Rhetorischen

Rhetorischen is a German attributive form of the adjective rhetorisch, meaning related to rhetoric or persuasive language. It is used to describe nouns in contexts where rhetoric, argumentation, or stylistic devices are involved.

The word derives from the field of rhetoric and is common in academic and public discourse about speech, writing, and communication. It appears in many standard phrases such as die rhetorischen Mittel (rhetorical devices), eine rhetorische Frage (a rhetorical question), and der rhetorischen Rede (the rhetorical speech). The form rhetorischen appears in several grammatical cases, for example die rhetorischen Mittel (nominative plural), den rhetorischen Mitteln (dative plural), der rhetorischen Rede (dative singular feminine), and dem rhetorischen Mittel (dative singular neuter).

As with other German adjectives, rhetorischen is one of the inflected endings and is determined by article and noun gender, number, and case. The base adjective rhetorisch itself means “rhetorical” and more broadly “relating to rhetoric.” In usage, the form rhetorischen signals that the described noun is being treated in a way that relates to rhetorical technique, style, or persuasion rather than referring to the noun in a literal, non-rhetorical sense. See also Rhetorik, rhetorische Frage, and rhetorische Mittel for related concepts.