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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Rhetoric \Rhet"o*ric\, noun [F. rh['e]torique, L. rhetorica, Gr. ???? (sc. ???), fr. ??? rhetorical, oratorical, fr. ??? orator, rhetorician; perhaps akin to E. word; cf. ??? to say.]
1. The art of composition; especially, elegant composition in prose.
2. Oratory; the art of speaking with propriety, elegance, and force. --Locke.
3. Hence, artificial eloquence; fine language or declamation without conviction or earnest feeling.
4. Fig. : The power of persuasion or attraction; that which allures or charms.
Sweet, silent rhetoric of persuading eyes. --Daniel.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
rhetoric
noun
1: using language effectively to please or persuade
2: high flown style; excessive use of verbal ornamentation [syn: {grandiosity}, {magniloquence}, {grandiloquence}]
3: loud and confused and empty talk; "mere rhetoric" [syn: {palaver}, {hot air}, {empty words}, {empty talk}]
4: study of the technique and rules for using language effectively (especially in public speaking)
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
151 Moby Thesaurus words for "rhetoric": Barnumism, affectation, articulateness, bedizenment, big talk, bluster, bombast, choice of words, command of language, command of words, composition, convolution, debating, declamation, demagogism, dialect, diction, effective style, elocution, eloquence, eloquent tongue, exaggeration, expression, expression of ideas, expressiveness, facundity, fashion, feeling for words, felicitousness, felicity, flashiness, flatulence, flatulency, forensics, form of speech, formulation, fulsomeness, fustian, garishness, gasconade, gaudiness, gift of expression, gift of gab, glibness, grace of expression, grammar, grandiloquence, grandioseness, grandiosity, graphicness, high-flown diction, highfalutin, homiletics, hot air, idiom, inflatedness, inflation, language, lecturing, lexiphanicism, literary style, locution, loftiness, long-windedness, luridness, magniloquence, manner, manner of speaking, mannerism, meaningfulness, mere rhetoric, meretriciousness, mode, mode of expression, oratory, orotundity, ostentation, ostentatious complexity, parlance, peculiarity, personal style, phrase, phraseology, phrasing, platform oratory, platitudinous ponderosity, polysyllabic profundity, pomposity, pompous prolixity, pompousness, pontification, pretension, pretentiousness, prolixity, prose run mad, public speaking, puffery, pyrotechnics, rabble-rousing, rant, rhapsody, rhetoricalness, rodomontade, sensationalism, sense of language, sententiousness, sesquipedality, showiness, silver tongue, slickness, smoothness, speaking, speech, speechcraft, speechification, speeching, speechmaking, stiltedness, strain, stump speaking, style, stylistic analysis, stylistics, swelling utterance, swollen phrase, swollenness, talk, tall talk, the grand style, the plain style, the sublime, tortuosity, tortuousness, trick, tumidity, tumidness, turgescence, turgidity, usage, use of words, usus loquendi, vein, verbiage, verbosity, vividness, way, windiness, wordage, wordcraft, wordiness, wording
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