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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Persuasion \Per*sua"sion\, noun [L. persuasio; Cf. F. persuasion.]
1. The act of persuading; the act of influencing the mind by arguments or reasons offered, or by anything that moves the mind or passions, or inclines the will to a determination.
For thou hast all the arts of fine persuasion. --Otway.
2. The state of being persuaded or convinced; settled opinion or conviction, which has been induced.
If the general persuasion of all men does so account it. --Hooker.
My firm persuasion is, at least sometimes, That Heaven will weigh man's virtues and his crimes With nice attention. --Cowper.
3. A creed or belief; a sect or party adhering to a certain creed or system of opinions; as, of the same persuasion; all persuasions are agreed.
Of whatever state or persuasion, religious or political. --Jefferson.
4. The power or quality of persuading; persuasiveness.
Is 't possible that my deserts to you Can lack persuasion? --Shak.
5. That which persuades; a persuasive. [R.]
Syn: See {Conviction}.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
persuasion
noun
1: the act of persuading (or attempting to persuade); communication intended to induce belief or action [syn: {suasion}]
2: a personal belief or judgment that is not founded on proof or certainty; "my opinion differs from yours"; "what are your thoughts on Haiti?" [syn: {opinion}, {sentiment}, {view}, {thought}]
3: inducement to act by argument or reasoning or entreaty [ant: {dissuasion}]
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
176 Moby Thesaurus words for "persuasion": adherents, affiliation, allurement, ascendancy, authority, belief, bias, blandishment, blood, body, branch, brand, breed, cajolement, cajolery, cast, character, charisma, charm, church, clan, class, clout, coaxing, color, communion, community, confession, connection, conning, consequence, control, conversion, conviction, credit, creed, cult, denomination, description, designation, disciples, division, dominance, domination, effect, eminence, enchantment, engagement, enlistment, esteem, evangelization, exhortation, exhorting, eye, faction, faith, favor, feather, feeling, fellowship, fixed opinion, followers, force, form, genre, genus, good feeling, grain, group, hold, hortation, ilk, implicit belief, importance, incidental power, inducement, inducing, influence, influencing, influentiality, insinuation, ism, jawboning, kidney, kin, kind, label, leadership, leverage, line, lobbying, lot, magnetism, make, manner, mark, mastery, mature judgment, mind, mold, moment, nature, number, offshoot, opinion, order, organization, partiality, party, personality, persuading, phylum, potency, power, preaching, preachment, predilection, predominance, prejudice, preponderance, prepossession, pressure, prestige, proselytism, proselytization, purchase, race, reign, religion, religious order, repute, rule, sales talk, salesmanship, say, schism, school, school of thought, sect, sectarism, segment, selling, sentiment, settled judgment, shape, snow job, society, soft soap, solicitation, sort, species, stamp, staunch belief, steadfast faith, strain, stripe, style, suasion, subtle influence, suggestion, supremacy, sway, sweet talk, the like of, the likes of, tribe, type, unshaken confidence, upper hand, variety, version, view, weight, wheedling, whip hand, working on
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