Definition of "preterition" []

• The act of passing by, disregarding, or omitting. (noun)
• Law Neglect of a testator to mention a legal heir in his or her will. (noun)
• Christianity The Calvinist doctrine that God neglected to designate those who would be damned, positively determining only the elect. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Third, Olson raises this objection in the context of preterition and reprobation (he never uses the term preterition and seems to be unaware of this important distinction)."
• "(Let me again remind our readers that the rhetorical figure I so much enjoy using is called preterition, as in: "If I were as mean as my opponent, I would remind him that his mother sold not only homemade cakes to her male customers, but, being a gentleman, I will pass over that fact.")"
• "Paralipsis, also known as praeteritio, preterition, cataphasis, antiphrasis, or parasiopesis, is a rhetorical figure of speech wherein the speaker or writer invokes a subject by denying that it should be invoked."