How to Use rhetorical in a Sentence

rhetorical

adjective

• My question was rhetorical. I wasn't really expecting an answer.
• The two are neck and neck in a race to the rhetorical middle.
  — Faith Bottum, WSJ, 26 Sep. 2022
• Downes asks at one point, and the question is meant to be rhetorical.
  — David Fear, Rolling Stone, 13 Oct. 2023
• Many of us are getting stuck in the same rhetorical cul-de-sacs.
  — W. Kamau Bell, CNN, 2 May 2021
• Dougherty has become a star of the strike for her blunt rhetorical style.
  — Gene Maddaus, Variety, 27 May 2023
• In Wolfish, the question is dropped like a generic, rhetorical call to action, and then Berry moves on.
  — Colin Dickey, The New Republic, 31 Mar. 2023
• The best part about it, though, is that the complaints are required to be rhetorical, Curvey says.
  — BostonGlobe.com, 9 June 2021
• For now, at least, Locsin doesn’t feel obliged to hold his rhetorical fire.
  — Joel Gehrke, Washington Examiner, 3 May 2021
• To argue on this rhetorical ground is to disable the argument from the start.
  — Merve Emre, The New Yorker, 11 July 2023
• To answer the rhetorical question, the answer is no, no there isn't.
  — Shelby Stewart, Houston Chronicle, 4 Aug. 2020
• Schaake’s speech was a hairpin turn in rhetorical space.
  — Nick Romeo, The New Yorker, 18 Aug. 2020
• But what about Netanyahu, a man in thrall to the hard right and not exactly known for rhetorical restraint?
  — Yair Rosenberg, The Atlantic, 21 Jan. 2024
• Apples in a barrel for the Dems, the lie that Vance and Trump have been spinning quickly got lost in the rhetorical shuffle.
  — Ted Johnson, Deadline, 1 Oct. 2024
• For many, the question of whether screening Rust was even a good idea stands purely rhetorical.
  — Nick Newman, Vulture, 20 Nov. 2024
• The rhetorical bundle of arguments that the system is corrupt can be captured by both the left and the right.
  — Isaac Chotiner, The New Yorker, 17 Oct. 2024
• Lloyd knew the answer to that rhetorical question, but there was more on Lloyd’s mind than money.
  — Josh Newman, The Salt Lake Tribune, 2 Dec. 2021
• But this also presents a unique rhetorical problem: No one cares about the future when there are so many problems in the here and now.
  — Liza Featherstone, The New Republic, 12 July 2023
• Russia’s all-out war on Ukraine is entering its sixth week, and the past few days have seen a rhetorical shift in Vladimir Putin’s goals.
  — Garry Kasparov, WSJ, 3 Apr. 2022
• So, Macron didn’t seem to have much patience for the other swirling rhetorical storm that Truss seemed to be conjuring.
  — David A. Andelman, CNN, 26 Aug. 2022
• Brandy, the cause of no ruining, knows it’s a rhetorical question.
  — Mark Feeney, BostonGlobe.com, 16 Nov. 2021
• That’s supposed to be a rhetorical question to tease out your true favorite.
  — Ian McNulty | Staff Writer, NOLA.com, 21 Dec. 2020
• The optics are not good Matt: Another rhetorical sleight of hand.
  — Adam Feuerstein and Matthew Herper, STAT, 31 July 2023
• To be fair, even Kahn evinced some skepticism about his windy, rhetorical flights.
  — Alex Beam, WSJ, 31 Dec. 2020
• The leaders of the #FireFauci movement on the right clearly take their rhetorical cues from Trump.
  — Ari Schulman, The New Republic, 15 June 2020
• But many of those steps have been in the form of proposals, policy statements, and rhetorical shifts.
  — Sandeep Vaheesan, The New Republic, 29 Aug. 2023
• This strategy—having the name of the bill itself be a rhetorical device—is not new.
  — Teddy McDarrah, Forbes, 9 Apr. 2021
• This kind of split screen, where one side is paused while the other side rolls, is a powerful rhetorical device.
  — Laurence Scott, Wired, 11 Oct. 2020
• The campaign has been lauded by the press for this rhetorical strategy.
  — Jay Caspian Kang, The New Yorker, 2 Aug. 2024
• But the use of rhetorical questions means the memo opens with a strikingly defensive tone.
  — Jena McGregor, Forbes, 7 Oct. 2021
• Trump will likely reprise the rhetorical embrace of Egypt that marked his first term, along with a lack of concern for democracy and human rights.
  — Michael Wahid Hanna, Foreign Affairs, 26 Nov. 2024

Last Updated: 2 Jan 2025