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rhetoric |
Also found in: Legal, Encyclopedia, Wikipedia, Hutchinson | 0.01 sec. |
rhetoric [ˈrɛtərɪk] n
1. (Literature / Rhetoric) the study of the technique of using language effectively 2. (Literature / 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 [via Latin from Greek rhētorikē (tekhnē) (the art of) rhetoric, from rhētōr rhetor] ThesaurusLegend: Synonyms Related Words Antonyms
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 Translations How to thank TFD for its existence? Tell a friend about us, add a link to this page, add the site to iGoogle, or visit webmaster's page for free fun content. |
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| Histories make men wise; poets witty; the mathematics subtile; natural philosophy deep; moral grave; logic and rhetoric able to contend. 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. 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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