What is a term for powerful, moving words? Rhetoric implies the opposite (“empty” rhetoric).
The nominee’s speech was filled with XXX
single-word-requests
What is a term for powerful, moving words? Rhetoric implies the opposite (“empty” rhetoric).
The nominee’s speech was filled with XXX
Best Answer
Rhetoric most certainly does not imply the opposite of "powerful, moving words"! What implies the opposite, as you yourself note, is the adjective "empty" attached to it.
As the New Oxford American Dictionary defines it:
Note the words "effective" and "persuasive" in that definition. You have to add negative adjectives to the term to make it bad.
As Farnsworth says in the preface to his Classical English Rhetoric:
So I would suggest not only that your premise is wrong, but that the term for powerful, moving words is, in fact, rhetoric. If the word still bothers you, add a positive modifier to it.