epigram - Definitions from Dictionary.com

6 results for: epigram

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This

ep·i·gram

Audio Help [ep-i-gram] Pronunciation Key

–noun

1.	any witty, ingenious, or pointed saying tersely expressed.

2.	epigrammatic expression: Oscar Wilde had a genius for epigram.

3.	a short, often satirical poem dealing concisely with a single subject and usually ending with a witty or ingenious turn of thought.

[Origin: 1400–50; late ME < L epigramma < Gk epígramma inscription, epigram. See epi-, -gram¹

]

—Synonyms 1. witticism, quip, bon mot.

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
epigram

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American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

ep·i·gram Audio Help (ěp'ĭ-grām') Pronunciation Key
n.

A short, witty poem expressing a single thought or observation.
A concise, clever, often paradoxical statement. See Synonyms at saying.
Epigrammatic discourse or expression.

[Middle English, from Old French epigramme, from Latin epigramma, from Greek, from epigraphein, to mark the surface, inscribe : epi-, epi- + graphein, to write; see gerbh- in Indo-European roots.]

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The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
epigram

1538, from Fr. épigramme, from L. epigramma, from Gk. epigramma "an inscription, epitaph, epigram," from epigraphein "to write on, inscribe" (see epigraph).

WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This

epigram
noun
a witty saying

American Heritage New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition - Cite This Source - Share This
epigram

Any pithy, witty saying or short poem. An aphorism can serve as an epigram, if it is brief.

Note: Several authors are noted for their epigrams, including Mark Twain and Oscar Wilde. One of Wilde's epigrams is “I can resist everything except temptation.”

Note: Two other words are similar: an epigraph is usually an inscription, as on a statue; an epitaph can be such an inscription or it can be a brief literary note commemorating a dead person.

[Chapter:] Conventions of Written English

The American Heritage® New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Epigram

Ep"i*gram\, n. [L. epigramma, fr. Gr. ? inscription, epigram, fr. ? to write upon, 'epi` upon + ? to write: cf. F. ['e]pigramme. See Graphic.]

1. A short poem treating concisely and pointedly of a single thought or event. The modern epigram is so contrived as to surprise the reader with a witticism or ingenious turn of thought, and is often satirical in character.

Dost thou think I care for a satire or an epigram? --Shak.

Note: Epigrams were originally inscription on tombs, statues, temples, triumphal arches, etc.

2. An effusion of wit; a bright thought tersely and sharply expressed, whether in verse or prose.

3. The style of the epigram.

Antithesis, i. e., bilateral stroke, is the soul of epigram in its later and technical signification. --B. Cracroft.

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