RHETORIC

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does rhetoric mean? 

• RHETORIC (noun)
  The noun RHETORIC has 4 senses:

1. using language effectively to please or persuade

2. high-flown style; excessive use of verbal ornamentation

3. loud and confused and empty talk

4. study of the technique and rules for using language effectively (especially in public speaking)

  Familiarity information: RHETORIC used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• RHETORIC (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Using language effectively to please or persuade

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Hypernyms ("rhetoric" is a kind of...):

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)

Meronyms (parts of "rhetoric"):

rhetorical device (a use of language that creates a literary effect (but often without regard for literal significance))

Derivation:

rhetorician (a person who delivers a speech or oration)

Sense 2

Meaning:

High-flown style; excessive use of verbal ornamentation

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

grandiloquence; grandiosity; magniloquence; ornateness; rhetoric

Context example:

an excessive ornateness of language

Hypernyms ("rhetoric" is a kind of...):

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)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "rhetoric"):

flourish (a display of ornamental speech or language)

blah; bombast; claptrap; fustian; rant (pompous or pretentious talk or writing)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Loud and confused and empty talk

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

empty talk; empty words; hot air; palaver; rhetoric

Context example:

mere rhetoric

Hypernyms ("rhetoric" is a kind of...):

bunk; hokum; meaninglessness; nonsense; nonsensicality (a message that seems to convey no meaning)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Study of the technique and rules for using language effectively (especially in public speaking)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Hypernyms ("rhetoric" is a kind of...):

literary study (the humanistic study of literature)

Domain member category:

exordium ((rhetoric) the introductory section of an oration or discourse)

anacoluthic (of or related to syntactic inconsistencies of the sort known as anacoluthons)

tropical (characterized by or of the nature of a trope or tropes; changed from its literal sense)

allocution ((rhetoric) a formal or authoritative address that advises or exhorts)

ploce ((rhetoric) repetition to gain special emphasis or extend meaning)

epanodos (recapitulation of the main ideas of a speech (especially in reverse order))

epanodos (repetition of a group of words in reverse order)

rhetorical device (a use of language that creates a literary effect (but often without regard for literal significance))

peroration ((rhetoric) the concluding section of an oration)

narration ((rhetoric) the second section of an oration in which the facts are set forth)

Derivation:

rhetorical (given to rhetoric, emphasizing style at the expense of thought)

rhetorical (of or relating to rhetoric)

rhetorician (a person who delivers a speech or oration)

 Context examples 

The words flowed from his pen, though he broke off from the writing frequently to look up definitions in the dictionary or to refer to the rhetoric.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

He had never thought of such things before; and he promptly set to work writing the article over, referring continually to the pages of the rhetoric and learning more in a day about composition than the average schoolboy in a year.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

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.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)