Wiktionary
n. A phrase (set phrase or created phrase) that uses reduplication, onomatopoeia, or other phonetic markers that increase memorability and “musicality” (making rhetoric pleasing or entertaining).
WordNet
n. a use of language that creates a literary effect (but often without regard for literal significance)
Wikipedia
In rhetoric, a rhetorical device or resource of language is a technique that an author or speaker uses to convey to the listener or reader a meaning with the goal of persuading him or her towards considering a topic from a different perspective, using sentences designed to encourage or provoke a rational argument from an emotional display of a given perspective or action. Note that although rhetorical devices may be used to evoke an emotional response in the audience, this is not their primary purpose.
Usage examples of "rhetorical device".
Mrs Forrester found these uncompleted sentences, the Greek rhetorical device of aposiopesis, very handy in her duties as president.
To the sceptic, their quest may ultimately rest on a delusion, but debunking is hardly likely to be an effective rhetorical device for their rationalist project of getting [people] to recognize what appears to the sceptic as mistaken or magical thinking.
It has been a rhetorical device, then - necessary because (my literary friends tell me) science proceeds by just such rhetoric - but rhetorical nonetheless.
Pella eyed her for a moment, something she was beginning to recognize as a rhetorical device.
He tried to put out the same signals occasionally, sometimes even getting away with it, but he knew, even if she didn't, that for him it was a kind of game, a performance, a rhetorical device.
I choose to believe that was a human rhetorical device rather than his real opinion of my intellect.
But I shall not resent the interpretation of Her speech as being the rhetorical device of AIWAZ.
This was no rhetorical device, no facile trick of leadership —.
This was no rhetorical device, no facile trick of leadership - it was a simple expression of Cornwallis's natural state of mind.
This was no rhetorical device, no facile trick of leadership it was a simple expression of Cornwallis's natural state of mind.