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Glossary of Rhetoric Terms
beginning with letter P
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palilogy Tweet Definition of palilogy Like Definition of palilogy on Facebook
noun (palilog, ies)
  1. emphatic repetition of a word or phrase
     
paralipsis Tweet Definition of paralipsis Like Definition of paralipsis on Facebook
noun (paralipses)
  1. (linguistics) (alternative spelling of, paraleipsis)
     
paronomasia Tweet Definition of paronomasia Like Definition of paronomasia on Facebook
noun 
  1. a pun or play on words
  • 1984: he gloomily regarded his new digital watch, faintly fascinated by the onward march of the square figures which turned one into the other with insolent ease, a kind of numerical . " Anthony Burgess, Enderby's Dark Lady
  • 1997: Ev"rywhere but at Norfolk, where talk of Passion far outweighs its Enactment," indeed, the Sailors" Paronomasia for that wretched Place, is "No-Fuck". " Thomas Pynchon, Mason & Dixon
  •      
    partition Tweet Definition of partition Like Definition of partition on Facebook
    noun 
    1. something that divides a thing into parts, or separates one thing from another, especially a vertical structure that divides a room
    2. a part of something that had been divided
    3. the division of a country into two or more autonomous countries
    4. (computing) a section of a hard disk separately formatted
    5. (set theory) a collection of non-empty, disjoint subsets of a set whose union is the set itself (i.e. all elements of the set are contained in exactly one of the subsets)
    verb to partition
    1. To divide something into parts, sections or shares
    2. To divide a region or country into two or more territories with separate political status
    3. To separate or divide a room by a partition (ex. a wall), often use with off
         
    perorate Tweet Definition of perorate Like Definition of perorate on Facebook
    verb (perorat, ing)
    1. (intransitive) To speak or declaim at great length, especially in a pompous or grandiloquent manner; to harangue.
    2. (intransitive) To make a peroration; to make a formal recapitulation at the end of a speech.
         
    peroration Tweet Definition of peroration Like Definition of peroration on Facebook
    noun 
    1. The concluding section of a discourse, either written or verbal, in which the orator or writer sums up and commends his topic to his audience.
    2. A discourse or rhetorical argument in general.
         
    philippic Tweet Definition of philippic Like Definition of philippic on Facebook
    noun 
    1. any of the discourses of w:Demosthenes, Demosthenes against w:Philip of Macedon, Philip of Macedon, defending the liberty of Athens
    2. any tirade or declamation full of bitter condemnation
    • 1922: Skin-the-Goat, assuming he was he, evidently with an axe to grind, was airing his grievances in a forcible-feeble anent the natural resources of Ireland, or something of that sort, which he described in his lengthy dissertation as the richest country bar none on the face of God"s earth, far and away superior to England " James Joyce, Ulysses
         
    phrase Tweet Definition of phrase Like Definition of phrase on Facebook
    noun 
    1. A short written or spoken expression.
    2. (grammar) A word or group of words that functions as a single unit in the syntax of a sentence, usually consisting of a head, or central word, and elaborating words. In the noun phrase the big bird, for example, the noun, bird is the head.
    3. (music) A small section of music in a larger piece.
         
    pleonasm Tweet Definition of pleonasm Like Definition of pleonasm on Facebook
    noun 
    1. (uncountable) redundancy, Redundancy in wording.
      • 1993, Anthony Burgess, A Dead Man in Deptford: My salvation is in my Saviour who saveth me hence the redundancy and of my asseveration.
        1. (countable) A phrase involving pleonasm, that is, a phrase in which one or more words are redundant as their meaning is expressed elsewhere in the phrase.
        "They are both the same" is a as the word "both" is redundant, as is "killed dead".
         
    polysyndeton Tweet Definition of polysyndeton Like Definition of polysyndeton on Facebook
    noun 
    1. (linguistics) The use of many conjunctions to achieve an overwhelming effect in a sentence.
         
    preterition Tweet Definition of preterition Like Definition of preterition on Facebook
    noun 
    1. The act of passing by, disregarding or omitting.
    2. A rhetorical device in which the speaker emphasizes something by omitting it.
    I do not intend to draw attention to my heroic military service; Instead, I will focus on the economy.
    1. The failure of a testator to name a legal heir in his will.
         
    prolepsis Tweet Definition of prolepsis Like Definition of prolepsis on Facebook
    noun 
    1. the assignment of something to a period of time that preceeds it.
    2. the representation of something which has ocurred before its time.
    I'm a dead man.
    1. A grammar, grammatical construction that consists of placing an element in a syntactic unit before that to which it would logically correspond.
      That noise, I just heard it again.
      1. A Philosophy, philosophical concept used in ancient epistemology to indicate a so-called "preconception", i.e. a pre-theoretical notion which can lead to true knowledge of the world.
         
    proposition Tweet Definition of proposition Like Definition of proposition on Facebook
    noun (wikipedia, proposition, proposition (logic))
    1. (uncountable) The act of offering (an idea) for consideration.
    2. (countable) An idea or a plan offered.
    3. (countable) (in business settings) The terms of a transaction offered.
    4. (countable) (logic) The content of an assertion that may be taken as being true or false and is considered abstractly without reference to the linguistic sentence that constitutes the assertion.
    5. In some states of the US, a proposed statute or constitutional amendment to be voted on by the electorate.
    6. In mathematics, a proposition is an assertion formulated in such a way that it may be proved true or false.
         
    pun Tweet Definition of pun Like Definition of pun on Facebook
    noun 
    1. A joke or type of wordplay in which similar senses or sounds of two words or phrases, or different senses of the same word, are deliberately confused.
         
    Purple Tweet Definition of Purple Like Definition of Purple on Facebook
    proper noun 
    1. (rare) a family name
         

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