Rhetorical Theory is a subject rife with jargon and special terminology. This page explains commonly used rhetorical terms in alphabetical order. The brief definitions here are intended to serve as a quick reference rather than an in-depth discussion. For more information, click the terms.

A

• Absurdity. The exaggeration of a point beyond belief.
• Accumulation. The emphasis or summary of previously made points or inferences by excessive praise or accusation.

• Acutezza. Wit or wordplay used in rhetoric.

• Adjunction. When a verb is placed at the beginning or the end of a sentence instead of in the middle. For example (from Rhetorica ad Herennium), "At the beginning, as follows: 'Fades physical beauty with disease or age.' At the end, as follows: 'Either with disease or age physical beauty fades.'"

• Aesthetics
  Aesthetics
  Aesthetics is a branch of philosophy dealing with the nature of beauty, art, and taste, and with the creation and appreciation of beauty. It is more scientifically defined as the study of sensory or sensori-emotional values, sometimes called judgments of sentiment and taste...
  
  . The examination of symbolic expression to determine its rhetorical possibilities.

• Aetiologia. Giving a cause or a reason.

• Affectus. A term used by the Italian Humanists of the Renaissance to describe the source of emotions or passions in the human mind.

• Alloisis. The breaking down of a subject into its alternatives.

• Alliteration
  Alliteration
  In language, alliteration refers to the repetition of a particular sound in the first syllables of Three or more words or phrases. Alliteration has historically developed largely through poetry, in which it more narrowly refers to the repetition of a consonant in any syllables that, according to...
  
  . Different words beginning with the same sound, and in most cases the same letter.

• Ambigua. An ambiguous statement used in making puns.

• Amplificatio. An all-purpose term for all the ways an argument
  Argument
  In philosophy and logic, an argument is an attempt to persuade someone of something, or give evidence or reasons for accepting a particular conclusion.Argument may also refer to:-Mathematics and computer science:...
  
   can be expanded and enhanced.

• Amplification
  Amplification (rhetoric)
  In rhetoric, amplification refers to the act and the means of extending thoughts or statements to increase rhetorical effect, to add importance, or to make the most of a thought or circumstance...
  
  . The act and the means of extending thoughts or statements to increase rhetorical effect, to add importance, or to make the most of a thought or circumstance.

• Anacoenosis
  Anacoenosis
  -Description:Anacoenosis is asking the opinion of others in a way that demonstrates a common interest.-Examples:Do you not think we can do this now?Now tell me, given the evidence before us, could you have decided any differently?...
  
  . A speaker asks his or her audience or opponents for their opinion or answer to the point in question.

• Anacoluthon
  Anacoluthon
  An anacoluthon is a rhetorical device that can be loosely defined as a change of syntax within a sentence. More specifically, anacoluthons are created when a sentence abruptly changes from one structure to another. Grammatically, anacoluthon is an error; however, in rhetoric it is a figure that...
  
  . An abrupt change of syntax within a sentence. (What I want is — like anybody cares.)

• Anadiplosis
  Anadiplosis
  Anadiplosis is the repetition of the last word of a preceding clause. The word is used at the end of a sentence and then used again at the beginning of the next sentence.-Examples:...
  
  . Repeating the last word of one clause or phrase to begin the next.

• Analogy
  Analogy
  Analogy is a cognitive process of transferring information or meaning from a particular subject to another particular subject , and a linguistic expression corresponding to such a process...
  
  . The use of a similar or parallel case or example to reason or argue a point.

• Anaphora. From the Greek , "I repeat". A succession of sentences beginning with the same word or group of words.

• Anastrophe
  Anastrophe
  Anastrophe is a figure of speech in which a language's usual word order is inverted: for example, saying "smart you are" to mean "you are smart"....
  
  . Inversion of the natural word order.

• Anecdote
  Anecdote
  An anecdote is a short and amusing or interesting story about a real incident or person. It may be as brief as the setting and provocation of a bon mot. An anecdote is always presented as based on a real incident involving actual persons, whether famous or not, usually in an identifiable place...
  
  . A brief narrative describing an interesting or amusing event.

• Animorum motus. The emotions.

• Antanaclasis
  Antanaclasis
  In rhetoric, antanaclasis is the stylistic trope of repeating a single word, but with a different meaning each time. Antanaclasis is a common type of pun, and like other kinds of pun, it is often found in slogans.-Examples:...
  
  . From Greek ̩ , a figure of speech involving a pun
  Pun
  The pun, also called paronomasia, is a form of word play which suggests two or more meanings, by exploiting multiple meanings of words, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. These ambiguities can arise from the intentional use and abuse of homophonic,...
  
  , consisting of the repeated use of the same word, each time with different meanings.

• Anthimeria
  Anthimeria
  In rhetoric, anthimeria, traditionally and more properly called antimeria , is the use of a word as if it were a member of a different word class ; typically, the use of a noun as if it were a verb.-Examples:*"I'll unhair thy head." * "The...
  
  . Substitution of one part of speech for another (such as a noun used as a verb). It is traditionally called antimeria.

• Antimetabole
  Antimetabole
  In rhetoric, antimetabole is the repetition of words in successive clauses, but in transposed grammatical order...
  
  . Repetition of two words or short phrases, but in reversed order to establish a contrast. It is a specialised form of chiasmus.

• Antinome. Two ideas about the same topic that can be worked out to a logical conclusion, but the conclusions contradict each other.

• Antiptosis. The substitution of one case for another.

• Antistrophe
  Antistrophe
  Antistrophe is the portion of an ode sung by the chorus in its returning movement from west to east, in response to the strophe, which was sung from east to west.It has the nature of a reply and balances the effect of the strophe...
  
  . In rhetoric, repeating the last word in successive phrases. For example (from Rhetorica ad Herennium), "'Since the time when from our state concord disappeared, liberty disappeared, good faith disappeared, friendship disappeared, the common weal disappeared.'" Also see epiphora
  Epistrophe
  Epistrophe , also known as epiphora , is a figure of speech and the counterpart of anaphora. It is the repetition of the same word or words at the end of successive phrases, clauses or sentences...
  
  .

• Antithesis
  Antithesis
  Antithesis is a counter-proposition and denotes a direct contrast to the original proposition...
  
  . The juxtaposition of contrasting ideas in balanced or parallel words, phrases, or grammatical structures; the second stage of the dialectic process.

• Aphaeresis. The omission of a syllable from the beginning of a word.

• Apocope
  Apocope
  In phonology, apocope is the loss of one or more sounds from the end of a word, and especially the loss of an unstressed vowel.-Historical sound change:...
  
  . The omission of the last letter or syllable of a word.

• Apophasis
  Apophasis
  Apophasis refers, in general, to "mention by not mentioning". Apophasis covers a wide variety of figures of speech.-Apophasis:...
  
   / Apophesis. Pretending to deny something as a means of implicitly affirming it. Mentioning something by saying that you won't mention it.

• Aporia
  Aporia
  Aporia denotes, in philosophy, a philosophical puzzle or state of puzzlement, and, in rhetoric, a rhetorically useful expression of doubt.-Definitions:...
  
  . An attempt to discredit an opposing viewpoint by casting doubt on it.

• Aposiopesis
  Aposiopesis
  Aposiopesis is a figure of speech wherein a sentence is deliberately broken off and left unfinished, the ending to be supplied by the imagination, giving an impression of unwillingness or inability to continue. An example would be the threat "Get out, or else—!" This device often portrays its...
  
  . An abrupt stop in the middle of a sentence; used by a speaker to convey unwillingness or inability to complete a thought or statement.

• Apostrophe
  Apostrophe (figure of speech)
  Apostrophe is an exclamatory rhetorical figure of speech, when a speaker or writer breaks off and directs speech to an imaginary person or abstract quality or idea...
  
  . From Greek , a figure of speech consisting of a sudden turn in a text towards an exclamatory address to an imaginary person or a thing.

• Appeals
  Appeal (disambiguation)
  -Law:* Appeal – in law an appeal is a challenge of a judicial judgement to a higher authority, usually called an appellate court.** Appeal procedure before the European Patent Office** Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences, in the United States...
  
  . Rhetorical devices used to enhance the plausibility of one's argument; Aristotle's appeals included ethos
  Ethos
  Ethos is a Greek word meaning "character" that is used to describe the guiding beliefs or ideals that characterize a community, nation, or ideology. The Greeks also used this word to refer to the power of music to influence its hearer's emotions, behaviors, and even morals. Early Greek stories of...
  
  , logos
  Logos
  ' is an important term in philosophy, psychology, rhetoric and religion. Originally a word meaning "a ground", "a plea", "an opinion", "an expectation", "word," "speech," "account," "reason," it became a technical term in philosophy, beginning with Heraclitus ' is an important term in...
  
  , and pathos
  Pathos
  Pathos represents an appeal to the audience's emotions. Pathos is a communication technique used most often in rhetoric , and in literature, film and other narrative art....
  
  .

• Arete
  Arete (excellence)
  Arete , in its basic sense, means excellence of any kind. In its earliest appearance in Greek, this notion of excellence was ultimately bound up with the notion of the fulfillment of purpose or function: the act of living up to one's full potential...
  
  . Virtue, excellence of character, qualities that would be inherent in a "natural leader," a component of ethos.

• Argument
  Oral argument
  Oral arguments are spoken presentations to a judge or appellate court by a lawyer of the legal reasons why they should prevail. Oral argument at the appellate level accompanies written briefs, which also advance the argument of each party in the legal dispute...
  
  . Discourse characterized by reasons advanced to support conclusions.

• Argumentum ad baculum
  Argumentum ad baculum
  Argumentum ad baculum , also known as appeal to force, is an argument where force, coercion, or the threat of force, is given as a justification for a conclusion...
  
  . Settling a question by appealing to force.

• Argumentum ad hominem. Using what you know about your opponent's character as a basis for your argument.

• Arrangement
  Arrangement
  The American Federation of Musicians defines arranging as "the art of preparing and adapting an already written composition for presentation in other than its original form. An arrangement may include reharmonization, paraphrasing, and/or development of a composition, so that it fully represents...
  
  . See dispositio
  Dispositio
  See also: Disposition Dispositio is the system used for the organization of arguments in Western classical rhetoric. The word is Latin, and can be translated as "organization" or "arrangement."...
  
  .

• Ars arengandi. Teaching of forensic speaking during the Medieval rhetorical era.

