Subscriber login


Forgot your password?

Library card login

Other

rhetorical

Pronunciation: /rɪˈtɒrɪk(ə)l/

Translate rhetorical | into French | into German | into Italian | into Spanish
Definition of rhetorical

adjective

  • 1relating to or concerned with the art of rhetoric:repetition is a common rhetorical device
  • expressed in terms intended to persuade or impress:the rhetorical commitment of the government to give priority to primary education
  • 2(of a question) asked in order to produce an effect or to make a statement rather than to elicit information.

Derivatives

rhetorically

adverb

Origin:

late Middle English (first used in the sense 'eloquently expressed'): via Latin from Greek rhētorikos (from rhētor 'rhetor') + -al

rhetorical in other Oxford dictionaries

Definition of rhetorical in the US English dictionary

Nearby words

  |  Cite

More words in this category

Word of the day

leporine

/ ˈlɛpərʌɪn /
adjective
of or resembling a hare or hares …