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Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

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

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. In Gr. lit., a poetical inscription placed upon a tomb or public monument, as upon the face of a temple or public arch. The term was afterward extended to any little piece of verse expressing with precision a delicate or ingenious thought, as the pieces in the Greek Anthology. In Roman classical poetry the term was somewhat indiscriminately used to designate a short piece in verse; but the works of Catullus, and especially the epigrams of Martial, contain a great number with the modern epigrammatic character.
  2. n. Hence In a restricted sense, a short poem or piece in verse, which has only one subject, and finishes by a witty or ingenious turn of thought; hence, in a general sense, an interesting thought represented happily in a few words, whether verse or prose; a pointed or antithetical saying.

Wiktionary

  1. n. An inscription in stone.
  2. n. A brief but witty saying.
  3. n. A short, witty or pithy poem.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. 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.
  2. n. An effusion of wit; a bright thought tersely and sharply expressed, whether in verse or prose.
  3. n. The style of the epigram.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. a witty saying

Etymologies

  1. 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.

Examples

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Lists

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Comments

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  • jwjarvis Murphy's law is an adage or epigram that is typically stated as: "Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong". Oct 5, 2010

  • bilby That was my impression too. Nov 10, 2008

  • seanahan Oscar Wilde, noted witticist, I presume? Nov 9, 2008

  • bilby "If, with the literate, I am
    Impelled to try an epigram,
    I never seek to take the credit;
    We all assume that Oscar said it."
    - Dorothy Parker. Nov 7, 2008

‘epigram’ has been looked up 4306 times, loved by 8 people, added to 54 lists, commented on 4 times, and has a Scrabble score of 12.