Paromologia
Conceding a weaker point in order to strengthen the main one.
Paromologia is strategic admission. The speaker grants something to the other side — a fact, a fault, a partial truth — and then shows that even so, the central argument stands. The concession buys credibility and narrows the dispute.
It differs from epitrope, which grants permission ironically, in that the concession here is sincere as far as it goes. What is tactical is the choice of what to concede: never the load-bearing claim.
Trial advocates and op-ed writers use it to defuse the strongest objection before an opponent can raise it, so the audience hears the weakness first in the speaker's own framing.
Common mistake: conceding too much, or conceding late. A point given away after the audience has already heard it from the other side reads as retreat rather than as candour.
“Grant that the scheme is expensive; it is still cheaper than the failure it prevents.”
Keep reading the glossary
Anticipating an objection in your own argument and answering it before it can be raised.
Ironically granting permission or conceding a point, so that the concession damages the opponent.
A grammatical balance of two opposed ideas — 'to be or not to be'.
A compressed syllogism in which one premise is left unstated, to be supplied by the audience.