e·pit·o·me (ĭ-pĭt'ə-mē) n. A representative or perfect example of a class or type: "He is seen . . . as the epitome of the hawkish, right-of-center intellectual" (Paul Kennedy). A brief summary, as of a book or article; an abstract.
[Latin epitomē, a summary, from Greek, an abridgment, from epitemnein, to cut short : epi-, epi- + temnein, to cut; see tem- in Indo-European roots.] |