• Ars dictaminis
  Ars dictaminis
  The ars dictaminis was the medieval description of the art of prose composition, and more specifically of the writing of letters . It is closely linked to the ars dictandi, covering the composition of documents other than letters. The standing assumption was that these writings would be composed in...
  
  . The art of writing letters, introduced and taught during the Medieval rhetorical era.

• Ars poetria. Medieval teaching of grammar and style through analysis of poetry.

• Ars praedicandi. The art of preaching based on rhetorical ideas and introduced during the Medieval rhetorical era during an increasing intersection between rhetoric and religion.

• Artistic proofs. Rhetorically-produced methods for persuasion. For Aristotle, three possibilities would be ethos
  Ethos
  Ethos is a Greek word meaning "character" that is used to describe the guiding beliefs or ideals that characterize a community, nation, or ideology. The Greeks also used this word to refer to the power of music to influence its hearer's emotions, behaviors, and even morals. Early Greek stories of...
  
  , pathos
  Pathos
  Pathos represents an appeal to the audience's emotions. Pathos is a communication technique used most often in rhetoric , and in literature, film and other narrative art....
  
  , and logos
  Logos
  ' is an important term in philosophy, psychology, rhetoric and religion. Originally a word meaning "a ground", "a plea", "an opinion", "an expectation", "word," "speech," "account," "reason," it became a technical term in philosophy, beginning with Heraclitus ' is an important term in...
  
  .

• Asyndeton
  Asyndeton
  Asyndeton is a stylistic scheme in which conjunctions are deliberately omitted from a series of related clauses. Examples are veni, vidi, vici and its English translation "I came, I saw, I conquered." Its use can have the effect of speeding up the rhythm of a passage and making a single idea more...
  
  . The deliberate omission of conjunctions
  Conjunctions
  Conjunctions, is a biannual American literary journal based at Bard College. It was founded in 1981 and is currently edited by Bradford Morrow....
  
   that would normally be used.

• Audience
  Audience
  An audience is a group of people who participate in a show or encounter a work of art, literature , theatre, music or academics in any medium...
  
  . Real, imagined, invoked, or ignored, this is a concept that seems to be at the very center of the intersections of composing and rhetoric.

• Aureation
  Aureation
  Aureation is a device in arts of rhetoric that involves the "gilding" of diction in one language by the introduction of terms from another, typically a classical language considered to be more prestigious. It can be seen as analogous to gothic schools of ornamentation in carving, painting or...
  
  . The use of Latinate and polysyllabic terms to "heighten" diction
  Diction
  Diction , in its original, primary meaning, refers to the writer's or the speaker's distinctive vocabulary choices and style of expression in a poem or story...
  
  

• Auxesis
  Auxesis (figure of speech)
  In rhetoric, auxesis is a form of hyperbole that intentionally overstates something or implies that it is greater in significance or size than it really is. Auxesis is the opposite of meiosis....
  
  . To place words or phrases in a certain order to obtain a climactic effect.

• Axioms. The point where scientific reasoning starts. Principles that are not questioned.

B

• Backing. Supporting an argument's merit.

• Barbarism. Use of a non-standard word, expression or pronunciation in a language, particularly one prescriptively regarded as an error in morphology.

• Bases. The issues at question in a judicial case.

• Bdelygmia. Expression of hatred or contempt.

• Belles lettres. Written works considered quality because they are pleasing to the senses.

• Belletristic Movement. Movement of rhetoric in the late 18th and early 19th centuries emphasizing stylistic considerations of rhetoric. It also expanded rhetoric into a study of literature and literary criticism and writing.

• Bomphiologia
  Bomphiologia
  Bomphiologia, also known as verborum bombus, is a rhetorical technique wherein the speaker brags excessively.__FORCETOC__-History:...
  
  . Bombastic speech: a rhetorical technique wherein the speaker brags excessively

• Brachylogia. Brevity of diction

• Brevitas. Concise expression

• Burden of proof
  Philosophic burden of proof
  The philosophic burden of proof is the obligation on a party in an epistemic dispute to provide sufficient warrant for their position.-Holder of the burden:When debating any issue, there is an implicit burden of proof on the person asserting a claim...
  
  . Theory of argument giving the obligation of proving a case to the challenging party.

C

• Canon. A term often used to discuss significant literary works in a specific field, used by Cicero to outline five significant parts of the rhetorical composition process.

• Captatio benevolentiae
  Captatio benevolentiae
  Captatio benevolentiæ is a Latin locution formed by the words capto and benevolentia on genitive case; so it generally means catch benevolence....
  
  . Any literary or oral device which seeks to secure the goodwill of the recipient or hearer, as in a letter or in a discussion.

• Catachresis
  Catachresis
  Catachresis is "misapplication of a word, especially in a mixed metaphor" according to the Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory...
  
  . The inexact use of a similar word in place of the proper one to create an unlikely metaphor. For example (from Rhetorica ad Herennium), "'The power of man is short'" or "'the long wisdom in the man.'"

• Charisma
  Charisma
  The term charisma has two senses: 1) compelling attractiveness or charm that can inspire devotion in others, 2) a divinely conferred power or talent. For some theological usages the term is rendered charism, with a meaning the same as sense 2...
  
  . An attribute that allows a speaker's words to become powerful.

• Chiasmus
  Chiasmus
  In rhetoric, chiasmus is the figure of speech in which two or more clauses are related to each other through a reversal of structures in order to make a larger point; that is, the clauses display inverted parallelism...
  
  . From the name of the Greek letter "", a figure of speech consisting of the contrasting of two structurally parallel syntactic phrases arranged "cross-wise", i.e. in such a way that the second is in reverse order from the first.

• Circa rem. Latin: The circumstances surrounding the act in one Roman topical system.

• Claim
  Logical assertion
  A logical assertion is a statement that asserts that a certain premise is true, and is useful for statements in proof. It is equivalent to a sequent with an empty antecedent....
  
  1. A primary point being made to support an argument. 2. Stephen Toulmin
  Stephen Toulmin
  Stephen Edelston Toulmin was a British philosopher, author, and educator. Influenced by Ludwig Wittgenstein, Toulmin devoted his works to the analysis of moral reasoning. Throughout his writings, he sought to develop practical arguments which can be used effectively in evaluating the ethics behind...
  
  : the resulting conclusion to an argument.

• Classicism
  Classicism
  Classicism, in the arts, refers generally to a high regard for classical antiquity, as setting standards for taste which the classicists seek to emulate. The art of classicism typically seeks to be formal and restrained: of the Discobolus Sir Kenneth Clark observed, "if we object to his restraint...
  
  . A revival in the interest of classical antiquity languages and texts.

• Climax
  Climax (figure of speech)
  In rhetoric, a climax is a figure of speech in which words, phrases, or clauses are arranged in order of increasing importance. It is sometimes used with anadiplosis, which uses the repetition of a word or phrase in successive clauses.Examples:*"There are three things that will endure: faith,...
  
  . Climax occurs when words or sentences are used to increase weight by mounting degrees in parallel construction.

• Colon
  Colon (rhetoric)
  A colon is a rhetorical figure consisting of a clause which is grammatically, but not logically, complete. In Latin, it is called a membrum or membrum orationis....
  
  . A colon (Greek κῶλον) is a rhetorical figure consisting of a clause which is grammatically, but not logically, complete.

• Common Topics. Arguments and approaches useful in rhetorical settings; koinoi topoi.

• Consubstantiality
  Consubstantiality
  Consubstantial is an adjective used in Latin Christian christology, coined by Tertullian in Against Hermogenes 44, used to translate the Greek term homoousios...
  
  . Substance commonality.

• Conclusio. Latin: A letter's conclusion.

• Confirmatio. Latin: The section of a judicial speech (in Roman rhetorical theory) that offers evidence supporting the claims given during the statement of facts.

• Confutatio. Latin: Counterargument in Roman rhetorical theory.

• Constraints
  Constraint (information theory)
  Constraint in information theory refers to the degree of statistical dependence between or among variables.Garner provides a thorough discussion of various forms of constraint with application to pattern recognition and psychology....
  
  . Referring to "persons, events, objects, and relations which are parts of the situation because they have the power to constrain decision and action needed to modify the exigence." Originally used by Lloyd Bitzer.

• Contingency. In rhetoric, it relates to the contextual circumstances that do not allow an issue to be settled with complete certainty.

• Context. The circumstances surrounding an issue that should be considered during its discussion.

• Conversio. Latin: Varrying sentence structure to discover its most agreeable form.

• Conversation model. The model, in critique of traditional rhetoric by Sally Gearhart, that maintains the goal of rhetoric is to persuade others to accept your own personal view as correct.

• Cookery. Plato believed rhetoric was to truth as cookery was to medicine. Cookery disguises itself as medicine and appears to be more pleasing, when in actuality it has no real benefit.

• Critical theory
  Critical theory
  Critical theory is an examination and critique of society and culture, drawing from knowledge across the social sciences and humanities. The term has two different meanings with different origins and histories: one originating in sociology and the other in literary criticism...
  
  . Systematically analyzing any means of communication for hidden assumptions and connotations.
• Concession
  Concession (politics)
  In politics, a concession is the act of a losing candidate publicly yielding to a winning candidate after an election, when the overall result of the vote has become clear.-Refusal to concede:...
  
  . Acknowledgment of objections to a proposal

D

• Data
  Data
  The term data refers to qualitative or quantitative attributes of a variable or set of variables. Data are typically the results of measurements and can be the basis of graphs, images, or observations of a set of variables. Data are often viewed as the lowest level of abstraction from which...
  
  . Stephen Toulmin
  Stephen Toulmin
  Stephen Edelston Toulmin was a British philosopher, author, and educator. Influenced by Ludwig Wittgenstein, Toulmin devoted his works to the analysis of moral reasoning. Throughout his writings, he sought to develop practical arguments which can be used effectively in evaluating the ethics behind...
  
  . Initial evidence supporting a claim.

• Deconstruction
  Deconstruction
  Deconstruction is a term introduced by French philosopher Jacques Derrida in his 1967 book Of Grammatology. Although he carefully avoided defining the term directly, he sought to apply Martin Heidegger's concept of Destruktion or Abbau, to textual reading...
  
  . Analyzing communication artifacts by scrutinizing their meaningand related assumptions, with the goal of determining the social and systemic connotations behind their structure.

