Entry Word: rhetorical

Function: adjective

Meaning: marked by the use of impressive-sounding but mostly meaningless words and phrases <an essay on civic duty that was mostly rhetorical, full of flowery quotations but providing nothing helpful>

Synonyms bombastic, gaseous, gassy, grandiloquent, oratorical, windy

Related Words elevated, florid, flowery, grandiose, highfalutin, high-flown, high-sounding, inflated, lofty, pompous, pretentious, stilted; overdone, verbose, wordy

Near Antonyms eloquent, well-spoken; bald, direct, matter-of-fact, plain, plainspoken, simple, stark, straightforward, unadorned, unaffected, unpretentious