RHETORIC • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Rhetoric

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/rˈɛtərɪk/ Listen

noun

Rhetoric n.

The art of composition; especially, elegant composition in prose.

Oratory; the art of speaking with propriety, elegance, and force.

Hence, artificial eloquence; fine language or declamation without conviction or earnest feeling.

Fig.: The power of persuasion or attraction; that which allures or charms. "Sweet, silent rhetoric of persuading eyes."

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Etymology of 'Rhetoric'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Rhetoric" Quotes from Famous Books

... "I think if I were a professor of rhetoric I should use Dante for my text-book. Dante is the rhetorician. He is all wings, pure imagination and he writes like Euclid." James Russell Lowell told his students in answer to the question as to the best course of reading to be followed: "If I may be allowed a personal illustration, it was ...

— Dante: "The Central Man of All the World" • John T. Slattery

... silver; yonder shines The ocean's sapphire word; there, gray with age, The granite writes its lesson, strong and sage; And there the surf its rhythmic passage signs. The winds, that sweep the page, that interlude Its majesty with music; and the tides, That roll their thunder in, that period Its mighty rhetoric, deep and dream-imbued, Are what it seems to say, of what abides, Of what's eternal, ...

— An Ode • Madison J. Cawein

... more insidious than that lurking in five years' experience as a successful author. It had rescued her from the slough of despond when unappreciative publishers rejected her most ambitious attempts; it had come to her aid also when a southern admirer whose intentions were better than his rhetoric, sent her a manuscript ode constructed in her honor. She had won success in her profession; but she had won it at the expense of some hard knocks. But, however much the world might be awry, two people had never lost faith in her talent. ...

— Phebe, Her Profession - A Sequel to Teddy: Her Book • Anna Chapin Ray

... darned precise you are getting, Crocker! One would think you were going to write a rhetoric. What put ...

— The Crossing • Winston Churchill

... as far as possible, the verbal eccentricities of "butter blue beans" and other intricate verses of infantile memory, are scattered up and down the pages of the Port Folio, together with fresh versions of Horace and dissertations upon classical rhetoric. ...

— The Philadelphia Magazines and their Contributors 1741-1850 • Albert Smyth

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