• Deduction
  Deductive reasoning
  Deductive reasoning, also called deductive logic, is reasoning which constructs or evaluates deductive arguments. Deductive arguments are attempts to show that a conclusion necessarily follows from a set of premises or hypothesis...
  
  . Moving from an overall hypothesis to infer something specific about that hypothesis.

• Delectare, To delight; viewed by Cicero as one of the three goals of rhetoric.

• Delivery. Canon #5 in Cicero's list of rhetorical canons; traditionally linked to oral rhetoric, refers to how a speech is given (including tone of voice and nonverbal gestures, among others).

Demos

Demos

Demos may refer to:* Demos, a rhetorical term for the population of an ancient Greek state** Deme or Demoi, the term for an ancient subdivision of Attica, Greece...

. The population of an ancient Greek state, considered a political entity; population; the common people.

• Dialectic
  Dialectic
  Dialectic is a method of argument for resolving disagreement that has been central to Indic and European philosophy since antiquity. The word dialectic originated in Ancient Greece, and was made popular by Plato in the Socratic dialogues...
  
  . A rhetorical term that has been defined differently by Aristotle and Ramus, among others; generally, it means using verbal communication between people to discuss topics in order to come to an agreement about them.

• Diallage. Establishing a single point with the use of several arguments.

• Dictamen. The art of writing letters.

• Dispositio
  Dispositio
  See also: Disposition Dispositio is the system used for the organization of arguments in Western classical rhetoric. The word is Latin, and can be translated as "organization" or "arrangement."...
  
  . In the classical theory of the production of speech Pronuntiatio
  Pronuntiatio
  Pronuntiatio was the discipline of delivering speeches in Western classical rhetoric. It is the one of five canons of classical rhetoric that concern the crafting and delivery of speeches. In literature the equivalent of ancient pronuntiatio is the recitation of epics Pronuntiatio was the...
  
  dispositio refers to the stage of planning the structure and sequence of ideas. Often referred to as arrangement, the second of Cicero's five rhetorical canons.

• Dissoi Logoi
  Dissoi Logoi
  Dissoi Logoi is a rhetorical exercise dating back at least to the 3rd century AD of arguing a topic from both sides...
  
  . Contradictory arguments.

• Distribution. Dividing a whole subject into its various parts.

• Divisio. To divide into categories or classes.

• Docere. To teach; viewed by Cicero as one of the three goals of rhetoric.

• Dramatistic. Kenneth Burke. Way to look at the nature of language stressing on language as an action. ex. uses expressions such as 'thou shalt' and 'thou shalt not."

• Dysphemism
  Dysphemism
  In language, dysphemism, malphemism, and cacophemism refer to the usage of an intentionally harsh, rather than polite, word or expression; roughly the opposite of euphemism...
  
  . A term with negative associations for something in reality fairly innocuous or inoffensive.

E

• Ecphonesis
  Ecphonesis
  An ecphonesis is an emotional, exclamatory phrase used in poetry, drama, or song. It is a rhetorical device that originated in ancient literature...
  
  . A sentence consisting of a single word or short phrase ending with an exclamation point.

• Ellipse. The suppression of ancillary words to render an expression more lively or more forceful.

• Elocutio
  Elocutio
  Elocutio is the term for the mastery of stylistic elements in Western classical rhetoric and comes from the Latin loqui, "to speak". Although today we associate the word elocution more with eloquent speaking, for the classical rhetorician it connoted "style".It is the third of the five canons of...
  
  . In the classical theory of the production of a speech (Pronuntiatio
  Pronuntiatio
  Pronuntiatio was the discipline of delivering speeches in Western classical rhetoric. It is the one of five canons of classical rhetoric that concern the crafting and delivery of speeches. In literature the equivalent of ancient pronuntiatio is the recitation of epics Pronuntiatio was the...
  
  ), elocution refers to the stage of elaborating the wording of a text, using correct grammar and diction.

• Enallage
  Enallage
  Enallage is a term used to mean the substitution of one grammatical form for another one.-Pluralization:Enallage can be used poetically to emphasize the subject of a sentence. This can be done in many ways. For instance, the number of a pronoun can be altered to stress the responsibility of the...
  
  . The switching of grammatical forms for an expressive purpose.

• Enthymeme
  Enthymeme
  An enthymeme , in its modern sense, is an informally stated syllogism with an unstated assumption that must be true for the premises to lead to the conclusion. In an enthymeme, part of the argument is missing because it is assumed...
  
  . A type of argument that is grounded in assumed commonalities between a rhetor and the audience. (For example: Claim 1: Bob is a person. Therefore, Claim 3: Bob is mortal. The assumption (unstated Claim 2) is that People are mortal). In Aristotelian rhetoric, an enthymeme is known as a "rhetorical syllogism:" it mirrors the form of a syllogism, but it is based on opinion rather than fact (For example: Claim 1: These clothes are tacky. Claim 2: I am wearing these clothes. Claim 3: Therefore, I am unfashionable).

• Enumeratio
  Enumeratio
  Enumeratio is the figure of amplification in which a subject is divided, detailing parts, causes, effects, or consequences to make a point more forcibly....
  
  . Making a point more forcibly by listing detailed causes or effects; to enumerate: count off or list one by one.

• Epanalepsis
  Epanalepsis
  The epanalepsis is a figure of speech defined by the repetition of the initial word of a clause or sentence at the end of that same clause or sentence. The beginning and the end are the two positions of stronger emphasis in a sentence; so, by having the same phrase in both places, the speaker...
  
  . A figure of speech in which the same word or phrase appears both at the beginning and at the end of a clause.

• Epanaphora. In rhetoric, repeating the same word or phrase at the beginning of successive phrases for emphasis. For example (from Rhetorica ad Herennium), "'To you must go the credit for this, to you are thanks due, to you will this act of yours bring glory.'"

• Epideictic
  Epideictic
  The Epideictic oratory, also called ceremonial oratory, or praise-and-blame rhetoric, is one of the three branches, or "species" , of rhetoric as outlined in Aristotle's Rhetoric, to be used to praise or blame during ceremonies....
  
  . Ceremonial rhetoric, such as might be found in a funeral or victory speech.

• Epiphora
  Epistrophe
  Epistrophe , also known as epiphora , is a figure of speech and the counterpart of anaphora. It is the repetition of the same word or words at the end of successive phrases, clauses or sentences...
  
  . The repetition of a phrase or word at the end of several sentences or clauses. Also see anaphora.

• Epistemology. Philosophical study directed at understanding how people gain knowledge.

• Epistrophe
  Epistrophe
  Epistrophe , also known as epiphora , is a figure of speech and the counterpart of anaphora. It is the repetition of the same word or words at the end of successive phrases, clauses or sentences...
  
  . A succession of clauses, phrases or sentences that all end with the same word or group of words.

• Epithet
  Epithet
  An epithet or byname is a descriptive term accompanying or occurring in place of a name and having entered common usage. It has various shades of meaning when applied to seemingly real or fictitious people, divinities, objects, and binomial nomenclature. It is also a descriptive title...
  
  . A term used as a descriptive and qualifying substitute for the name of a person, place or thing.

• Epizeuxis
  Epizeuxis
  In rhetoric, an epizeuxis is the repetition of words in immediate succession, for vehemence or emphasis.Examples:* "O horror, horror, horror." * "Words, words, words." * "Rain, rain, rain, rain, rain."...
  
  . Emphasizing an idea using one word repetition.

• Eristic
  Eristic
  Eristic, from the ancient Greek word Eris meaning wrangle or strife, often refers to a type of argument where the participants fight and quarrel without any reasonable goal....
  
  . Communicating with the aim of winning the argument regardless of truth. The idea is not necessarily to lie, but to present the communication so cleverly that the audience is persuaded by the power of the presentation.

• Erotema. The so-called 'Rhetorical Question', where a question is asked to which an answer is not expected.

• Ethos
  Ethos
  Ethos is a Greek word meaning "character" that is used to describe the guiding beliefs or ideals that characterize a community, nation, or ideology. The Greeks also used this word to refer to the power of music to influence its hearer's emotions, behaviors, and even morals. Early Greek stories of...
  
  . A rhetorical appeal to an audience based on the speaker/writer's credibility.

• Ethopoeia. The act of putting oneself into the character of another to convey that persons feelings and thoughts more vividly.

• Euphemism
  Euphemism
  A euphemism is the substitution of a mild, inoffensive, relatively uncontroversial phrase for another more frank expression that might offend or otherwise suggest something unpleasant to the audience...
  
  . An innocuous, inoffensive or circumlocutory term or phrase for something unpleasant or obscene. E.g. :

• Evidence
  Evidence
  Evidence in its broadest sense includes everything that is used to determine or demonstrate the truth of an assertion. Giving or procuring evidence is the process of using those things that are either presumed to be true, or were themselves proven via evidence, to demonstrate an assertion's truth...
  
  . In rhetoric, facts or testimony used to strengthen a claim.

• Exemplum
  Exemplum
  An exemplum is a moral anecdote, brief or extended, real or fictitious, used to illustrate a point.-Exemplary literature:...
  
  . The citation of an example, either truthful or fictitious.

• Exigence. A rhetorical call to action; a situation that compels someone to speak out.

• Exordium
  Exordium (rhetoric)
  In Western classical rhetoric, the exordium was the introductory portion of an oration. The term is Latin and the Greek equivalent was called the Proem or Prooimion....
  
  . The introductory (Lat: exordium, beginning) portion of an oration
• Expression
  Emotional expression
  In psychology, emotional expression is observable verbal and nonverbal behaviour that communicates emotion. Emotional expression can occur with or without self-awareness...
  
  . applying the correct language to an argument.

F

• Fable
  Fable
  A fable is a succinct fictional story, in prose or verse, that features animals, mythical creatures, plants, inanimate objects or forces of nature which are anthropomorphized , and that illustrates a moral lesson , which may at the end be expressed explicitly in a pithy maxim.A fable differs from...
  
  . A short allegorical story.

• Facetiae. Latin, humor or wit
• Facilitas . The improvising of effective oral or written language to suit any situation.
• Faculty psychology
  Faculty psychology
  Faculty psychology views the mind as a collection of separate modules or faculties assigned to various mental tasks. The view is explicit in the psychological writings of the medieval scholastic Theologians, such as Thomas Aquinas....
  
