exordium
- n (rhetoric) the introductory section of an oration or discourse
- Master Sessions' exordium: "We should educate the masses in the duties of good citizenship, in a better understanding and appreciation of the spirit of the American Government .
- Instead of constructing a speech on the old Ciceronian blueprint (exordium, argument, refutation, peroration and so on) or even on a less classical pattern (beginning, middle .
- From the exordium, to the "new" series (stature, splendor, medium, spaciousness, mobility, radiance), and on to the "one-of-thes" ("most gratifying payoffs," "few outstanding .