rhetoric

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I really must put "anti-war" in scare quotes because, as much as their rhetoric is anti-all-war, celebrities, who have been chirping with the crickets for years regarding Hamas 'continual barrage, and get them to feign outrage for the media.

—Stones Cry Out

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Definitions (18)

American Heritage Dictionary (6)

noun The art or study of using language effectively and persuasively.
noun A treatise or book discussing this art.
noun Skill in using language effectively and persuasively.

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Century Dictionary (7)

The art of discourse; the art of using language so as to influence others. Rhetoric is that art which consists in a systematic use of the technical means of influencing the minds, imaginations, emotions, and actions of others by the use of language. Primarily, it is the art of oratory, with inclusion of both composition and delivery; secondarily, it also includes written composition and recitation. It is also used in narrower senses, so as to present the idea of composition alone, or the idea of oratorical delivery (elocution) alone. Etymologically, rhetoric is the art, or rather the technics (τέχνη, somewhat, different in scope from our art), of the rhetor—that is, either the popular (political) orator or the judicial and professional rhetor. Accordingly, ancient writers regarded it mainly as the art of persuasion, and something of this view almost always attaches to the word even in modern use, so that it appears to be more or less inappropriate to use rhetoric of mere scientific, didactic, or expository composition. The element of persuasion, or at least of influence of thought, belongs, however, to such composition also in so far as accurate and well-arranged statement of views leads to their adoption or rejection, the very object of instruction involving this. On the other hand, poetry and epidictic oratory chiefly address the imagination and emotions, while the most important branches of oratory (deliberative and judicial oratory) appeal especially to the mind and emotions with a view to influencing immediate action. The theory or science underlying the art of rhetoric, and sometimes called by the same name, is essentially a creation of the ancient Greeks. Rhetoric was cultivated on its more practical side first of all by the earlier rhetors (so-called “sophists”) and orators (Em pedocles—considered the inventor of rhetoric—Gorgias, Isocrates, etc.), many of whom wrote practical treatises (τέχναι) on the art. The philosophers, on the other hand, among them Aristotle, treated the subject from the theoretical side. The system of rhetoric which finally became established, and has never been superseded, though largely mutilated and misunderstood in medieval and modern times, is that founded upon the system of the Stoic philosophers by the practical rhetorician Hermagoras (about 60 b. c.). Its most important extant representatives are Hermogenes (about a. d). 165) among the Greeks, and Quintilian (about a. d. 95) among the Latins. This theory recognizes three great divisions of oratory. (See oratory.) The art of rhetoric was divided into five parts: invention, disposition, elocution (not in the modern sense, but comprising diction and style), memory (mnemonics), and action (delivery, including the modern elocution). With rethorice com forth Musice, a damsel of oure hows. Chaucer, Boëthius, ii. prose 1. Generall report, that surpasseth my praise, condemneth my rethoricke of dulnesse for so colde a commendation. Nashe, quoted in Int. to Pierce Penilesse, p. xxv. For rhetoric, he could not ope His mouth, but out there flew a trope. Butler, Hudibras, i. 81.
Skill in discourse; artistic use of language.
Artificial oratory, as opposed to that which is natural and unaffected; display in language; ostentatious or meretricious declamation. Enjoy your dear wit, and gay rhetorick, That hath so well been taught her dazzling fence. Milton, Comus, l. 790. Like quicksilver, the rhet'ric they display Shines as it runs, but, grasp'd at, slips away. Cowper, Progress of Error, l. 21.

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Examples (50)

"Though the rhetoric is about personal and family protection, the real issue is about is auto burglaries." — Drinkin' the Franklin Kool Aid
Regardless of Ahmadinejad's blistering sword rattling, the rhetoric was aimed at Zionism, not Jews, and it is not Iran's foreign policy to wipe anyone off the face of the Earth. — Army Rumour Service
I really must put "anti-war" in scare quotes because, as much as their rhetoric is anti-all-war, celebrities, who have been chirping with the crickets for years regarding Hamas 'continual barrage, and get them to feign outrage for the media. — Stones Cry Out
The spike in Chinese rhetoric is occurring in the middle of the country's celebrations of the lunar new year - traditionally its longest and most important festival. — IPS Inter Press Service
The very founders of the country that allows radical atheists and religion-haters to spout their rhetoric were all "God-fearing" people.

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Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

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eloquence · oratory · poetry · declamation · sentiment · utterance · diction · propaganda · mathematics · theology · phraseology · criticism

Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (3)

American Heritage Dictionary (1)

Middle English rethorik, from Old French rethorique, from Latin rhētoricē, rhētorica, from Greek rhētorikē (tekhnē), rhetorical (art), feminine of rhētorikos, rhetorical, from rhētōr, rhetor; see rhetor.

Century Dictionary (2)

Early modern English rhetorick, rethoryck; from Middle English retorike, retheryke, retoryke, retoryk (also rethorice, after L. rhetorice), from Old French rhetorique, rectorique, French rhétorique = Provencal rethorica = Spanish retórica = Portuguese rhetorica = Italian retorica, rettorica, from Latin rhetorica (sc. ars), also rhetorice, from Greek ῤητορική (sc. τέχνη), the rhetorical art, feminine of ῤητορικός (later L. rhetoricus), of or pertaining to a speaker or orator, rhetorical, from ῤήτωρ, a speaker, orator: see rhetor.
French rhétorique, from Latin rhetori(cus), rhetorical. See rhetoric, n.

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/rəˈtɑrɪk/

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rhetoric

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