Definition of "stylistics" []

• The study of the use of elements of language style, such as metaphor, in particular contexts. (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.

• "This is not unintentional, nor is it mere stylistics."
• "Might it have something to do with the fact that reviewers are almost exclusively authors themselves, and perhaps more concerned with promoting their own thematic preferences and flaunting their prose stylistics than actually writing an accurate, even-handed review?"
• "Equally, in his brisk 1987 thriller Best Seller – about an author-cop who sees a way out of his writer's block via a corporate hitman's psychopathic life story – it's Larry Cohen's cynical, subversive script that registers most strongly, not the stylistics of John Flynn."