What is rhetoric?

Answer 1

Stick a pin into Greaseball Gordon Brown and see what comes out - he is full of it! (and the other stuff beginning with S.)

Answer 2

Rhetoric as in rhetorical - to give a rhetorical answer to a question. Check Oxford English Dictionary for definition.

Answer 3

It depends on the usage of the word.
Rhetoric can mean "the ability to use language effectively" or even the study of such effective use.
But, more commonly, it is considered "undue use of exaggeration or display" or "bombastic speech or writing".

Accusing someone of using rhetoric essentially means you are claiming that they are a 'show-off' who's being 'unnecessarily annoying'. Luckily, they can simply assume you mean that they are using language very effectively, and take it as a compliment.

Edit: Actually, LeoGirl, rhetoric is normally more associated with conservatives than liberals. But that was a nice try at partisan divisiveness.

Answer 4

rhet·o·ric
n.
1.
a. The art or study of using language effectively and persuasively.
b. A treatise or book discussing this art.
2. Skill in using language effectively and persuasively.
3.
a. A style of speaking or writing, especially the language of a particular subject: fiery political rhetoric.
b. Language that is elaborate, pretentious, insincere, or intellectually vacuous: His offers of compromise were mere rhetoric.
4. Verbal communication; discourse.

Answer 5

The above answers (first two) are good for rhetorical questions but rhetoric means more. See below:
1.(in writing or speech) the undue use of exaggeration or display; bombast.
2.the art or science of all specialized literary uses of language in prose or verse, including the figures of speech.
3.the study of the effective use of language.
4.the ability to use language effectively.
5.the art of prose in general as opposed to verse.
6.the art of making persuasive speeches; oratory.
7.(in classical oratory) the art of influencing the thought and conduct of an audience.

Answer 6

RHETORIC: (n) the study of the technique of using language effectively.
The art of using speach to persuade, influence or please.
Excessive ornamentation and contrivance in spoken or written discourse.
Speech or dicourse that pretends to significance but lacks true meaning.
(rhetorical question - a question which requires no answer. Such as 'Who knows?')

Answer 7

The concept of rhetoric has shifted widely during its 2500-year history. Today rhetoric is described more broadly as the art or practice of persuasion through any symbolic system, but especially language. Or, rhetoric can be described as the persuasive or "suasory" function of all human action, including symbolic action like language use. Both the terms "rhetoric" and "sophistry" are also used today in a pejorative or dismissive sense, when someone wants to distinguish between "empty" words and action, or between true or accurate information and misinformation, propaganda, or "spin." Another current use of the word rhetoric is to denigrate specific forms of verbal reasoning as spurious. Nonetheless, rhetoric, as the art of persuasion, continues to play an important function in contemporary public life.


In other words......a Liberal talking

Answer 8

Rush Limbaugh is a rhetorician; that is, he makes points through the structural appeal of language, and not logic or observable reality. -- Like a really bad film critic. Heavy on "I feel" without stooping to use that phrase. Dishonest.

Answer 9

When youre not supposed to answer the question, youre just being sarcastic.

Answer 10

It usually means 'the art of persuasion'.