rhet·o·ric

(rĕt′ər-ĭk)

a. The art or study of using language effectively and persuasively.

b. A treatise or book discussing this art.

2. Skill in using language effectively and persuasively.

a. A style of speaking or writing, especially the language of a particular subject: fiery political rhetoric.

b. Language that is elaborate, pretentious, insincere, or intellectually vacuous: His offers of compromise were mere rhetoric.

4. Verbal communication; discourse.

[Middle English rethorik, from Old French rethorique, from Latin rhētoricē, rhētorica, from Greek rhētorikē (tekhnē), rhetorical (art), feminine of rhētorikos, rhetorical, from rhētōr, rhetor; see rhetor.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

rhetoric

(ˈrɛtərɪk)

1. (Rhetoric) the study of the technique of using language effectively

2. (Rhetoric) the art of using speech to persuade, influence, or please; oratory

3. excessive use of ornamentation and contrivance in spoken or written discourse; bombast

4. speech or discourse that pretends to significance but lacks true meaning: all the politician says is mere rhetoric.

[C14: via Latin from Greek rhētorikē (tekhnē) (the art of) rhetoric, from rhētōr rhetor]

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

rhet•o•ric

(ˈrɛt ər ɪk)

n.

a. the art of effectively using language, including the use of figures of speech.

b. language skillfully used.

c. a book or treatise on rhetoric.

2. the undue use of exaggerated language; bombast.

3. the art of prose writing.

4. the art of persuasive speaking; oratory.

[1300–50; Middle English rethorik < Medieval Latin rēthorica, Latin rhētorica < Greek rhētorikḕ (téchnē) rhetorical (art); see rhetor, -ic]

rhetoric

rhetor - A teacher of rhetoric or a master of it.
climax - First described propositions in rhetoric, one rising above the other in effectiveness; it comes from Greek klimax, "ladder."
demagoguery, demagogy - Demagoguery and demagogy are the practices or rhetoric of a demagogue.
scheme - From Greek skhema, "figure, form," it first referred to a figure of speech, especially a figure of rhetoric, denoting a way of deviating from the ordinary use and order of words to create special effect.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun	1.	rhetoric - using language effectively to please or persuade expressive style, style - a way of expressing something (in language or art or music etc.) that is characteristic of a particular person or group of people or period; "all the reporters were expected to adopt the style of the newspaper" rhetorical device - a use of language that creates a literary effect (but often without regard for literal significance)
	2.	rhetoric - high-flown style; excessive use of verbal ornamentation; "the grandiosity of his prose"; "an excessive ornateness of language" grandiloquence, grandiosity, magniloquence, ornateness flourish - a display of ornamental speech or language expressive style, style - a way of expressing something (in language or art or music etc.) that is characteristic of a particular person or group of people or period; "all the reporters were expected to adopt the style of the newspaper" blah, bombast, claptrap, fustian, rant - pompous or pretentious talk or writing
	3.	rhetoric - loud and confused and empty talk; "mere rhetoric" empty talk, empty words, hot air, palaver hokum, meaninglessness, nonsense, nonsensicality, bunk - a message that seems to convey no meaning
	4.	rhetoric - study of the technique and rules for using language effectively (especially in public speaking) literary study - the humanistic study of literature exordium - (rhetoric) the introductory section of an oration or discourse narration - (rhetoric) the second section of an oration in which the facts are set forth peroration - (rhetoric) the concluding section of an oration; "he summarized his main points in his peroration" rhetorical device - a use of language that creates a literary effect (but often without regard for literal significance) epanodos - repetition of a group of words in reverse order epanodos - recapitulation of the main ideas of a speech (especially in reverse order) ploce - (rhetoric) repetition to gain special emphasis or extend meaning allocution - (rhetoric) a formal or authoritative address that advises or exhorts anacoluthic - of or related to syntactic inconsistencies of the sort known as anacoluthons

rhetoric

noun

1. hyperbole, rant, hot air (informal), pomposity, bombast, wordiness, verbosity, fustian, grandiloquence, magniloquence He has continued his warlike rhetoric.

2. oratory, eloquence, public speaking, speech-making, elocution, declamation, speechifying, grandiloquence, spieling (informal) the noble institutions, such as political rhetoric

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

rhetoric

noun

The art of public speaking:

declamation, elocution, oratory.

Translations

řečnictvírétorika

Rhetorik

retórica

puhetaitoretoriikka

rhétorique

govorništvoretorika

retorica una domanda retorica

redekunderetorica retoriek

retorikk

реторика риторика

rhetoric

[ˈretərɪk] N → retórica f

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

rhetoric

[ˈrɛtərɪk] n → rhétorique f

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

rhetoric

n → Rhetorik f; (pej) → Phrasendrescherei f (pej)

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

rhetoric

[ˈrɛtərɪk] n → retorica

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

Histories make men wise; poets witty; the mathematics subtile; natural philosophy deep; moral grave; logic and rhetoric able to contend.

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Three days, at white heat, completed his narrative; but when he had copied it carefully, in a large scrawl that was easy to read, he learned from a rhetoric he picked up in the library that there were such things as paragraphs and quotation marks.

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In the case of oratory, this is the function of the Political art and of the art of rhetoric: and so indeed the older poets make their characters speak the language of civic life; the poets of our time, the language of the rhetoricians.

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The idealization of the sufferer is carried still further in the Gorgias, in which the thesis is maintained, that 'to suffer is better than to do evil;' and the art of rhetoric is described as only useful for the purpose of self-accusation.

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Then followed a speech, a masterpiece of rhetoric, which occupied nearly a day in the delivery, and to which no summary can do justice.

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"When the history of this war is written, Ambrose, with flamboyant phrases and copious rhetoric, there will be unwritten chapters, more dramatic, having really more direct effect upon the final issue than even the great battles which have seemed the dominant factors.

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This last argument had indeed some effect on Jones, and while he was weighing it the landlord threw all the rhetoric of which he was master into the same scale.

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Just at this time, Pierre Abelard, who had already made himself widely famous as a rhetorician, came to found a school of rhetoric in Paris.

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In vivid contrast to the sad and terrible destiny of the king imprisoned in the Bastile, and tearing, in sheer despair, the bolts and bars of his dungeon, the rhetoric of the chroniclers of old would not fail to present, as a complete antithesis, the picture of Philippe lying asleep beneath the royal canopy.

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The girls, who were not used to hearing rhetoric of this sort, had nothing to say in reply; they only asked him if he wanted anything to eat.

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His grandiloquence amused Philip, but he was sensitive to rhetoric; and he listened with pleasure while Athelny, with picturesque expressions and the fire of a real enthusiasm, described to him the rich delight of reading Don Quixote in the original and the music, romantic, limpid, passionate, of the enchanting Calderon.

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And so keenly did men feel the human interests of such things as were now taught, that we have come to call grammar, rhetoric, poetry, Greek and Latin the Humanities, and the professor who teaches these thing the professor of Humanity.

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