  . 18th century, the mind contains faculties that include understanding, imagination, passion, and will.
• False consciousness. Jurgen Habermas, a distorted view of reality, people, and the world.
• Feminist Rhetoric. Rhetorical theory concerned with feminism and its critique of social structures.
• Fictio. The attribution of rational traits to non-rational creatures.
• Field-dependent. Stephen Toulmin's
  Stephen Toulmin
  Stephen Edelston Toulmin was a British philosopher, author, and educator. Influenced by Ludwig Wittgenstein, Toulmin devoted his works to the analysis of moral reasoning. Throughout his writings, he sought to develop practical arguments which can be used effectively in evaluating the ethics behind...
  
   term, standards for assessing arguments that are specific to a certain field.
• Field-invariant. Stephen Toulmin's
  Stephen Toulmin
  Stephen Edelston Toulmin was a British philosopher, author, and educator. Influenced by Ludwig Wittgenstein, Toulmin devoted his works to the analysis of moral reasoning. Throughout his writings, he sought to develop practical arguments which can be used effectively in evaluating the ethics behind...
  
   term, standards for assessing arguments that are not determined by the particular field.

• Figure. Unusual arrangement of language that tries to achieve unique meaning for ideas.
• Forensic Oratory. speaking in a courtroom.

G

• Gens
  Gens
  In ancient Rome, a gens , plural gentes, referred to a family, consisting of all those individuals who shared the same nomen and claimed descent from a common ancestor. A branch of a gens was called a stirps . The gens was an important social structure at Rome and throughout Italy during the...
  
  . Latin, an influential group of families
• Genera
  Genus
  In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...
  
  . (Plural of genus) Classification by race, kind, or possession of similarities; descriptive of different types of oratory.

• Graecismus. The use of Greek idiom.

H

• Hendiadys
  Hendiadys
  Hendiadys is a figure of speech used for emphasis — "The substitution of a conjunction for a subordination". The basic idea is to use two words linked by a conjunction to express a single complex idea....
  
  . Using two nouns linked by a conjunction to express a single complex idea.

• Hermeneutics. The theoretical underpinnings of interpreting texts, usually religious or literary.

• Heteroglossia
  Heteroglossia
  The term heteroglossia describes the coexistence of distinct varieties within a single "linguistic code". In Greek hetero = different + glōssa = tongue, language...
  
  . The many prolific languages of any culture.

• Heuristics. Determining or applying the proper methods for investigation.

• Homiologia. A tedious style or redundancy of style.

• Homoioteleuton. From the Greek ομοιοτέλευτο (homios, "like" and teleute, "ending"). A figure of speech where adjacent or parallel words have similar endings.

• Horismus. A brief and often antithetical definition.

• Hypallage
  Hypallage
  Hypallage is a literary device that is the reversal of the syntactic relation of two words .One kind of hypallage, also known as a transferred epithet, is the trope or rhetorical device in which a modifier, usually an adjective, is applied to the "wrong" word in the sentence...
  
  . A literary device that reverses the syntactic relation of two words (as in "her beauty's face").

• Hyperbaton
  Hyperbaton
  Hyperbaton is a figure of speech in which words that naturally belong together are separated from each other for emphasis or effect. This kind of unnatural or rhetorical separation is possible to a much greater degree in highly inflected languages, where sentence meaning does not depend closely...
  
  . A figure of speech
  Figure of speech
  A figure of speech is the use of a word or words diverging from its usual meaning. It can also be a special repetition, arrangement or omission of words with literal meaning, or a phrase with a specialized meaning not based on the literal meaning of the words in it, as in idiom, metaphor, simile,...
  
   in which words that naturally belong together are separated from each other for emphasis or effect.

• Hyperbole
  Hyperbole
  Hyperbole is the use of exaggeration as a rhetorical device or figure of speech. It may be used to evoke strong feelings or to create a strong impression, but is not meant to be taken literally....
  
  . A figure of speech where emphasis is achieved through exaggeration, independently or through comparison. For example (from Rhetorica ad Herennium), "'His body was as white as snow, his face burned like fire.'"

• Hypophora
  Hypophora
  Hypophora, also referred to as anthypophora or antipophora, is a figure of speech in which the speaker poses a question and then answers the question.-History:...
  
  . When a speaker asks aloud what his/her adversaries have to say for themselves or against the speaker, and then proceeds to answer the question. For example (from Rhetorica ad Herennium), "'When he reminded you of your old friendship, were you moved? No, you killed him nevertheless, and with even greater eagerness. And then when his children grovelled at your feet, were you moved to pity? No, in your extreme cruelty you even prevented their father's burial.'"

• Hypothesis
  Hypothesis
  A hypothesis is a proposed explanation for a phenomenon. The term derives from the Greek, ὑποτιθέναι – hypotithenai meaning "to put under" or "to suppose". For a hypothesis to be put forward as a scientific hypothesis, the scientific method requires that one can test it...
  
  . An educated guess.

• Hypsos. Great or worthy writing, sometimes called sublime. Longinus's theme in On the Sublime.

• Hypozeuxis. A sentence in which every clause has its own subject and verb.

• Hysteron proteron
  Hysteron proteron
  The hysteron proteron is a rhetorical device in which the first key word of the idea refers to something that happens temporally later than the second key word...
  
  . A rhetorical device in which the first key word of the idea refers to something that happens temporally later than the second key word. The goal is to call attention to the more important idea by placing it first.

I

• Icon
  Icon
  An icon is a religious work of art, most commonly a painting, from Eastern Christianity and in certain Eastern Catholic churches...
  
  . Using imagery to create resemblance.
• Identification
  Identification (information)
  The function of identification is to map a known quantity to an unknown entity so as to make it known. The known quantity is called the identifier and the unknown entity is what needs identification. A basic requirement for identification is that the Id be unique. Ids may be scoped, that is, they...
  
  . Connecting with a larger group through a shared interpretation or understanding of a larger concept; Kenneth Burke
  Kenneth Burke
  Kenneth Duva Burke was a major American literary theorist and philosopher. Burke's primary interests were in rhetoric and aesthetics.-Personal history:...
  
   was one of the first people to use the term in this way.

• Ideology
  Ideology
  An ideology is a set of ideas that constitutes one's goals, expectations, and actions. An ideology can be thought of as a comprehensive vision, as a way of looking at things , as in common sense and several philosophical tendencies , or a set of ideas proposed by the dominant class of a society to...
  
  . A way of understanding one's external surroundings.

• Ignoratio elenchi
  Ignoratio elenchi
  Ignoratio elenchi is the informal fallacy of presenting an argument that may in itself be valid, but does not address the issue in question...
  
  . A conclusion that is irrelevant.

• Imitatio. Latin, imitation.

• Inartistic proofs. Discovered information stemming from the raw data of experience.

• Indefinite questions. In Quintlian, questions that are discussed without referring to anything specifically.

• Indignatio. To arouse indignation in the audience.

• Induction. Rhetorical method for coming to general conclusions through specific examples.

• Ingenium. Latin, In Vico- the ability to understand similarities and relationships that is innate in all humans.

• In re
  In re
  In re, Latin for "in the matter [of]", is a term with several different, but related meanings.In correspondence, the phrase in re: refers to the subject of a letter, memorandum, or electronic mail message...
  
  . Latin, arguments concerned with what actually happened.

• Institutio Oratoria . Educational and rhetorical principles as described and prescribed in treatise by Quintillian.

• Insultatio. Abusing a person to his/her face by using irony and derisive language.

• Interlacement. Combining the figures Antistrophe
  Antistrophe
  Antistrophe is the portion of an ode sung by the chorus in its returning movement from west to east, in response to the strophe, which was sung from east to west.It has the nature of a reply and balances the effect of the strophe...
  
   and Epanaphora for rhetorical style and emphasis. For example (from Rhetorica ad Herennium), "'Who are they who have often broken treaties? The Carthaginians. Who are they who have waged ware with severest cruelty? The Carthaginians.'"

• Intersubjective agreements. agreements on the fair conduct of an argument among individuals participating in dialogue.

• Invention
  Invention
  An invention is a novel composition, device, or process. An invention may be derived from a pre-existing model or idea, or it could be independently conceived, in which case it may be a radical breakthrough. In addition, there is cultural invention, which is an innovative set of useful social...
  
  . Described by Cicero as the process of determining "valid or seemingly valid arguments;" the first of his five rhetorical canons.

• Invitational rhetoric. (Foss and Griffin) rhetoric that is not intended to persuade.

• Ioci. Jokes, see Cicero's De Oratore and his theory of humor.

• Irony
  Irony
  Irony is a rhetorical device, literary technique, or situation in which there is a sharp incongruity or discordance that goes beyond the simple and evident intention of words or actions...
  
  . A deliberate contrast between indirect and direct meaning to draw attention to the opposite.

• Isocolon
  Isocolon
  Isocolon is a figure of speech in which parallelism is reinforced by members that are of the same length. A well-known example of this is Julius Caesar's "Veni, vidi, vici" , which also illustrates that a common form of isocolon is tricolon, or the use of three parallel members.It is derived from...
  
  . A string of phrases of corresponding structure and equal length.

• Issues of definition. Things related to naming an act.

• Issues of fact. Issues related to an act's occurrence.

• Issues of quality. Issues related to the seriousness of an act.

J

• Jargon
  Jargon
  Jargon is terminology which is especially defined in relationship to a specific activity, profession, group, or event. The philosophe Condillac observed in 1782 that "Every science requires a special language because every science has its own ideas." As a rationalist member of the Enlightenment he...
  
  . Highly technical language used by specific group.
• Judicial. Type of oratory used to attack or defend someone in a court of law.

K

• Kairos
  Kairos
  Kairos is an ancient Greek word meaning the right or opportune moment . The ancient Greeks had two words for time, chronos and kairos. While the former refers to chronological or sequential time, the latter signifies a time in between, a moment of indeterminate time in which something special...
  
  . From the Greek word καιρος. Generally means, "timing" or "the right circumstances."
• Kategoria. Greek for Accusation.

• Koinoi topoi. Common topics; in a rhetoric situation, useful arguments and strategies.

• Koinonia
  Koinonia
  Koinonia is the anglicisation of a Greek word that means communion by intimate participation. The word is used frequently in the New Testament of the Bible to describe the relationship within the Early Christian church as well as the act of breaking bread in the manner which Christ prescribed...
  
  . To consult with your opponent or judge.

• Kolakeia. Flattery; telling people what they want to hear while disregarding their best interests; employed by sophistic rhetoricians.

