparison
14. Complex structure (in writing/literature)
15. Conclusive logic
16. Diction
17. Discursive memoir
18. Dramatic monologue
19. Dramatic irony
20. Elaborate metaphors
21. Elegy
22. Euphemisms
23. Evaluative argument
24. Expository writing (not the beginning of a
story)
25. Extended metaphor
26. Point of view
27. First person narrator
28. Third person narrator
29. Omniscient narrator
30. Foreshadow
31. Inference
32. Irony
33. Listing technique (in writing)
34. Modifier (grammar)
35. Direct object and object of preposition
(grammar)
36. Parallel Structure/Syntax
37. Periodic sentence
38. Personification
39. Style
40. Symbol
Literary Terms List 2 – due Monday, 10-28
1. Anapest
2. Ballad meter
3. Blank verse
4. Couplet
5. Dactyl
6. Dimeter
7. Hexameter
8. Hypotheticals
9. Iambic
10. Imagery
11. Interjection
12. Metaphysical conceits
13. Onomatopoeia
14. Oxymoron
15. Parable
16. Paradox
17. Pastoral
18. Pentameter
19. Poetic drama
20. Puns
21. Qualifiers
22. Reflective narrative
23. Rhetorical purpose
24. Rhetorical shift
25. Rhyme Royal
26. Rhythm
27. Self-parody
28. Slant Rhyme
29. Soliloquy
30. Speaker
31. Spondee
32. Stanza
33. Surrealism
34. Synecdoche
35. Understatement Tetrameter
36. Trimeter
37. Trochee
TONE WORDS (57 words – two columns)
Admiring
Ambivalent
Anger
Assumed arrogance
Awe
Bitterness tempered with maturity
Careful objectivity
Cheerful glee
Conciliatory
Condescending
Cynical exaggeration
Disappointment
Elegant disdain
Elegiac
Emotional judgment
Expansive and self-dramatizing
Feigned bitterness
Feigned sympathy
Fond admiration
Forced glee
Gentle disapproval
Gentle sarcasm
Gratitude made richer by love
Grudging respect
Hopeful
Hysterical
Indignant
Insistent
Intelligent respect
Ironic anger
Ironic grimness
Irreversible despair
ALL DUE: Friday, 12-6
Jaded disgust
Jealousy
Light and cheerful
Mild amusement
Nostalgic
Objectivity
Open hostility
Perplexity
Pity
Playful seriousness
Reassuring
Regret
Resentment
Respect strengthened by distance
Respectful awe
Sarcastic vindictiveness
Sardonic condemnation
Sentimental
Somber melancholy
Testy and critical
Thoughtless contempt
Tragic
Warm affirmation
Whimsical
Wry disdain