rhetoric Hear it!

rhetoric Definition

rheto·ric (retər ik)

noun

    1. the art of using words effectively in speaking or writing; esp., now, the art of prose composition
    2. skill in this
    3. a treatise or book on this
  1. artificial eloquence; language that is showy and elaborate but largely empty of clear ideas or sincere emotion

Etymology: ME rethorike < OFr or L: OFr rethorique < L rhetorica < Gr rhētorikē (technē), rhetorical (art) < rhētōr, orator: see rhetor

rhetoric Synonyms

rhetoric

n.

  1. Speech

    composition, discourse, oratory, oration; see eloquence 1, speech 3.

  2. Grandiloquence

    bombast, high-flown language, empty talk; see euphuism, flatulence, wordiness.

rhetoric Usage Examples

Converse of object

  • spout: Instead, he simply left it to Vise President Adina Bastidas to spout the anti-American rhetoric.
  • contradict: This authoritarian methodology clearly contradicted the libertarian rhetoric within Deleuze and Guattari's writings.
  • translate: They note that in the NSF there is little in the way of guidance on how to translate the rhetoric of partnerships into practice.
  • adopt: In Britain the debate is confused because almost everyone on the left and center now adopts a communitarian rhetoric.
  • employ: C onclusion That Trisha employs interrogatory rhetoric in order to push her guests into personal confessions is not a surprising discovery.
  • match: It said: âNew Labor ⦠reality does not match political rhetoric.

Preposition: into

  • reality: Can one observe any borrowings or ' translations ' of the previous rhetoric into the new reality?

Adjective modifier

  • epideictic: The theater is the place where epideictic rhetoric belongs.
  • anti-American: Surely a movement that seriously believed its own anti-American rhetoric should have welcomed these attacks.
  • populist: But their role is to do precisely that - gather reliable information, not engage in populist rhetoric like Sarkozy.
  • contrastive: Contrastive rhetoric: Cross-cultural aspects of second language writing.
  • overblown: It was important for people to approach this issue in a calm, reasoned manner and strip away some of the overblown rhetoric.
  • empty: People like them don't want to hear the empty rhetoric of politicians.

Preposition: on

  • breadth: Our rhetoric on breadth is not always backed up in fact, yet we regard it as a major 'brand ' asset.

Modifies a noun

  • johnson: Rhetoric johnson maintained out to me the quot capital.

Preposition: of

  • empowerment: What are the effects of the rhetorics of empowerment and participation pushed by government and NGOs?
  • inclusion: As a consequence, some fundamental policy issues will emerge, alongside certain difficulties inherent to the rhetoric of inclusion.
  • politician: People like them don't want to hear the empty rhetoric of politicians.
  • sustainability: The Doha Development Agenda quotes the rhetoric of sustainability; Fair Trade organizations have the experience of how to make this a reality.

Noun used with modifier

  • extremist: The once politically centrist, science-based vision of environmentalism has been largely replaced with extremist rhetoric.
rhetoric Quotes

   The United Nations cannot do anything, and never could. It is not an animate entity or agent. It is a place, a stage, a forum and a shrine†a place to which powerful people can repair when they are fearful about the course on which their own rhetoric seems to be propelling them.

—Oates,Joyce Carol

Historiesmakemenwise; poets, witty; themathematics, subtle; natural philosophy, deep; moral, grave; logic and rhetoric, able to contend.

—Bacon, Francis,Viscount St Albans

America hasjust passedthrough†an eight-yearcoma in which slogans were confused with solutions and rhetoric passed for reality.

—Bentsen, Lloyd Millard,Jr