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  1. auxesis love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. Growth resulting from increase in cell size without cell division.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. In rhetoric, amplification; exaggeration; hyperbole; the use of a more unusual and high-sounding word for the ordinary and proper word.
  2. n. In mathematics, the ratio in which the element of a figure has to be magnified to make it conform to the corresponding element of a conformable figure.
  3. n. In botany, the method of increase in size of the valves of diatoms.

Wiktionary

  1. n. rhetoric Extreme hyperbole.
  2. n. rhetoric Arranging words or clauses in a sequence of increasing force.
  3. n. rhetoric Amplification in any form.
  4. n. biology The growth of an organism without cell division

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. (Rhet.) A figure by which a grave and magnificent word is put for the proper word; amplification; hyperbole.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. growth from increase in cell size without cell division

Etymologies

  1. From Ancient Greek αὐξάνειν (auxanein, "to grow"). (Wiktionary)
  2. Greek auxēsis, growth, from auxanein, auxē-, to grow; see aug- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

  • “The one is the discussion of an indefinite question, or general truth, which by the Greeks (as I have before observed) is called a _thesis_: and the other is employed in amplifying and exaggerating, which they call an _auxesis_.”

    Cicero's Brutus or History of Famous Orators; also His Orator, or Accomplished Speaker.

  • “Would you be happy for CiF and the moderators to assume it was true, and say so, until you managed to prove it wasn't? auxesis”

    The Guardian World News

  • “Howbeit, there is an emphasis in the expression, which is not to be neglected: for as it is observed by Chrysostom, as containing an auxesis (ouchi ton mē hamartanonta monon legei alla ton mēde gnonta hamartian), and by sundry learned persons after him; so those who desire to learn the excellency of the grace of God herein, will have an impression of a sense of it on their minds from this emphatical expression, which the Holy Ghost chose to make use of unto that end; and the observation of it is not to be despised.”

    The Doctrine of Justification by Faith

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synonyms (4)

Words with the same meaning

  1. amplification
  1. hyperbole
  1. incrementum
  1. climax

hypernyms (6)

Words that are more generic or abstract

  1. ontogeny
  1. development
  1. ontogenesis
  1. maturation
  1. growing
  1. growth

reverse dictionary (2)

Words that contain this word in their definition

  1. auxetic
  1. auxetically

tags (7)

Free-form, user-generated categorization

  1. biology
  1. botany
  1. figure of speech
  1. rhetoric
  1. hyperbole
  1. mathematics
  1. vvcvcvc

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Comments

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  • jmjarmstrong JM prioritises his auxesis collection catalogue Jun 17, 2010

  • burntsox In a wordie sense, consider:

    1. Arranging words or clauses in a sequence of increasing force. In this sense, auxesis is comparable to climax and has sometimes been called incrementum.
    2. A figure of speech in which something is referred to in terms disproportionately large (a kind of exaggeration or hyperbole).
    3. Amplification in general.

    http://rhetoric.byu.edu/figures/A/auxesis.htm Dec 20, 2007

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‘auxesis’ has been looked up 1973 times, loved by 2 people, added to 13 lists, commented on 2 times, and has a Scrabble score of 14.