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rhetorical

rhe·to·ri·cal

UK/ɹɪˈtɒɹ.ɪ.kəl/ US/ɹəˈtɒɹ.ɪ.kəl/ uncommon dated

adjective

1.

of or relating to rhetoric

  • “accepted two or three verbal and rhetorical changes I suggested” W.A.White
  • “the rhetorical sin of the meaningless variation” Lewis Mumford
2.

concerned with effect or style of writing and speaking

  • “a rhetorical question is one asked solely to produce an effect (especially to make an assertion) rather than to elicit a reply”
Antonyms
Similar

Origin

From Middle English rethorycal, rethoricalle, rethorycall, from rethorik, rhetoric (noun) or Latin rēthoricus, rhētoricus, from Ancient Greek ῥητορικός (rhētorikós, “concerning public speaking”). By surface analysis, rhetoric + -al.

Phrases

  • rhetorical device
  • rhetorical induction
  • rhetorical mode
  • rhetorical question

Related words

Word family

See also

Pertaining to

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.