Rhetorically

adv

adv ·4 syllables ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adverb
  1. 1
    In a rhetorical manner. not-comparable

    "Bronx councilmember Rev. Wendell Foster rhetorically asked city council president Andrew Stein if he could cast two votes, being of "divided mind.""

  2. 2
    With reference to rhetoric. not-comparable
Adverb
  1. 1
    in a rhetorical manner wordnet

Example

More examples

""A lot of blokes are growing moustaches now. How mad is that?" she asked rhetorically. "My brother's got one. It makes me cringe.""

Etymology

From Middle English retorycally; equivalent to rhetorical + -ly.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.