How to Use rhetorical in a Sentence

rhetorical

adjective

• My question was rhetorical. I wasn't really expecting an answer.
• The two are neck and neck in a race to the rhetorical middle.
  — Faith Bottum, WSJ, 26 Sep. 2022
• Downes asks at one point, and the question is meant to be rhetorical.
  — David Fear, Rolling Stone, 13 Oct. 2023
• Dougherty has become a star of the strike for her blunt rhetorical style.
  — Gene Maddaus, Variety, 27 May 2023
• In Wolfish, the question is dropped like a generic, rhetorical call to action, and then Berry moves on.
  — Colin Dickey, The New Republic, 31 Mar. 2023
• To argue on this rhetorical ground is to disable the argument from the start.
  — Merve Emre, The New Yorker, 11 July 2023
• But what about Netanyahu, a man in thrall to the hard right and not exactly known for rhetorical restraint?
  — Yair Rosenberg, The Atlantic, 21 Jan. 2024
• But this also presents a unique rhetorical problem: No one cares about the future when there are so many problems in the here and now.
  — Liza Featherstone, The New Republic, 12 July 2023
• Russia’s all-out war on Ukraine is entering its sixth week, and the past few days have seen a rhetorical shift in Vladimir Putin’s goals.
  — Garry Kasparov, WSJ, 3 Apr. 2022
• So, Macron didn’t seem to have much patience for the other swirling rhetorical storm that Truss seemed to be conjuring.
  — David A. Andelman, CNN, 26 Aug. 2022
• The optics are not good Matt: Another rhetorical sleight of hand.
  — Adam Feuerstein and Matthew Herper, STAT, 31 July 2023
• But many of those steps have been in the form of proposals, policy statements, and rhetorical shifts.
  — Sandeep Vaheesan, The New Republic, 29 Aug. 2023
• China hawks hailed the rhetorical shift as a welcome burst of clarity.
  — Doyle McManuswashington Columnist, Los Angeles Times, 29 May 2022
• There was a time, not long ago, when a rhetorical slip could sink a presidential campaign.
  — Timothy Noah, The New Republic, 7 Apr. 2023
• This seems to be the most rhetorical of rhetorical questions and what is wrong with Texas politics.
  — Eleanor Dearman, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 16 Feb. 2024
• The ancient Greeks had a word for this kind of rhetorical move — apophasis, or, the art of bringing up a subject in a debate by claiming not to be bringing it up.
  — Patrick T. Brown, CNN, 23 Mar. 2023
• Sign up That emphasis, of course, is more rhetorical than anything else.
  — Kate Aronoff, The New Republic, 10 Aug. 2023
• There’s no noir-ier rhetorical question in all of cinema.
  — Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune, 28 Oct. 2022
• But this, too, seems wrongheaded to me, the rhetorical equivalent of Penny’s steady grip.
  — Ismail Muhammad, New York Times, 12 May 2023
• The rhetorical back-and-forth has become a political sideshow, with neither side wanting to give an inch.
  — Dante Chinni, NBC News, 23 Apr. 2023
• Krugman seeks to dismiss WPS talk with a series of rhetorical questions.
  — Peter Cohan, Forbes, 25 Apr. 2022
• Surely this, and not Biden’s rhetorical flourishes, is what Americans need to try to think through and agree to a position on.
  — David Rieff, The New Republic, 24 May 2022
• With the exception of the rhetorical backing of a clutch of far-right allies in Europe, Putin can’t count on much support from elsewhere, either.
  — Ishaan Tharoor, Washington Post, 21 Sep. 2022
• Services disagreed with some of the rhetorical framing of that reporting.
  — Eli Hager, ProPublica, 29 Dec. 2022
• Liberals have been losing the rhetorical battle over guns for decades.
  — Walter Shapiro, The New Republic, 26 May 2022
• Taranto has to perform some rhetorical jiujitsu to preserve the humor of the premise.
  — Mark Athitakis, Los Angeles Times, 7 Sep. 2023
• Armed with a thick Boston accent and a direct and brusque nature, Baker is a former union shop steward known as a rhetorical pugilist.
  — Danny McDonald, BostonGlobe.com, 20 Apr. 2023
• At the same time, its ending and thematic resonance to our world are nearly worth the rhetorical price of admission alone.
  — Jeff Ewing, Forbes, 18 Mar. 2022
• What began as a rhetorical talking point on the fringe right is now an article of faith for some in the Republican grass roots, and a tool to stoke outrage and boost fundraising.
  — Rosalind S. Helderman, Amy Gardner and Emma Brown, Anchorage Daily News, 4 Apr. 2022
• New York, Chicago and Los Angeles have all served as rhetorical whipping boys.
  — Carolina A. Miranda, Los Angeles Times, 13 May 2023

Last Updated: 3 May 2024