speech or writing intended to be effective and influence people

How far the president will be able to translate his campaign rhetoric into action remains to be seen. 总统在大选中作出的冠冕堂皇的承诺能够兑现多少尚待观察。

I was swayed by her rhetoric into donating all my savings to the charity. 她巧言善辩，说得我服服帖帖，把全部储蓄都捐给了慈善机构。

the study of the ways of using language effectively

clever language that sounds good but is not sincere or has no real meaning

In reply to the question, he just produced a lot of empty (= meaningless) rhetoric. 他对这个问题的回答只是一大堆空洞的浮夸之词。