Dictionary
rhetorical
adjective rhe·tor·i·cal \ri-ˈtȯr-i-kəl, -ˈtär-\
: of, relating to, or concerned with the art of speaking or writing formally and effectively especially as a way to persuade or influence people
of a question : asked in order to make a statement rather than to get an answer
Full Definition of RHETORICAL
1
a : of, relating to, or concerned with rhetoric b : employed for rhetorical effect; especially : asked merely for effect with no answer expected <a rhetorical question>
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Variants of RHETORICAL
rhe·tor·i·cal also rhe·tor·ic \ri-ˈtȯr-ik, -ˈtär-\
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Examples of RHETORICAL
- McKinney made her name in Georgia politics as a rhetorical bomb-thrower. Colleagues in the statehouse dubbed her “Hanoi Cynthia” after a 1991 speech denouncing the Persian Gulf War. —Bill Turque, Newsweek, 29 Nov. 1993
- Clinton's acceptance speech evidenced some of the classical rhetorical devices such as paronomasia, or punning, and anaphora, or repetition of key words or phrases. —Leo McManus, English Today, October 1993
- “Take that river down there, for instance. It conforms pretty much to the map, doesn't it?” I assumed he was asking a rhetorical question and kept my mouth shut. —Marshall Harrison, A Lonely Kind of War, 1989
- … he [Thomas Wolfe] crammed his novels with lavish apostrophes to Life and Death and Loneliness and Sorrow, covering page after page with grandiose rhetorical flourishes … , pseudo-Homeric epithets … , wooden dialogue and pious homilies about “the brevity of our days.” —James Atlas, New York Times Book Review, 2 Dec. 1979
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Origin of RHETORICAL
(see rhetoric)
First Known Use: 15th century
Related to RHETORICAL
- Synonyms
- bombastic, flatulent, fustian, gaseous, gassy, grandiloquent, oratorical, orotund, windy
- Antonyms
- unrhetorical
Other Grammar and Linguistics Terms
Rhymes with RHETORICAL
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