enthymeme

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   rhetoric: an argument resembling a syllogism in which a premise or conclusion is left unstated

   The claim works as an enthymeme because the audience supplies the missing premise.

2. 2
   noun

   in Aristotle's rhetoric, a persuasive inference from probabilities or signs

   The rhetorician used an enthymeme where the dialectician might use a complete syllogism.

From Ancient Greek enthymema, "thought, argument, consideration," from en ("in") + thymos ("mind, spirit"). Aristotle made the term central to rhetorical theory.

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