rhetoric

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rhetoric the art of effective or persuasive speaking or writing, especially the exploitation of figures of speech and other compositional techniques; language designed to have a persuasive or impressive effect on its audience, but which is now often regarded as lacking in sincerity or meaningful content.

In the Middle Ages, rhetoric was counted as one of the seven liberal arts; the word comes via Old French and Latin from Greek.
rhetorical question a question asked not for information but to produce an effect, e.g. who cares? for nobody cares.

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