rhetorical

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adjective

Definition of RHETORICAL

1

marked by the use of impressive-sounding but mostly meaningless words and phrases <you can skip over the rhetorical passages and still get the gist of the essay>

Synonyms bombastic, flatulent, fustian, gaseous, gassy, grandiloquent, oratorical, orotund, windy

Related Words bloated, elevated, florid, flowery, grandiose, highfalutin (also hifalutin), high-flown, high-sounding, inflated, lofty, ornate, pompous, pontifical, pretentious, stilted, tumid, turgid; overdone, verbose, wordy

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

Antonyms unrhetorical

2

full of fine words and fancy expressions <the new governor delivered a long rhetorical speech about our state's bright future but laid out no specific programs for ensuring it>

Synonyms aureate, florid, grandiloquent, highfalutin (also hifalutin), high-flown, high-sounding, magnific, ornate, purple, rhetorical (also rhetoric)

Related Words affected, bloated, fancy-pants, grandiose, inflated, pompous, pretentious, stilted; excessive, flattering, fulsome; boastful, bombastic; elevated, eloquent, lofty; bookish, inkhorn, learned

Near Antonyms prosaic, unpoetic; bald, direct, lean, matter-of-fact, plain, plainspoken, simple, spare, stark, straightforward, unadorned; natural, unaffected, unpretentious

3

of or relating to words or language <the next war that those two nations fight won't be rhetorical—it will be with bombs and bullets>

Synonyms lexical, linguistic (also linguistical), rhetorical (also rhetoric), vocabular, wordy

Related Words communicative, conversational

Antonyms nonlexical, nonlinguistic, nonverbal

Variants of RHETORICAL

rhetorical also rhetoric