rhetorical
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Such claims often prove to be more rhetorical than real.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 8, 2026
Oliver Stuenkel, a professor at the Getulio Vargas Foundation, downplayed the importance of ideology in regional relations as more "rhetorical than substantive."
From Barron's ● Sep. 28, 2026
Plus, the House of Mouse was already changing up its rhetorical tack to mount a fulsome self-defense on free speech and free press grounds.
From Slate ● Aug. 18, 2026
Ms. Day has the young writer’s weakness for showing off knowledge and she needlessly indulges in essay-like digressions on rhetorical terms and Latin etymologies.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 29, 2026
Newton’s modern biographer, Richard Westfall, concludes that we should regard Newton’s claim to have been surprised by the oblong image cast by the prism ‘as a rhetorical device which is not to be understood literally’.
From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
Vocabulary lists containing rhetorical
The SAT: Language of the Test, List 1
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TEKS ELAR Academic Vocabulary List (5th-7th grades)
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PARCC: Language of the Test (Grade 11)
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