Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- 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).
- n. A brief summary, as of a book or article; an abstract.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. An abridgment; a brief summary or abstract of a subject, or of a more extended exposition of it; a compendium containing the substance or principal matters of a book or other writing.
- n. Hence Anything which represents another or others in a condensed or comprehensive form.
- n. Synonyms Compendium, Compend, etc. See abridgment.
Wiktionary
- n. of a class of items The embodiment or encapsulation of.
- n. of a class of items A representative example.
- n. of a class of items The height; the best.
- n. of a written document A brief summary.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A work in which the contents of a former work are reduced within a smaller space by curtailment and condensation; a brief summary; an abridgement.
- n. A compact or condensed representation of anything; something possessing conspicuously or to a high degree the qualities of a class.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a standard or typical example
- n. a brief abstract (as of an article or book)
Etymologies
- From Middle French, from Latin epitome, epitoma, from Ancient Greek ἐπιτομή (epitomē, "an abridgment, also a surface-incision"), from ἐπιτέμνω (epitemnō, "I cut upon the surface, cut short, abridge"), from ἐπί (epi-) + τέμνω (temnō, "to cut"). (Wiktionary)
- Latin epitomē, a summary, from Greek, an abridgment, from epitemnein, to cut short : epi-, epi- + temnein, to cut. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“THE Bible contains the history of the human race in epitome; is the mirror in which every age and every generation may see reflected its own features and complexion.”
“But when preparing my Mss. for print I found the text incomplete, many of the stories being given in epitome and not a few ruthlessly mutilated with head or feet wanting.”
“Vocabulary What is the epitome of the word epitome?”
“Not even Loren Pierce's railing commentary on the pastor's introduction of an outlandish word like "epitome" -- clearly forbidden by the Discipline's injunction to plain language understood of the people -- availed to sap the satisfaction of the majority.”
“And that night and the next and the next, I wrote "Gentleman Adventurers," which the critics called the epitome of all that is balladesque.”
“If boutique isn't your preference, you may like the second hotel, Le Royal Monceau. 149 rooms and designed by Phillippe Stark, this hotel is what I'd call the epitome of Parisian luxury.”
The Huffington Post: Amy Chan: Top 10 Restaurants in Paris on Any Budget
“This method is popular in diners across the nation, but the epitome is the Shake Shack with three locations in NYC and a cult following that forms long lines.”
“The epitome was the Insull group, headquartered in Chicago but with tentacles extending into thirty states—an unsettling octopus of capital and influence.”
“Epicycles worked on paper, sort of, but they did a much better job at keeping astronomers respectable and their models intact than at describing the actual movements of heavenly bodies; they have come to be known as the epitome of bad science.”
“For me the epitome is the Establishment's surprise at Stephen Colbert's press dinner speech, and their poo pooing critiques.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘epitome’.
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501
Classic
mete, ire, bane, bilk, boor, elan, ado, toil, onus, aberration, abstruse, anomaly and 401 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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New words
new words or spelling issues
voluble, Metagrobolize, salubrious, calumny, fugacity, withdrawal, bourse, hypertrophy, leitmotif, argot, improvident, damask and 238 more...
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501
Classic
aberration, abstruse, anomaly, assiduous, august, banal, boisterous, dulcet, epitome, impudent, insolent, mellifluous and 401 more...
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GRE 2014
abate, abdicate, abase, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abjure, abortive, abound, abrasive, abreast, abridge and 1577 more...
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501
Classic
irk, teem, blight, pith, moot, mete, ire, bane, bilk, boor, elan, ado and 401 more...
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501
Classic
aberration, abstruse, anomaly, assiduous, august, banal, boisterous, dulcet, epitome, impudent, insolent, mellifluous and 401 more...
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Words build meanings from origins( et...
These come from gamma meditation ,I think.
discursive, exogenous, machinations, purportedly, sumptuous, congruity, cantankerous, incongruous, festoon, hessian, ratiocinative, stratigraphic and 2046 more...
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Words For Novel (Part 2)
fable, sprite, syphilitic, anvil, wonderstruck, vertigo, bridled, tufted, fettered, savvy, tweed fedora, tryst and 255 more...
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Hard to Spell
Not sure I'd be able to spell these words...
camaraderie, belligerent, strategem, hippopotomonstros..., epitome, accommodate, subtle, sacrilegious, ambivalent, wookiee, onomatopoeia, idiosyncrasy and 3 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
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gre2
aberrant, aberration, aboveboard, abrasive, abstemious, acme, admonish, affable, affluent, alacrity, allegory, alleviate and 1861 more...
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Twitter favourites
The new favourite words of people on Twitter.
A script searches Twitter for "X is my new favourite word" and adds it to this list.
See also:
bumwank, calamity, recalcitrant, gayenese, jeeze, nonsense, flabbergasted, juxtapose, procrastinating, ossanity, biffing, loser and 1972 more... -
Twitter favorites
The new favourite words of people on Twitter.
A script searches Twitter for "X is my new favorite word" and adds it to this list.
See also:
unfathomably, glice, cuh, fab, ciggaty, doll, thuggin, oxymoronic, pineapple, succubutt, griming, cheeky and 2369 more... -
Words I Know
List of most of the words I've learned
garner, abase, abate, abdicate, abduct, aberration, abet, abhor, abide, abject, abjure, abnegation and 1046 more...
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my GRE words
pedant, wizened, histrionic, logorrhea, frenetic, approbation, quibble, knell, acclivity, droog, prevarication, aplomb and 182 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for epitome.
trochee My pronunciation of this word was saved by Flava Flav, who explained :
rhyming with 'enemy' saves me every time I go to pronounce this word. Sep 30, 2010
littleclaw I still say it that exact same way, ep-ee-toam! Jun 26, 2008
reesetee Trust me, sionnach. There are other families as warped as yours. ;-) Feb 16, 2007
sionnach I pronounced this as three syllables, ep-ee-tome, rhyming with roam, for far longer than I care to admit. A consequence of meeting words in print long before one ever hears them in conversation. The wrong pronunciation was immediately gleefully adopted by everyone else in the family and is still the one we use when talking among ourselves. As far as I can determine, other people may not have families quite as warped as mine, but a lot of folks admit to having had some initial difficulty in pronouncing epitome. Feb 16, 2007