L

• Latinitas. Stylistic feature involving the proper use of language.

• Lexis
  Lexis (linguistics)
  In linguistics, a lexis is the total word-stock or lexicon having items of lexical, rather than grammatical, meaning. This notion contrasts starkly with the Chomskian proposition of a “Universal Grammar” as the prime mover for language...
  
  . Style.

• Literae humanae. Academic disciplines that are known as the liberal arts: languages, philosophy, history, literature, music, art and certain abstract sciences.

• Litotes
  Litotes
  In rhetoric, litotes is a figure of speech in which understatement is employed for rhetorical effect when an idea is expressed by a denial of its opposite, principally via double negatives....
  
  . Stating a positive by negating the negative — a form of understatement. ("I am not unaware of your difficulties.")

• Localism
  Localism (politics)
  Localism describes a range of political philosophies which prioritize the local. Generally, localism supports local production and consumption of goods, local control of government, and promotion of local history, local culture and local identity...
  
  . A word, phrase, or custom particular to one's location.

• Loci communes
  Loci Communes
  Loci Communes or Loci communes rerum theologicarum seu hypotyposes theologicae was a work by the Lutheran theologian Philipp Melancthon published in 1521...
  
  . Types of arguments. Quintillian trained orators to learn intellectual habits to access the arguments quickly.

• Locution
  Locution
  * Locution - a figure of speech - a use of a word that diverges from its usual meaning, or a phrase with a specialized meaning not based on the literal meaning of the words in it such as a metaphor, simile, or personification...
  
  . Refers to the utterance of a statement.

• Logical Fallacy
  Fallacy
  In logic and rhetoric, a fallacy is usually an incorrect argumentation in reasoning resulting in a misconception or presumption. By accident or design, fallacies may exploit emotional triggers in the listener or interlocutor , or take advantage of social relationships between people...
  
  . Misconceptions resulting from faulty reasoning.
• Logical positivism
  Logical positivism
  Logical positivism is a philosophy that combines empiricism—the idea that observational evidence is indispensable for knowledge—with a version of rationalism incorporating mathematical and logico-linguistic constructs and deductions of epistemology.It may be considered as a type of analytic...
  
  . The effort to make scientific standards applicable for resolving all issues.

• Logical Proof. Arguments used to persuade audience. Reasoned.

• Logos
  Logos
  ' is an important term in philosophy, psychology, rhetoric and religion. Originally a word meaning "a ground", "a plea", "an opinion", "an expectation", "word," "speech," "account," "reason," it became a technical term in philosophy, beginning with Heraclitus ' is an important term in...
  
  . Rhetorical appeals based on logic or reasoning.

• Logology
  Logology
  Logology is the study of recreational linguistics, an activity that encompasses a wide variety of word games and wordplay emphasizing letter patterns...
  
  . Kenneth Burke. Study of the specific theological terms used. Not to find the truth or falseness of the statement, but why that particular word was chosen.

M

• Major premise. Statement in a syllogism
  Syllogism
  A syllogism is a kind of logical argument in which one proposition is inferred from two or more others of a certain form...
  
  . Generalization.

• Magnanimity
  Magnanimity
  Magnanimity is the virtue of being great of mind and heart. It encompasses, usually, a refusal to be petty, a willingness to face danger, and actions for noble purposes. Its antithesis is pusillanimity...
  
  . Doing good to others, "its opposite is meanness of spirit" (from Aristotle's Rhetoric).

• Material fallacy. False notion concerning the subject matter of an argument.

• Maxim. "A saying drawn from life, which shows concisely either what happens or ought to happen in life, for example: 'Every beginning is difficult.'" (from Rhetorica ad Herennium)

• Memory
  Memory
  In psychology, memory is an organism's ability to store, retain, and recall information and experiences. Traditional studies of memory began in the fields of philosophy, including techniques of artificially enhancing memory....
  
  . Described by Cicero as the "firm mental grasp of matter and words;" the fourth of his five rhetorical canons.

• Metanarrative
  Metanarrative
  A metanarrative , in critical theory and particularly postmodernism, is an abstract idea that is thought to be a comprehensive explanation of historical experience or knowledge. According to John Stephens, it "is a global or totalizing cultural narrative schema which orders and explains knowledge...
  
  . Universal theories positing to know all aspects of humanity.

• Metaphor
  Metaphor
  A metaphor is a literary figure of speech that uses an image, story or tangible thing to represent a less tangible thing or some intangible quality or idea; e.g., "Her eyes were glistening jewels." Metaphor may also be used for any rhetorical figures of speech that achieve their effects via...
  
  . A figure of speech where a word that normally applies to one thing is used to designate another for the sake of creating a mental picture. For example (from Rhetorica ad Herennium), "'...he lightly breathed a favoring breath'".

• Metonymy
  Metonymy
  Metonymy is a figure of speech used in rhetoric in which a thing or concept is not called by its own name, but by the name of something intimately associated with that thing or concept...
  
  . A figure of speech which substitutes one word or phrase for another with which it is closely associated. For example (from Rhetorica ad Herennium), "one should say 'wine' for 'Liber', 'wheat' for 'Ceres'." In UK, people speak of "Crown property" meaning property belonging to the Sovereign. Similarly: "The White House had no comment to make." (= the President's representatives)

• Metron
  Metron
  Metron can refer to:* Metron , a genus of butterflies in the grass skipper family* Metron , a character created by Jack Kirby for his Fourth World series in DC Comics...
  
  . Greek, measure.

• Minor premise. Statement in an argument.

• Modus inveniendi. Latin, in St Augustine, material used to understand the scriptures.

• Modus proferendi. Latin, in St. Augustine, expressing ideas found within the scriptures.

• Moral reasoning
  Moral reasoning
  Moral reasoning is a study in psychology that overlaps with moral philosophy. It is also called moral development. Prominent contributors to theory include Lawrence Kohlberg and Elliot Turiel. The term is sometimes used in a different sense: reasoning under conditions of uncertainty, such as...
  
  . Reasoning employed in rhetoric that determines a conclusion based on evidence. Used in issues of ethics, religion, economics, and politics.

• Motive
  Motivation
  Motivation is the driving force by which humans achieve their goals. Motivation is said to be intrinsic or extrinsic. The term is generally used for humans but it can also be used to describe the causes for animal behavior as well. This article refers to human motivation...
  
  . Something that plays a role in one's decision to act.

• Movere
  Movere
  The Mové, also called Movere, Western Guaymi, or Ngäbere, are a Chibchan speaking people in Panama and Costa Rica . This tribe, like the Murire , is a division of the Guaymi. They are further subdivided into the Valiente.The Mové live in a tropical forest , also gather wild plants...
  
  . To persuade; viewed by Cicero as one of the three goals of rhetoric.

N

• Narratio. A presentation of essential facts in a judicial speech.
• Narration. Story telling, involving the elements of time, place, actor, action, cause and manner.
• Necessary Cause. Cause without which effect couldn't/wouldn't have occurred.
• Negatio. To negate or deny.
• Neoplatonism
  Neoplatonism
  Neoplatonism , is the modern term for a school of religious and mystical philosophy that took shape in the 3rd century AD, based on the teachings of Plato and earlier Platonists, with its earliest contributor believed to be Plotinus, and his teacher Ammonius Saccas...
  
  . School of thought emanating from the works of Plato and Aristotle in early BCE Rome.
• Noema
  Noema
  Noema derives from the Greek word νόημα meaning thought or what is thought about. Edmund Husserl used noema as a technical term in Phenomenology to stand for the object or content of a thought, judgment or perception, but its precise meaning in his work has remained a matter of...
  
  . Speech that is deliberately subtle or obscure.
• Nomos
  Nomos (mythology)
  In Greek mythology, Nomos is the daemon of laws, statutes, and ordinances. By one account, Nomos' wife is Eusebia , and their daughter is Dike ....
  
  . Greek, a social custom or convention.
• Non Sequitur
  Non sequitur (logic)
  Non sequitur , in formal logic, is an argument in which its conclusion does not follow from its premises. In a non sequitur, the conclusion could be either true or false, but the argument is fallacious because there is a disconnection between the premise and the conclusion. All formal fallacies...
  
  . A statement bearing no relationship to the preceding context.
• Notaries. Secretaries trained in rhetoric for dealing with the agreements that were needed for commercial cities in Italy to function.

O

• Oictos. To show pity or compassion.

• Ominatio. A prophecy of evil.

• Onomatopoeia. Words that imitate the sounds, objects, or actions they refer to. (ex. "buzz", "hullabaloo," "bling")

• Opening
  Opening statement
  An opening statement is generally the first occasion that the trier of fact has to hear from a lawyer in a trial, aside possibly from questioning during voir dire. The opening statement is generally constructed to serve as a "road map" for the fact-finder...
  
  . First part of discourse. Should gain audiences' attention.

• Optatio. A wish exclaimed.

• Orcos. An oath.

• Oxymoron
  Oxymoron
  An oxymoron is a figure of speech that combines contradictory terms...
  
  . A condensed paradox.

P

• Parachesis
  Parachesis
  In rhetoric, parachesis is the repetition of the same sound in several words in close succession. Alliteration is a special case of parachesis....
  
  . Repetition of the same sound in several words in close succession. Alliteration (initial rhyme) is a special case of parachesis.

• Paradeigma. Greek, argument created by a list of examples that leads to a probable generalized idea.

• Paradiastole
  Paradiastole
  Paradiastole is the use of euphemism to soften the force of naming a vice or a virtue. It is often used ironically...
  
  . Greek, redescription - usually in a better light.

• Paralipsis. When a rhetor refuses to continue with their current discussion, or passes over the rest of the conversation, or admits that they do not know what else to say. For example, (from Rhetorica ad Herennium), "'Your boyhood, indeed, which you dedicated to intemperance of all kinds, I would discuss, if I thought this the right time. But at the present I advisedly leave that aside. This too I pass by, that the tribunes have reported you as irregular in military service.'"

• Parallel Syntax. repetition of similar sentence structures.

• Parisosis
  Parisosis
  In rhetoric, parisosis occurs when clauses have very similar lengths, as measured by syllables. It is sometimes taken as equivalent to isocolon.An example of parisosis is: I came, I saw, I won....
  
