Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Of or relating to rhetoric.
- adjective Characterized by overelaborate or bombastic rhetoric.
- adjective Used for persuasive effect.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Pertaining to, of the nature of, or containing rhetoric; oratorical: as, the rhetorical art; a rhetorical treatise; a rhetorical flourish.
- In some colleges in the United States, rhetorical exercises (declamations, etc.) held publicly before all the students of the college.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Of or pertaining to rhetoric; according to, or exhibiting, rhetoric; oratorical
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective Part of or similar to
rhetoric , which is the use of language as a means to persuade. - adjective Not
earnest , or presented only for the purpose of an argument
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective of or relating to rhetoric
- adjective given to rhetoric, emphasizing style at the expense of thought
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word rhetorical.
Examples
-
My friend Gary periodically performs what he calls "rhetorical surgery" on himself, excising from his vocabulary a word that feels drained of all meaning.
Lynn Casteel Harper: The Elimination Of Busy: The Spiritual Discipline Of Being Present Lynn Casteel Harper 2011
-
My friend Gary periodically performs what he calls "rhetorical surgery" on himself, excising from his vocabulary a word that feels drained of all meaning.
Lynn Casteel Harper: The Elimination Of Busy: The Spiritual Discipline Of Being Present Lynn Casteel Harper 2011
-
My friend Gary periodically performs what he calls "rhetorical surgery" on himself, excising from his vocabulary a word that feels drained of all meaning.
Lynn Casteel Harper: The Elimination Of Busy: The Spiritual Discipline Of Being Present Lynn Casteel Harper 2011
-
My friend Gary periodically performs what he calls "rhetorical surgery" on himself, excising from his vocabulary a word that feels drained of all meaning.
Lynn Casteel Harper: The Elimination Of Busy: The Spiritual Discipline Of Being Present Lynn Casteel Harper 2011
-
BASH: After Republican Jeff Sessions asked nearly a dozen questions about her controversial comment that a wise Latina woman could make a better judgment, Sotomayor backed off what she called a rhetorical flourish that fell flat.
-
PHILLIPS: Obama also noted that Senator Biden is prone to what he described as rhetorical flourishes.
-
You are what we call a rhetorical thug when it comes to this whole issue of patriotism.
-
MANJI: Glenn, this is what we call a rhetorical question.
-
Just before we settled down for the night a man came and asked if we could store a case for him - as we were the only westerners in the carriage we agreed - I think it was what you called a rhetorical question.
-
Nonetheless, the term is very popular in rhetorical clichés, especially in spoken English:
Comments
Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.