from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
- n. The act of persuading or the state of being persuaded: "The persuasion of a democracy to big changes is at best a slow process” ( Harold J. Laski).
- n. The ability or power to persuade: "Three foremost aids to persuasion which occur to me are humility, concentration, and gusto” ( Marianne Moore).
- n. A strongly held opinion; a conviction. See Synonyms at opinion.
- n. A body of religious beliefs; a religion: worshipers of various persuasions.
- n. A party, faction, or group holding to a particular set of ideas or beliefs.
- n. Informal Kind; sort: "the place where ... rockers of any gender or persuasion can become megastars” ( Christopher John Farley).
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English
- n. The act of persuading; the act of influencing the mind by arguments or reasons offered, or by anything that moves the mind or passions, or inclines the will to a determination.
- n. The state of being persuaded or convinced; settled opinion or conviction, which has been induced.
- n. A creed or belief; a sect or party adhering to a certain creed or system of opinions
- n. The power or quality of persuading; persuasiveness.
- n. That which persuades; a persuasive.
from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The act of persuading, influencing, or winning over the mind or will to some conclusion, determination, or course of action, by argument or the presentation of suitable reasons, and not by the exercise of authority, force, or fear; a coaxing or inclining of the mind or will by argument, or by appeals to reason, interest, the feelings, etc.
- n. The state of being persuaded or convinced; settled opinion or conviction.
- n. An inducement; a reason or motive for a certain action.
- n. Way of thinking; creed or belief; hence, a sect or party adhering to a creed or system of opinions: as, Christians of the same persuasion.
- n. Kind; sort.
- n. Synonyms Opinion, Belief, Persuasion, Conviction, and Faith agree in expressing the assent of the mind. Opinion has the least feeling or energy, is most inellectual. Belief may be purely intellectual, or largely moral by the consent of the feelings or the will. Persuasion is a word borrowed from the field of action; primarily, we persuade one to do something by motives addressed to his feelings or interests; when the word is applied to opinions, it seems to retain much of its original sense, suggesting that the persuasioh is founded largely on the feelings or wishes: we have a pesuasion of that which we are willing to believe. Conviction starts from the other side, primarily suggesting that one was rather reluctantly forced to belive by the weight of evidance; it is now more often used of settled, profound, amd earnest beliefs: as, his deepest convictions of right and duty. Faith rests upon belief, but implies confidence in a person on whose authority one depends at least partly, and the gathering of feeling about the opinion held; it is a confident belief: as, to have implict faith in a friend or a promise. See inference, and quotation from Wordsworth under definition 2.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- n. a personal belief or judgment that is not founded on proof or certainty
- n. the act of persuading (or attempting to persuade); communication intended to induce belief or action
'' It's what we call a persuasion flight, '' Ferrer said.
"It's what we call a persuasion flight," Ferrer said.
Perhaps "persuasion" is just a dubious word-choice and what is meant is more specifically the negotiation of the audience to a certain point of view by logically justifying it, but even if so, it's not wise to let this contrast of reason and rapture slide by unchallenged.
Lastly, are the conservatives even really interested in persuasion?
This will be true both because when you have less money you spend it when it matters most -- at the end; and because the value of marginal increases in persuasion communication diminishes as the volume goes up.
A free fishing trip ... hmmm, let me think about it, yeh I guess I'll enter ... your persuasion is overwhelming.
(Well, technically, cops can order witnesses to testify, but persuasion is often necessary in dangerous cases).
Second, irrationality does not imply that persuasion is impossible.
On the political side of the Stern Review, my most-charitable interpretation of its urgent tone is that the report is an essay in persuasion that is more about gut instincts regarding the horrors of uncertain rare disasters whose probabilities we do not know than it is about economic analysis as that term is conventionally understood.
Children are going to get their ideas from somewhere, so arguing that there should be less advertising persuasion is pretty much tantamount to saying that there should be more of some other kind of persuasion.