  . When clauses have very similar lengths, as measured by syllables; sometimes taken as equivalent to isocolon
  Isocolon
  Isocolon is a figure of speech in which parallelism is reinforced by members that are of the same length. A well-known example of this is Julius Caesar's "Veni, vidi, vici" , which also illustrates that a common form of isocolon is tricolon, or the use of three parallel members.It is derived from...
  
  .

• Paromoiosis
  Paromoiosis
  In rhetoric, paromoiosis is parallelism of sound between the words of two clauses approximately equal in size. The similarity of sound can occur at the beginning of the clauses, at the end , in the middle or throughout the clauses.For example: "Open to gifts and open to words."...
  
  . Parallelism of sound between the words of two clauses approximately equal in size. The similarity of sound can occur at the beginning of the clauses, at the end (where it is equivalent to homoioteleuton), in the middle or throughout the clauses.

• Pathos
  Pathos
  Pathos represents an appeal to the audience's emotions. Pathos is a communication technique used most often in rhetoric , and in literature, film and other narrative art....
  
  . An emotional appeal that inadvertently evokes laughter or ridicule.

• Paronomasia
  Pun
  The pun, also called paronomasia, is a form of word play which suggests two or more meanings, by exploiting multiple meanings of words, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. These ambiguities can arise from the intentional use and abuse of homophonic,...
  
  . A play on words, often for humorous effect.

• Particular audience. In Perelman and Olbrechts-Tyteca, the actual audience the orator addresses.

• Pathos
  Pathos
  Pathos represents an appeal to the audience's emotions. Pathos is a communication technique used most often in rhetoric , and in literature, film and other narrative art....
  
  . Greek, the emotional appeal to an audience in an argument. One of Aristotle's three proofs.

• Perfectus orator. Latin, a complete orator.

• Periphrasis
  Periphrasis
  In linguistics, periphrasis is a device by which a grammatical category or grammatical relationship is expressed by a free morpheme , instead of being shown by inflection or derivation...
  
  . The substitution of many or several words where one would suffice; usually to avoid using that particular word.

• Peroratio. Latin, the last section of a judicial speech where the speaker is the strongest.

• Personification. A figure of speech that gives human characteristics to inanimate objects, or represents an absent person as being present. For example (from Rhetorica ad Herennium), "'But if this invincible city should now give utterance to her voice, would she not speak as follows?'"

• Petitio. Latin, in a letter, an announcement, demand, or request.

• Phallogocentrism
  Phallogocentrism
  In critical theory and deconstruction, phallogocentrism or phallocentrism is a neologism coined by Jacques Derrida to refer to the privileging of the masculine in the construction of meaning....
  
  . Examines the relationship between logos (reason) and the phallus (representative of male genitalia). Just as the phallus is implicitly and sometime explicitly assumed to be the only significant sexual organ, the masculine is the accepted as the central point of reference of validity and authority for a society.

• Phronesis
  Phronesis
  Phronēsis is an Ancient Greek word for wisdom or intelligence which is a common topic of discussion in philosophy. In Aristotelian Ethics, for example in the Nicomachean Ethics it is distinguished from other words for wisdom as the virtue of practical thought, and is usually translated "practical...
  
  . Greek, practical wisdom; common sense.

• Physis
  Physis
  Physis is a Greek theological, philosophical, and scientific term usually translated into English as "nature."In The Odyssey, Homer uses the word once , referring to the intrinsic way of growth of a particular species of plant. In the pre-Socratic philosophers it developed a complex of other...
  
  . Greek, nature.

• Pian
  Pian
  Pian may refer to:* Pian , a tropical infection of the skin, bones and joints* Pian Camuno, a commune in the province of Brescia, in Lombardy, Italy* Pian di Scò, a commune in the province of Arezzo, in Tuscany, Italy...
  
  . Ancient China, the art of disputing.

• Pistis
  Pistis
  In Greek mythology, Pistis was the personification of good faith, trust and reliability. She is mentioned together with such other personifications as Elpis , Sophrosyne , and the Charites, who were all associated with honesty and harmony among people.Her Roman equivalent was Fides, a personified...
  
  . Greek, belief.

• Plausibility. Rhetoric that is believable right away due to its association with something that the audience already knows or has experienced.

• Pleonasm
  Pleonasm
  Pleonasm is the use of more words or word-parts than is necessary for clear expression: examples are black darkness, or burning fire...
  
  . The use of more words than necessary to express an idea.

• Poetriae,Ars. Latin, poetry as an art.

• Polis
  Polis
  Polis , plural poleis , literally means city in Greek. It could also mean citizenship and body of citizens. In modern historiography "polis" is normally used to indicate the ancient Greek city-states, like Classical Athens and its contemporaries, so polis is often translated as "city-state."The...
  
  . Greek, the city-state, especially the people in the city-state.

• Polyphonic. Having multiple voices.

• Polyptoton
  Polyptoton
  Polyptoton is the stylistic scheme in which words derived from the same root are repeated . A related stylistic device is antanaclasis, in which the same word is repeated, but each time with a different sense....
  
  . The repetition of a word or root
  Root (linguistics)
  The root word is the primary lexical unit of a word, and of a word family , which carries the most significant aspects of semantic content and cannot be reduced into smaller constituents....
  
   in different cases or inflection
  Inflection
  In grammar, inflection or inflexion is the modification of a word to express different grammatical categories such as tense, grammatical mood, grammatical voice, aspect, person, number, gender and case...
  
  s within the same sentence.

• Polysyndeton
  Polysyndeton
  Polysyndeton is the use of several conjunctions in close succession, especially where some might be omitted . It is a stylistic scheme used to achieve a variety of effects: it can increase the rhythm of prose, speed or slow its pace, convey solemnity or even ecstasy and childlike exuberance...
  
  . The repeated use of conjunctions within a sentence, particularly where they do not necessarily have to be used.

• Portrayal. Describing a person clearly enough for recognition. For example (from Rhetorica ad Herennium), "'I mean him, men of the jury, the ruddy, short, bent man, with white and rather curly hair, blue-grey eyes, and a huge scar on his chin, if perhaps you can recall him to memory.'"

• Position
  Position
  Position may refer to:* Position , a player role within a team* Position , the orientation of a baby prior to birth* Position , a mathematical identification of relative location...
  
  . The stance taken by a rhetor that s/he is attempting to prove through argumentation.

• Positivism
  Positivism
  Positivism is a a view of scientific methods and a philosophical approach, theory, or system based on the view that, in the social as well as natural sciences, sensory experiences and their logical and mathematical treatment are together the exclusive source of all worthwhile information....
  
  . Term created by Auguste Comte
  Auguste Comte
  Isidore Auguste Marie François Xavier Comte , better known as Auguste Comte , was a French philosopher, a founder of the discipline of sociology and of the doctrine of positivism...
  
   that posits that science, math, or logic can prove any reasonable claim.

• Postmodernism
  Postmodernism
  Postmodernism is a philosophical movement evolved in reaction to modernism, the tendency in contemporary culture to accept only objective truth and to be inherently suspicious towards a global cultural narrative or meta-narrative. Postmodernist thought is an intentional departure from the...
  
  . Related to rhetoric, a field of inquiry concerned with the ideological underpinnings of commonly held assumptions.

• Praedicandi, Ars. Latin, Preaching.

• Praegnans constructio
  Praegnans constructio
  In rhetoric, praegnans constructio is a form of brachylogy in which two clauses or two expressions are condensed into one....
  
  . A form of brachylogy in which two clauses or two expressions are condensed into one.

• Pragmatism
  Pragmatism
  Pragmatism is a philosophical tradition centered on the linking of practice and theory. It describes a process where theory is extracted from practice, and applied back to practice to form what is called intelligent practice...
  
  . Approach based on practical consideration and immediate perception to the exclusion of moral (in the sense of 'should') and ethic arguments.

• Presence. In Perelman and Olbrechts-Tyteca, choosing to emphasize certain facts and ideas instead of others, leading the audience along that path.

• Presumption
  Presumption
  In the law of evidence, a presumption of a particular fact can be made without the aid of proof in some situations. The types of presumption includes a rebuttable discretionary presumption, a rebuttable mandatory presumption, and an irrebuttable or conclusive presumption. The invocation of a...
  
  . An idea is reasonable or acceptable only until it is sufficiently challenged.

• Prolepsis
  Prolepsis
  Prolepsis may refer to:* Flashforward, in storytelling, an interjected scene that takes the narrative forward* Prolepsis , 1975 work by Arrogance...
  
  . A literary device in which a future state is spoken of in the present; for example, a condemned man may be called a "dead man walking".

• Proof surrogate. An expression used to suggest that there is evidence or authority for a claim without actually citing such evidence or authority

• Pronuntiato. Latin: The delivery of an oration or an argument in a manner befitting the subject matter and style, while maintaining control of voice and body.

• Protreptic
  Protreptic
  Protreptic is a mode of classical rhetoric associated originally with the Sophists who used this style in speeches for recruiting students. The philosopher would achieve this end by discussing the fallacies and deficiencies of rival schools while extolling the virtues of his own...
  
  . Greek, the potential to persuade through language.

• Prudence
  Prudence
  Prudence is the ability to govern and discipline oneself by the use of reason. It is classically considered to be a virtue, and in particular one of the four Cardinal virtues .The word comes from Old French prudence , from Latin...
  
  . Judging practically.

• Psogos. Greek for blame.

• Psychagogos. Greek for a poet.

• Psyche
  Psyche (psychology)
  The word psyche has a long history of use in psychology and philosophy, dating back to ancient times, and has been one of the fundamental concepts for understanding human nature from a scientific point of view. The English word soul is sometimes used synonymously, especially in older...
  
  . Greek for the mind or soul.

• Public Sphere
  Public sphere
  The public sphere is an area in social life where individuals can come together to freely discuss and identify societal problems, and through that discussion influence political action...
  
  . Place where individuals can engage in discussion without the political or state interests interfering.

• Purpose. What are we trying to do with our uses of language?

Q

• Quadrivium
  Quadrivium
  The quadrivium comprised the four subjects, or arts, taught in medieval universities, after teaching the trivium. The word is Latin, meaning "the four ways" , and its use for the 4 subjects has been attributed to Boethius or Cassiodorus in the 6th century...
  
  . The major subjects taught in medieval times: geometry, arithmetic, astronomy, and music.
• Quaestiones
  Quaestiones
  In rhetorical theory, Quaestiones , is a term for debatable points around which disputes are centered.It is also is the title of numerous literary works, including in chronological order:...
  
  . Debatable points around which disputes are centered.

