Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Logic A syllogism in which one of the premises or the conclusion is not stated explicitly.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. In Aristotle's logic, an inference from likelihoods and signs, which with Aristotle is the same as a rhetorical syllogism.
- n. A syllogism one of the premises of which is unexpressed. This meaning of the word, which is the current one, arose from the preceding through a change in the conception of a rhetorical argument with the Roman writers (Quintilian, etc).
Wiktionary
- n. A by and large statement, a maxim, a less-than-100% argument.
- n. logic A syllogism with a required but unstated assumption.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Logic) An argument consisting of only two propositions, an antecedent and consequent deduced from it; a syllogism with one premise omitted; as, We are dependent; therefore we should be humble. Here the major proposition is suppressed. The complete syllogism would be, Dependent creatures should be humble; we are dependent creatures; therefore we should be humble.
Etymologies
- From Ancient Greek ἐνθύμημα (enthýmēma, "thought, consideration"), from ἐν (en, "within, with") + θυμός (thymos, "soul, life"). (Wiktionary)
- Latin enthȳmēma, from Greek enthūmēma, a rhetorical argument, from enthūmeisthai, to consider : en-, in; see en-2 + thūmos, mind. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“I call the enthymeme a rhetorical syllogism, and the example a rhetorical induction.”
“An enthymeme is an argument that’s built on major premise, minor premise, and conclusion, but the speaker/writer leaves out one of the premises because it’s assumed that everyone understands and agrees with that premise.”
“The enthymeme is a sort of syllogism, and the consideration of syllogisms of all kinds, without distinction, is the business of dialectic, either of dialectic as a whole or of one of its branches.”
“The example is an induction, the enthymeme is a syllogism, and the apparent enthymeme is an apparent syllogism.”
“Every kind of syllogism is composed of propositions, and the enthymeme is a particular kind of syllogism composed of the aforesaid propositions.”
“Aristotle calls the enthymeme the “body of persuasion,” implying that everything else is only an addition or accident to the core of the persuasive process.”
“Depreciation are one kind of enthymeme, viz. the kind used to show that a thing is great or small; just as there are other kinds used to show that a thing is good or bad, just or unjust, and anything else of the sort.”
“The enthymeme here might do well to exclude the conclusion and let the audience infer it if the goal of the argument were to convince the audience that Susan speaks eloquently.”
“Statements may be strategically excluded in an enthymeme because they are too obvious or because revealing them might damage the force of the argument.”
“The syllogism above would be rendered an enthymeme simply by maintaining that "Michael is mortal because he's human" (leaving out the major premise).”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘enthymeme’.
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250 Extra Spelling Words
Some more words for intermediate and advanced spellers.
cultellarius, barouche, palanquin, badelaire, cavetto, tregetour, tergiversate, rhododendron, rhadamanthine, thyrsus, cappelletti, bradycardia and 238 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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Rhetorical Devices
trope, wellerism, antimetabole, syncope, open-list, accismus, abating, abbaser, abecedarian, abcisio, ablatio, abominatio and 425 more...
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Logolepsy
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Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
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Rhetoric: The Harlot of the Arts
Words to do with rhetoric--study of, history of, practice of, theory of
rhetoric, paralepsis, invention, arrangement, style, memory, delivery, copia, consubstantiation, trope, colon, tricolon and 56 more...
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Charles Michael Kittridge Thompson IV
Words from the songs of Frank Black, a.k.a. Black Francis
zugzwang, valhalla, montalvo, ishist, tritons, mosh, siam, llano del rio, protohuman, tumbleweeds, ludwigshafen, ballyhoos and 349 more...
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acatalectic, acosmism, acuate, acuminate, adscititious, adytum, akratisma, alieniloquy, allelomorph, allochiria, allodium, alnage and 620 more...
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bilby's Words
pandemic, whirl, guffaw, ethereal, feisty, dunt, ephemeral, pule, flipergebet, prink, maunder, gammon and 1023 more...
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deidionysus's list
Words, words, words!
cartesian, shavian, dithyramb, dreadnaught, lea, adamantine, titanomachy, theomachy, aethereal, ambrosia, ambrosial, aether and 183 more...
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looked up
Words I've come across while reading and looked up in the dictionary.
deesis, pendentive, revetment, aedicule, stemma, patera, ephod, entrepot, corbel, exedra, volute, archivolt and 1406 more...
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Philosophical Jargon
Words philosophical writers use to give the illusion of technical competence, including up-trippingly specialised senses of words that have other jobs during daylight hours.
akrasia, akrates, particularism, particularist, mereology, deontology, cognitivism, naturalism, anti-naturalism, ethics, phenomenology, metaethics and 220 more...
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rememberers
prolix, ageusia, animadversion, anodyne, antic, arabesque, beadle, brachymetropia, colophon, desquamation, diaphoresis, diegesis and 3248 more...
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Good word to know
celerity, obfuscate, incredulity, verisimilitude, cognizance, formidable, sonorous, sinuous, grapheme, semasiology, penchant, desiderium and 31 more...
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E
extirpate, ebullition, eisegesis, elide, enervate, ephemeron, ergasiophobia, ergophobia, execrate, epicaricacy, effluvium, eupnoeic and 31 more...
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catching words
wicker(whichwill)work
collate, percolate, key, quay, hedge, haggard, haw, hawthorn, hawfinch, colander, couloir, coulee and 54 more...
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Rhetorical devices
How to write that killer speech.
alliteration, allusion, amplification, anacoluthon, anadiplosis, analogy, anaphora, antanagoge, antimetabole, antiphrasis, antithesis, apophasis and 48 more...
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