1. Study of the technique and rules for using language effectively (especially in public speaking)
   "The politician honed his rhetoric skills to become a more persuasive speaker"
    
2. Using language effectively to please or persuade
   "The politician's speech was full of powerful rhetoric"
    
3. High-flown style; excessive use of verbal ornamentation
   "the rhetoric of his prose";
   - grandiosity, magniloquence, ornateness, grandiloquence
    
4. Insincere or vague talk with empty promises etc. that is supposed to impress
   "mere rhetoric";
   - hot air [informal], empty words, empty talk, bluster

Derived forms: rhetorics

Type of: bunk [informal], expressive style, hokum [informal], literary study, meaninglessness, nonsense, nonsensicality, style

Encyclopedia: Rhetoric