R

• Reasoning by Contraries. Where the first statement of two opposite statements directly proves the second. For example (from Rhetorica ad Herennium), "'Or how should you expect a person whose arrogance has been insufferable in private life, to be agreeable and not forget himself when in power...?'"

• Rebuttal
  Rebuttal
  In law, rebuttal is a form of evidence that is presented to contradict or nullify other evidence that has been presented by an adverse party. By analogy the same term is used in politics and public affairs to refer to the informal process by which statements, designed to refute or negate specific...
  
  . Stephen Toulmin's
  Stephen Toulmin
  Stephen Edelston Toulmin was a British philosopher, author, and educator. Influenced by Ludwig Wittgenstein, Toulmin devoted his works to the analysis of moral reasoning. Throughout his writings, he sought to develop practical arguments which can be used effectively in evaluating the ethics behind...
  
   term, conditions on the acceptability of a claim.

• Res
  Res (disambiguation)
  Res or RES may refer to:* Resistencia International Airport * RES , a bimonthly media lifestyle magazine** RESFest, a digital short film festival run by the magazine* Review of Economic Studies...
  
  . Latin: An argument's substance.

• Rhetor. A person who is in the course of presenting or preparing rhetorical discourse.

• Rhetores. (Greek) Those who make a living by speaking persuasively.

• Rhetoric
  Rhetoric
  Rhetoric is the art of discourse, an art that aims to improve the facility of speakers or writers who attempt to inform, persuade, or motivate particular audiences in specific situations. As a subject of formal study and a productive civic practice, rhetoric has played a central role in the Western...
  
  . The study and practice of good effective expression. Also a type of discourse- focusing on goals of the speech or piece of writing that attempts to sway the mind of the audience.

• Rhetorical Audience. Those who can be persuaded by rhetoric.

• Rhetorical discourse. Discourse created within the boundary of the principles of rhetoric.

• Rhetorical opposition. Protagoras's idea that there are two sides to everything.

• Rhetorical Situation
  Rhetorical Situation
  The Rhetorical Situation is the context of a rhetorical event that consists of an issue, an audience, and a set of constraints. Two leading views of the rhetorical situation exist today...
  
  . A term made popular by Lloyd Bitzer; describes the scenario that contains a speech act, including the considerations (purpose, audience, author/speaker, constraints to name a few) that play a role in how the act is produced and perceived by its audience. The counterargument regarding Bitzer's situation-rhetoric relationship was made by Richard E. Vatz in "The Myth of the Rhetorical Situation" and “The Mythical Status of Situational Rhetoric” in The Review of Communication, 2009. He argued for a salience-meaning (or now, agenda-framing-spin) model of persuasion, which emphasized rhetoric as a creative act with increased agent or persuader responsibility for the situation his or her rhetoric creates. He maintained this added to the importance of rhetorical study and that Bitzer's formulation was "anti-rhetorical."

• Rhetorical Theory. The organized presentation of the art or rhetoric, descriptions of the various functions of rhetoric, and clarifications of how rhetoric achieves its goals.

• Rhetoric of Fiction. Wayne Booth's idea "the author's judgement is always present" in a narrative.

S

• Salience/Agenda; Meaning/Spin. The basic components of all rhetorical struggles.

• Salon
  Salon (gathering)
  A salon is a gathering of people under the roof of an inspiring host, held partly to amuse one another and partly to refine taste and increase their knowledge of the participants through conversation. These gatherings often consciously followed Horace's definition of the aims of poetry, "either to...
  
  . Intellectual assembly in an aristocratic setting; primarily associated with France in the 17th and 18th centuries.

• Salutatio. (Latin) A written greeting.

• Sannio. (Latin) the fool. The role to avoid when using humor in a speech.

• Scesis Onomaton
  Scesis Onomaton
  Scesis Onomaton is a rhetorical technique in which a speaker or writer emphasizes an idea by repeating it rapidly using slightly different words that have the same or very similar meaning.- Examples of Scesis Onomaton :...
  
  . (Latin) omit the verb. A style of repeating an idea using words or phrases similar in meaning in close proximity.

• Scholasticism
  Scholasticism
  Scholasticism is a method of critical thought which dominated teaching by the academics of medieval universities in Europe from about 1100–1500, and a program of employing that method in articulating and defending orthodoxy in an increasingly pluralistic context...
  
  . Rhetorical study of Christianity that was intellectually prominent in 11th-15th century Western Europe, emphasizing rhetorical concepts by Aristotle and a search for universal truth.

• Scientific Method
  Scientific method
  Scientific method refers to a body of techniques for investigating phenomena, acquiring new knowledge, or correcting and integrating previous knowledge. To be termed scientific, a method of inquiry must be based on gathering empirical and measurable evidence subject to specific principles of...
  
  . A system of observing and analyzing data through induction; prominent school of thought since the 17th century whose proponents are often critical of rhetoric.

• Scientific Reasoning
  Models of scientific inquiry
  In the philosophy of science, models of scientific inquiry have two functions: first, to provide a descriptive account of how scientific inquiry is carried out in practice, and second, to provide an explanatory account of why scientific inquiry succeeds as well as it appears to do in arriving at...
  
  . Moving from axioms to actual conclusions. Also Syllogistic logic.

• Scientism
  Scientism
  Scientism refers to a belief in the universal applicability of the systematic methods and approach of science, especially the view that empirical science constitutes the most authoritative worldview or most valuable part of human learning to the exclusion of other viewpoints...
  
  . In Weaver, applying scientific assumptions to subjects that are not completely natural.

• Scientistic. Kenneth Burke. Way of looking at the nature of language as a way of naming or defining something. ex. 'It is' or 'It is not.'

• Second Sophistic
  Second Sophistic
  The Second Sophistic is a literary-historical term referring to the Greek writers who flourished from the reign of Nero until c. 230 AD and who were catalogued and celebrated by Philostratus in his Lives of the Sophists...
  
  . Rhetorical era in Rome that dealt primarily with rhetorical style through some of the Greek Sophists' concepts, while neglecting its political and social uses because of censorship.

• Semantics
  Semantics
  Semantics is the study of meaning. It focuses on the relation between signifiers, such as words, phrases, signs and symbols, and what they stand for, their denotata....
  
  . Philosophical study of language that deals with its connection to perceptions of reality.

• Semiotics
  Semiotics
  Semiotics, also called semiotic studies or semiology, is the study of signs and sign processes , indication, designation, likeness, analogy, metaphor, symbolism, signification, and communication...
  
  . Branch of semantics concerning language and communication as a system of symbols.

• Senatus. Latin for Senate. The group of elders who governed Rome.

• Sensus communis
  Sensus communis
  Sensus communis is a philosophical term originally used to refer to the perceptual power of binding the inputs of the individual sense organs into a coherent and intelligible representation. The term originates with Aristotle...
  
  . A society's basic beliefs and values.

• Sententia. Applying a general truth to a situation by quoting a maxim or other wise saying as a conclusion or summary of that situation.

• Shui
  Shui
  The Sui people are an ethnic group living mostly in Guizhou Province, China. They are counted as one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by the People's Republic of China.-History and demographics:...
  
  . Formal persuasion in ancient China.

• Sign
  Sign (semiotics)
  A sign is understood as a discrete unit of meaning in semiotics. It is defined as "something that stands for something, to someone in some capacity" It includes words, images, gestures, scents, tastes, textures, sounds – essentially all of the ways in which information can be...
  
  . Term from semiotics
  Semiotics
  Semiotics, also called semiotic studies or semiology, is the study of signs and sign processes , indication, designation, likeness, analogy, metaphor, symbolism, signification, and communication...
  
   that describes something that has meaning through its connection to something else, like words.

• Signifying
  Signifying
  -Origin and features:According to Black literary scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr., the practice derived from the Trickster archetype found in much African mythology, folklore, and religion: a god, goddess, spirit, man, woman, or anthropomorphic animal who plays tricks or otherwise disobeys normal...
  
  . Term from semiotics
  Semiotics
  Semiotics, also called semiotic studies or semiology, is the study of signs and sign processes , indication, designation, likeness, analogy, metaphor, symbolism, signification, and communication...
  
   that describes the method through which meaning is created with arbitrary signs.

• Simile
  Simile
  A simile is a figure of speech that directly compares two different things, usually by employing the words "like", "as". Even though both similes and metaphors are forms of comparison, similes indirectly compare the two ideas and allow them to remain distinct in spite of their similarities, whereas...
  
  . A figure of speech that compares unlike things, implying a resemblance between them. For example (from Rhetorica ad Herennium), "'He entered the combat in body like the strongest bull, in impetuosity like the fiercest lion.'"

• Skepticism
  Skepticism
  Skepticism has many definitions, but generally refers to any questioning attitude towards knowledge, facts, or opinions/beliefs stated as facts, or doubt regarding claims that are taken for granted elsewhere...
  
  . Type of thought that questions whether universal truth exists and is attainable by humans.

• Solecismus. Ignorantly misusing tenses, cases, and genders.

• Sophists. Considered the first professional teachers of oratory and rhetoric (ancient Greece 4th century BC).

• Soraismus
  Soraismus
  In rhetoric, soraismus is the awkward use of different languages--often using a foreign term incorrectly or in an inappropriate situation.*Example : His raison d'être allows little quid pro quo with the hoi polloi....
  
  . The ignorant or affected mingling of languages.

• Sprezzatura
  Sprezzatura
  Sprezzatura is an Italian word originating from Baldassare Castiglione’s The Book of the Courtier, where it is defined by the author as “a certain nonchalance, so as to conceal all art and make whatever one does or says appear to be without effort and almost without any thought about it.” It is...
  
  . The ability to appear that there is seemingly little effort used to attain success. The art of being able to show that one is able to deceive. Baldessare Castiglione.

• Spin
  Spin (public relations)
  In public relations, spin is a form of propaganda, achieved through providing an interpretation of an event or campaign to persuade public opinion in favor or against a certain organization or public figure...
  
  . In Vatz, the act of competing to infuse meaning into agenda items for chosen audiences.

• Starting Points. In Perelman and Olbrechts-Tyteca, the place between the speaker and audience where the argument can begin.

• Stasis System. System of finding arguments by means of looking at ideas that are contradictory.

• Status quo
  Status quo
  Statu quo, a commonly used form of the original Latin "statu quo" – literally "the state in which" – is a Latin term meaning the current or existing state of affairs. To maintain the status quo is to keep the things the way they presently are...
  
