From Richard Nordquist,
Your Guide to Grammar & Composition.
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Definition:

One of Aristotle's major branches of rhetoric: speech or writing that attempts to persuade an audience to take (or not to take) some action. See also What Are the Progymnasmata?

Etymology:

From the Latin, "balance."

Examples:

• "And the last thing he said to me, 'Rock,' he said, 'sometime when the team is up against it and the breaks are beating the boys, tell them to go out there with all they got and win just one for the Gipper.'"
  (Pat O'Brien as Knute Rockne in Knute Rockne: All-American (1940)



• "Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"
  (President Ronald Reagan)



• "A special counsel should be immediately appointed by the attorney general to remedy these obvious conflicts of interest that prevents them from investigating what many believe are serious violations of law by the president. . . .
  
  "Secondly, new whistle-blower protection should immediately be established for members of the executive branch who report evidence of wrongdoing, especially where it involves abuse of authority in the sensitive areas of national security.
  
  "Third, both houses of Congress should, of course, hold comprehensive and not just superficial hearings into these serious allegations of criminal behavior on the part of the president.
  
  "And they should follow the evidence wherever it leads."
  (Al Gore, Speech on Constitutional Issues, January 16, 2006)

Pronunciation: di-LIB-er-a-tiv

Also Known As: legislative