Rhetoric

• POS: Noun
• HYPHEN: rhet=o=ric

CIDE DICTIONARY

Rhetoric, n. [F. rhétorique, L. rhetorica, Gr. (sc. ), fr. rhetorical, oratorical, fr. orator, rhetorician; perhaps akin to E. word; cf. to say.].

•  The art of composition; especially, elegant composition in prose.  [1913 Webster]
•  Oratory; the art of speaking with propriety, elegance, and force.  Locke.  [1913 Webster]
•  Hence, artificial eloquence; fine language or declamation without conviction or earnest feeling.  [1913 Webster]
•  Fig. : The power of persuasion or attraction; that which allures or charms.  [1913 Webster]

  "Sweet, silent rhetoric of persuading eyes."  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

Rhetoric, n.
1 the art of effective or persuasive speaking or writing.
2 language designed to persuade or impress (often with an implication of insincerity or exaggeration etc.).

Etymology

ME f. OF rethorique f. L rhetorica, -ice f. Gk rhetorike (tekhne) (art) of rhetoric (as RHETOR)

THESAURUS

Rhetoric

Barnumism, affectation, articulateness, bedizenment, big talk, bluster, bombast, choice of words, command of language, command of words, composition, convolution, debating, declamation, demagogism, dialect, diction, effective style, elocution, eloquence, eloquent tongue, exaggeration, expression, expression of ideas, expressiveness, facundity, fashion, feeling for words, felicitousness, felicity, flashiness, flatulence, flatulency, forensics, form of speech, formulation, fulsomeness, fustian, garishness, gasconade, gaudiness, gift of expression, gift of gab, glibness, grace of expression, grammar, grandiloquence, grandioseness, grandiosity, graphicness, high-flown diction, highfalutin, homiletics, hot air, idiom, inflatedness, inflation, language, lecturing, lexiphanicism, literary style, locution, loftiness, long-windedness, luridness, magniloquence, manner, manner of speaking, mannerism, meaningfulness, mere rhetoric, meretriciousness, mode, mode of expression, oratory, orotundity, ostentation, ostentatious complexity, parlance, peculiarity, personal style, phrase, phraseology, phrasing, platform oratory, platitudinous ponderosity, polysyllabic profundity, pomposity, pompous prolixity, pompousness, pontification, pretension, pretentiousness, prolixity, prose run mad, public speaking, puffery, pyrotechnics, rabble-rousing, rant, rhapsody, rhetoricalness, rodomontade, sensationalism, sense of language, sententiousness, sesquipedality, showiness, silver tongue, slickness, smoothness, speaking, speech, speechcraft, speechification, speeching, speechmaking, stiltedness, strain, stump speaking, style, stylistic analysis, stylistics, swelling utterance, swollen phrase, swollenness, talk, tall talk, the grand style, the plain style, the sublime, tortuosity, tortuousness, trick, tumidity, tumidness, turgescence, turgidity, usage, use of words, usus loquendi, vein, verbiage, verbosity, vividness, way, windiness, wordage, wordcraft, wordiness, wording

ROGET THESAURUS

Rhetoric

Speech

N speech, faculty of speech, locution, talk, parlance, verbal intercourse, prolation, oral communication, word of mouth, parole, palaver, prattle, effusion, oration, recitation, delivery, say, speech, lecture, harangue, sermon, tirade, formal speech, peroration, speechifying, soliloquy, allocution, conversation, salutatory : screed: valedictory, oratory, elocution, eloquence, rhetoric, declamation, grandiloquence, multiloquence, burst of eloquence, facundity, flow of words, command of words, command of language, copia verborum, power of speech, gift of the gab, usus loquendi, speaker, spokesman, prolocutor, interlocutor, mouthpiece, Hermes, orator, oratrix, oratress, Demosthenes, Cicero, rhetorician, stump orator, platform orator, speechmaker, patterer, improvisatore, speaking, spoken, oral, lingual, phonetic, not written, unwritten, outspoken, eloquent, elocutionary, oratorical, rhetorical, declamatory, grandiloquent, talkative, Ciceronian, nuncupative, Tullian, orally, by word of mouth, viva voce, from the lips of, quoth he, said he, action is eloquence, pour the full tide of eloquence along, she speaks poignards and every word stabs, speech is but broken light upon the depth of the u, to try thy eloquence now 'tis time.