Par`a*leip"sis (?), n. [NL., fr. Gr. , fr. to leave on one side, to omit; beside + to leave.] Rhet.

A pretended or apparent omission; a figure by which a speaker artfully pretends to pass by what he really mentions; as, for example, if an orator should say, "I do not speak of my adversary's scandalous venality and rapacity, his brutal conduct, his treachery and malice."

[Written also paralepsis, paralepsy, paralipsis.]

 

© Webster 1913.

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