Rhetorical Terms Vocabulary

These flashcards cover key rhetorical terms and their definitions, enhancing understanding of important concepts for the Rhetorical Terms Test.

rhetorical choices

The particular choices a writer or speaker makes to achieve meaning, purpose, or effect.

rhetorical question

A question posed by the speaker or writer not to seek an answer but instead to affirm or deny a point simply by asking a question about it.

rhetorical situation

The convergence in a situation of exigency (the need to write), audience, and purpose.

sarcasm

The use of mockery or bitter irony.

simile

A type of comparison that uses the word like or as.

simple sentence

A sentence with one independent clause and no dependent clause.

stance

A writer's or speaker's apparent attitude toward the audience.

style

The choices that writers or speakers make in language for effect.

subordinate clause

A group of words that includes a subject and verb but that cannot stand on its own as a sentence; also called dependent clause.

synecdoche

A part of something used to refer to the whole—for example, '50 head of cattle' referring to 50 complete animals.

syntax

The order of words in a sentence.

tone

The writer's or speaker's attitude toward the subject matter.

understatement

Deliberate playing down of a situation in order to make a point.

verisimilitude

The quality of a text that reflects the truth of actual experience.

voice

The textual features, such as diction and sentence structure, that convey a writer's or a speaker's persona.

zeugma

A trope in which one word, usually a noun or the main verb, governs two other words not related in meaning.