Rhetorical

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

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>

a : given to rhetoric : grandiloquent

b : verbal

— rhe·tor·i·cal·ly \-i-k(ə-)lē\ adverb

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Variants of RHETORICAL

rhe·tor·i·cal also rhe·tor·ic \ri-ˈtȯr-ik, -ˈtär-\

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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First Known Use: 15th century