A posteriori

RIDICULE: Words designed to arouse laughter and contempt for a person, idea, or institution. The rhetorical goal is to condemn or criticize the object by ridicule by making it seem suitable only for mockery (i.e., "ridiculous"). Satirists and some rhetoricians use ridicule as the basis of criticism or argument because they know jokes cannot be satisfactorily addressed in a logical argument. As Robert Harris suggests in his literary terms at virtualsalt.com, "who can refute a sneer?"

RIME COUÉE: The French term for tail-rhyme. See discussion under tail-rhyme.

RIME RICHE: The French term for identical rhyme. See identical rhyme.

RIME ROYAL: An alternative spelling for rhyme royal.

RISING ACTION: The action in a play before the climax in Freytag's pyramid.

RISING RHYME: Another term for masculine rhyme in which the final foot ends in a stressed syllable. See meter.

R-LESS SPEECH: Any dialect in which [r] is pronounced only before a vowel. Examples include Bostonian accents in America and "RP" (Received Pronunciation) among upper class British speakers.

ROBERTSONIAN: Following or adhering to the exegeticial readings of medieval literature espoused by American scholar D. W. Robertson. See discussion under fourfold interpretation.

ROLE: Another term for an actor's