Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Polysynthetic.
  • adjective Of or relating to the stage of child language development characterized by the use of single-word utterances.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Having the force of a whole phrase, as a word or gesture; expressive of a sentence, or of a highly complex idea.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Expressing a phrase or sentence in a single word, -- as is the case in the aboriginal languages of America.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective linguistics, of a sentence Consisting of a single word, such as "Go." or "Whatever."
  • adjective linguistics Pertaining to the stage of development where a child produces simple one-word utterances.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[holo– + Greek phrastikos, expressive (from -phrastos, speakable, thought of, from phrazein, to show; see gwhren- in Indo-European roots).]

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Examples

  • According to Merriam-Webster, the first definition of "holophrastic" is: using or consisting of a single word that functions as a phrase or sentence.

    Luxist 2010

  • The concern to distinguish the literal and the figurative, the primary meaning and the secondary meaning, came later, for purposes of analysis; and outside this concern there was no literal or figurative meaning, just a holophrastic meaning that covered indifferently both of the meanings we distinguish.

    On Some Misconceptions About Figurative Language 2005

  • Further, as Barfield rightly noted, the literal/figurative distinction is actually a breaking apart of what at least sometimes is an earlier holophrastic meaning -- that is, we have no reason to think that people took pneuma (=wind) as the anchor meaning and then extended the use to pneuma (=spirit); rather, they just used the word pneuma in both ways without bothering about literal and figurative senses.

    On Some Misconceptions About Figurative Language 2005

  • Further, as Barfield rightly noted, the literal/figurative distinction is actually a breaking apart of what at least sometimes is an earlier holophrastic meaning -- that is, we have no reason to think that people took pneuma (=wind) as the anchor meaning and then extended the use to pneuma (=spirit); rather, they just used the word pneuma in both ways without bothering about literal and figurative senses.

    Archive 2005-05-01 2005

  • The concern to distinguish the literal and the figurative, the primary meaning and the secondary meaning, came later, for purposes of analysis; and outside this concern there was no literal or figurative meaning, just a holophrastic meaning that covered indifferently both of the meanings we distinguish.

    Archive 2005-05-01 2005

  • He tried to keep the impatient growl out of his voice and used holophrastic speech for quicker understanding.

    The Romulan Way Diane Duane 2000

  • He tried to keep the impatient growl out of his voice and used holophrastic speech for quicker understanding.

    Rihannsu: The Bloodwing Voyages Diane Duane with Peter Morwood 2000

  • He tried to keep the impatient growl out of his voice and used holophrastic speech for quicker understanding.

    Rihannsu: The Bloodwing Voyages Diane Duane with Peter Morwood 2000

  • He tried to keep the impatient growl out of his voice and used holophrastic speech for quicker understanding.

    The Romulan Way Diane Duane 2000

  • He tried to keep the impatient growl out of his voice and used holophrastic speech for quicker understanding.

    Rihannsu: The Bloodwing Voyages Diane Duane with Peter Morwood 2000

Comments

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  • If new to environs monastic

    You'll find that the silence is drastic.

    They frown on the phonic

    So monks are laconic,

    Conversing in bursts holophrastic.

    September 10, 2016