An enthymeme is a rhetorical syllogism in which one premise is left unstated, assumed to be shared by the audience. Parameters: (1) a conclusion; (2) at least one stated premise; (3) an unstated premise drawn from the audience's beliefs, values, or common knowledge. The enthymeme persists through the structures of persuasion — everyday argument, political speech, advertising, and pedagogical debate — because it exploits the cognitive economy of inference: the audience completes the reasoning themselves, making the conclusion feel self-generated and thus more persuasive. [formal: entheymema | substrate: mind | horizon: hours | explicit: no | epoch: 0.01]
Accepted ontology entry
enthymeme
An enthymeme is a rhetorical syllogism in which one premise is left unstated, assumed to be shared by the audience. Parameters: (1) a conclusion; (2) at least one stated premise; (3) an unstated premise drawn from the audience's beliefs, v…
Definition
Why it is in scope
The enthymeme is the human-made rhetorical device of a truncated syllogism — an argument deliberately structured with one premise left unstated, relying on the audience to supply it. It is a construct of persuasion, born in Aristotle's Rhetoric and sustained through centuries of debate, writing, and everyday argumentation.
Names and aliases
- enthymemeen · CANONICAL
Relations from this entry
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An enthymeme is a rhetorical argument that omits a premise, expressed in natural language. It requires language to operate — the missing premise is supplied by the audience through linguistic inference. Remove language and the enthymeme ceases to function as an argument form.
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An enthymeme is a specific kind of rhetorical device — an argument with a missing premise, used in persuasion where the audience fills it in. Per Law 9: X is a specific case of general Y.
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Enthymeme IS a specific kind of rhetorical strategy — an argument with a missing premise designed to persuade the audience to supply it. The competent-speaker test passes: an enthymeme is a kind of rhetorical strategy. Rhetorical-strategy is the nearest kind (argument-form does not exist).
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Record identity
- Created
- Jul 16, 2026, 5:37 AM UTC
- Content hash
- 585643fc9328f296ee6c5bbae66e8ccd6e095e8d8246a26ee33ad34c423318ea