of rhetoric. N Narratio. A presentation of essential facts in a judicial speech. Narration. Story telling, involving the elements of time, place, actor, action, cause and manner. Necessary cause. Cause without which effect couldn't/wouldn't have occurred. Negatio. To negate or deny. Neoplatonism. School of thought emanating from the works of Plato and Aristotle in early BCE Rome. Noema. Speech that is deliberately subtle or obscure. Nomos. Greek, a social custom or convention. Non sequitur. A statement bearing no relationship to the preceding context. Notaries. Secretaries trained in rhetoric for dealing with the agreements that were needed for commercial cities in Italy to function. O Occupatio. Introducing and responding to one's opponents' arguments before they have the opportunity to bring them up. The opposite of apophasis. Oictos. A show of pity or compassion. Ominatio. A prophecy of evil. Onomatopoeia. Words that imitate the sounds, objects, or actions they refer to. (ex. "buzz", "hullabaloo", "bling") Opening. First part of discourse. Should gain audiences' attention. Optatio. A wish exclaimed. Orcos. An oath. Oxymoron. Opposed or markedly contradictory terms joined for emphasis. P Parachesis. Repetition of the same sound in several words in close succession. Alliteration (initial rhyme) is a special case of parachesis. . Greek, argument created by a list of examples that leads to a probable generalized idea. Paradiastole. Greek, redescription - usually in a better light. Paradox. An apparently absurd or self-contradictory statement or proposition. Paralipsis. A form of apophasis when a rhetor introduces a subject by denying it should be discussed. To speak of someone or something by claiming not to. Parallelism. The correspondence, in sense or construction, of successive clauses or passages. Parallel syntax. Repetition of similar sentence structures. Parallel structure. Using the same tense and structure. Paraprosdokian. A sentence in which the latter half takes an unexpected turn. Parataxis. Using juxtaposition of short, simple sentences to connect ideas, as opposed to explicit conjunction. Parenthesis. An explanatory or qualifying word, clause, or sentence inserted into a passage that is not essential to the literal meaning. Paremvolia. An interference of speak by speaking. Parisosis. When clauses have very similar lengths, as measured by syllables; sometimes taken as equivalent to isocolon. Parody. To imitate something or somebody comically. Paromoiosis. Parallelism of sound between the words of two clauses approximately equal in size. The similarity of sound can occur at the beginning of the clauses, at the end (where it is equivalent