  . Latin: The generally accepted existing condition or state of affairs.

• Straw man
  Straw man
  A straw man is a component of an argument and is an informal fallacy based on misrepresentation of an opponent's position, twisting his words or by means of [false] assumptions...
  
  . An argument that is a logical fallacy based on misrepresentation of an opponent's position.

• Studia humanitas. Latin: Humanistic studies deemed indispensable in Renaissance-era education; rhetoric, poetics, ethics, politics.

• Syllepsis. A word modifying others in appropriate, though often incongruous ways. This is a similar concept to zeugma
  Zeugma
  Zeugma is a figure of speech in which two or more parts of a sentence are joined with a single common verb or noun. A zeugma employs both ellipsis, the omission of words which are easily understood, and parallelism, the balance of several words or phrases...
  
  .

• Syllogism
  Syllogism
  A syllogism is a kind of logical argument in which one proposition is inferred from two or more others of a certain form...
  
  . A type of valid
  Validity
  In logic, argument is valid if and only if its conclusion is entailed by its premises, a formula is valid if and only if it is true under every interpretation, and an argument form is valid if and only if every argument of that logical form is valid....
  
   argument that states if the first two claims are true, then the conclusion is true. (For example: Claim 1: People are mortal. Claim 2: Bob is a person. Therefore, Claim 3: Bob is mortal.) Started by Aristotle
  Aristotle
  Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. His writings cover many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology...
  
  .

• Syllogistic Logic. See Scientific Reasoning.

• Symbol
  Symbol
  A symbol is something which represents an idea, a physical entity or a process but is distinct from it. The purpose of a symbol is to communicate meaning. For example, a red octagon may be a symbol for "STOP". On a map, a picture of a tent might represent a campsite. Numerals are symbols for...
  
  . A visual or metaphorical representation of an idea or concept.

• Symbolic inducement. Term coined by Kenneth Burke to refer to rhetoric.

• Sympheron. (Greek) Path that is to one's advantage.

• Symploce
  Symploce
  In rhetoric, symploce is a figure of speech in which a word or phrase is used successively at the beginning of two or more clauses or sentences and another word or phrase is used successively at the end of the same. It is the combination of anaphora and epistrophe...
  
  . A figure of speech in which several successive clauses have the same first and last words.

• Synchysis
  Synchysis
  Synchysis is an interlocked word order, in the form A-B-A-B; which often display change and difference. This poetry form was a favorite with Latin poets...
  
  . Word order confusion within a sentence.

• Syncope. The omission of letters from the middle of a word, usually replaced by an apostrophe.

• Synecdoche
  Synecdoche
  Synecdoche , meaning "simultaneous understanding") is a figure of speech in which a term is used in one of the following ways:* Part of something is used to refer to the whole thing , or...
  
  . A rhetorical device where one part of an object is used to represent the whole. e.g., "There are fifty head of cattle." (Head is substituting for the whole animal). "Show a leg!" (naval command to get out of bed = show yourself)

T

• Tapinosis. Language or an epithet
  Epithet
  An epithet or byname is a descriptive term accompanying or occurring in place of a name and having entered common usage. It has various shades of meaning when applied to seemingly real or fictitious people, divinities, objects, and binomial nomenclature. It is also a descriptive title...
  
   that is debasing. This term is synonymous with Meiosis
  Meiosis
  Meiosis is a special type of cell division necessary for sexual reproduction. The cells produced by meiosis are gametes or spores. The animals' gametes are called sperm and egg cells....
  
  .
• Taste
  Taste
  Taste is one of the traditional five senses. It refers to the ability to detect the flavor of substances such as food, certain minerals, and poisons, etc....
  
  . A learned admiration for things of beauty.

• Tautologia. The same idea repeated in different words.

• Taxis
  Taxis
  A taxis is an innate behavioral response by an organism to a directional stimulus or gradient of stimulus intensity. A taxis differs from a tropism in that the organism has motility and demonstrates guided movement towards or away from the stimulus source ...
  
  . The distribution of a proper adjunct to every subject.

• Techne
  Techne
  Techne, or techné, as distinguished from episteme, is etymologically derived from the Greek word τέχνη which is often translated as craftsmanship, craft, or art. It is the rational method involved in producing an object or accomplishing a goal or objective...
  
  . Greek for a true art.
• Terministic screens. term coined by Kenneth Burke to explain the way in which the world is viewed when taking languages and words into consideration.
• Theme
  Theme (literature)
  A theme is a broad, message, or moral of a story. The message may be about life, society, or human nature. Themes often explore timeless and universal ideas and are almost always implied rather than stated explicitly. Along with plot, character,...
  
  . The basic principle pulled from the Bible in order to create a sermon.
• Thesis
  Thesis
  A dissertation or thesis is a document submitted in support of candidature for an academic degree or professional qualification presenting the author's research and findings...
  
  . The major claim or premise made in an argument to be proved or dis-proved.
• Thesmos. Greek. The law that comes from the authority of kings.
• Tone. The author's voice in an essay through use of figurative language or a style of enunciation in writing (also known as a diction
  Diction
  Diction , in its original, primary meaning, refers to the writer's or the speaker's distinctive vocabulary choices and style of expression in a poem or story...
  
  ). The way the author expresses himself out loud or through a character.

• Topical systems. Methods for finding arguments.

• topographia. The description of a place.
• topothesia. The description of an imaginary or non-existent place.

• Topos
  Topos
  In mathematics, a topos is a type of category that behaves like the category of sheaves of sets on a topological space...
  
  . A line or specific style of argument.
• Toulmin Model. A method of diagraming arguments created by Stephen Toulmin
  Stephen Toulmin
  Stephen Edelston Toulmin was a British philosopher, author, and educator. Influenced by Ludwig Wittgenstein, Toulmin devoted his works to the analysis of moral reasoning. Throughout his writings, he sought to develop practical arguments which can be used effectively in evaluating the ethics behind...
  
   that identifies such components as backing, claim, data
  Data
  The term data refers to qualitative or quantitative attributes of a variable or set of variables. Data are typically the results of measurements and can be the basis of graphs, images, or observations of a set of variables. Data are often viewed as the lowest level of abstraction from which...
  
  , qualifier, rebuttal
  Rebuttal
  In law, rebuttal is a form of evidence that is presented to contradict or nullify other evidence that has been presented by an adverse party. By analogy the same term is used in politics and public affairs to refer to the informal process by which statements, designed to refute or negate specific...
  
  , and warrant.
• Transgression
  Transgression
  Transgression may be:*a Biblical transgression, violation of God's ten commandments; sin *a legal transgression, a crime usually created by a social or economic boundary*a social transgression, violating a norm...
  
  . Reading a text and looking for the deeper meanings instead of the obvious ones.
• Translative issue. Dealing with procedure of an ensuing case.
• Tricolon
  Tricolon
  In rhetoric, a bicolon, tricolon, or tetracolon is a sentence with two, three, or four clearly defined parts , usually independent clauses and of increasing power.-Tricolon:...
  
  . The pattern of three phrases in parallel, found commonly in Western writing after Cicero. For example, the kitten had white fur, blue eyes, and a pink tongue.
• Trivium. (Latin) Grammar, rhetoric, and logic taught in schools during the medieval period.
• Tropes. Figure of speech that uses a word aside from its literal meaning.

U

• Understatement
  Understatement
  Understatement is a form of speech which contains an expression of less strength than what would be expected. This is not to be confused with euphemism, where a polite phrase is used in place of a harsher or more offensive expression....
  
  . A form of irony, also called litotes, in which something is represented as less than it really is, with the intent of drawing attention to and emphasizing the opposite meaning.
• Universal audience. An audience consisting of all humankind (most specifically of adult age and normal mental capacity).

• Uomo Universale. The universal man.
• Utterance
  Utterance
  In spoken language analysis an utterance is a complete unit of speech. It is generally but not always bounded by silence.It can be represented and delineated in written language in many ways. Note that in such areas of research utterances do not exist in written language, only their representations...
  
  . Statement that could contain meaning about one's own person.

V

• Validity
  Validity
  In logic, argument is valid if and only if its conclusion is entailed by its premises, a formula is valid if and only if it is true under every interpretation, and an argument form is valid if and only if every argument of that logical form is valid....
  
  . Apprehension over the structure of an argument.

• Validity Claim. Claiming to have made a correct statement.

• Verba
  Verba
  Verba is a Polish band from Piła formed in 1997. It originated from the Pop music group Squad Centralny. At first Bartek and Ignacy represented different music styles such as . Later they became fascinated with hip-hop, at which point they began composing hip-hop music with Rap elements...
  
  . Latin: The part of an argument that advances the subject matter.

• Visual rhetoric
  Visual rhetoric
  Visual rhetoric is the fairly recent development of a theoretical framework describing how visual images communicate, as opposed to aural, verbal, or other messages. The study of visual rhetoric is different from that of visual or graphic design, in that it emphasizes images as sensory expressions...
  
  . A theoretical framework describing how visual images communicate, as opposed to aural or verbal messages.

• Vir bonus beni dicendi. Latin: The good man speaking well.

• Vita activa. A life lived in active involvement in the political arena.

W

• Warrant. term used by Stephen Toulmin
  Stephen Toulmin
  Stephen Edelston Toulmin was a British philosopher, author, and educator. Influenced by Ludwig Wittgenstein, Toulmin devoted his works to the analysis of moral reasoning. Throughout his writings, he sought to develop practical arguments which can be used effectively in evaluating the ethics behind...
  
   to establish a link between data and a claim.

• Ways and Means
  Ways and Means
  Ways and Means may refer to:* Committee of Ways and Means of the UK parliament* United States House Committee on Ways and Means* "Ways and Means" , an episode of the television series The West Wing...
  
  . One of the five main matters that Aristotle claims political speakers make speeches on. It consists of the speaker's country's revenue and sources, as well as the expenditures of the country.

Z

• Zeugma
  Zeugma
  Zeugma is a figure of speech in which two or more parts of a sentence are joined with a single common verb or noun. A zeugma employs both ellipsis, the omission of words which are easily understood, and parallelism, the balance of several words or phrases...
  
  . From the Greek word "ζεύγμα", meaning "yoke". A figure of speech in which one word applies to two others in different senses of that word, and in some cases only logically applies to one of the other two words. This is a similar concept to syllepsis.