rhetorolect

R1H4E1T1O1R1O1L1E1C3T1

noun

A type of discourse that has a characteristic configuration of topics, themes, and arguments.

Scrabble 16

Meanings

nounrhetorolect (plural rhetorolects)

plural rhetorolects

  1. A type of discourse that has a characteristic configuration of topics, themes, and arguments.

    This Lukan discourse, then, directs the demons' identification of Jesus as the Son of God toward prophetic rhetorolect that features the coming of an anointed one who will oversee God's kingdom on earth.

    2012, Duane F. Watson, Miracle Discourse in the New Testament, →ISBN, page 42
    3 more examples

    If the elaborations "catch on" in some way, and themselves become developed, it is likely that we are looking at the creation of a "rhetorolect," a configuration of topoi and their argumentation that "is generated through a process whereby widely recognized topoi are recontextualized and reconfigured to create conventions that support reasoning in new contexts."

    2003, Vernon Kay Robbins, David B. Gowler, L. Gregory Bloomquist, Fabrics of Discourse: Essays in Honor of Vernon K. Robbins, →ISBN, page 175

    In other words, within each rhetorolect or language environment there are social places (like the household, the empire, nature) and cultural spaces (like God's world, the Diaspora, the kingdom) in which people think, speak, feel and act to construct meaningful lives.

    2007, Robert L. Webb, John S. Kloppenborg, Reading James with New Eyes, →ISBN

    Early Christian wisdom rhetorolect blends human experiences of the household, one's interpersonal body, and the geophysical world (firstspace) with the cultural space of God's cosmos (secondspace). In the lived space of blending (thirdspace), God functions as heavenly Father over God's children in the world, whose bodies are to produce goodness and righteousness through the medium of God's wisdom, which is understood as God's light in the world. In this context, wisdom rhetrolect emphasizes "fruitfulness" (productivity and reproductivity). The goal of wisdom rhetrolect is to create people who produce good action, thought, will, and speech with the aid of God's wisdom.

    2007, Petri Luomanen, Ilkka Pyysiäinen, Risto Uro, Explaining Christian Origins and Early Judaism, →ISBN

Origin

  1. Latinlegō“to read”
  2. Latinlectus
  3. Ancient Greekῥήτωρ“public speaker”
  4. Latinrhētorica
  5. Englishrhetorolect

From Latin rhētorica from Ancient Greek ῥήτωρ (rhḗtōr, “public speaker”) + from Latin lectus, form of Latin legō (“to read”).

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

rhetorolect. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/rhetorolect

MLA

“rhetorolect.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/rhetorolect. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “rhetorolect,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/rhetorolect.

Source: rhetorolect on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.