Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Of, relating to, or having the character of an icon.
- adj. Having a conventional formulaic style. Used of certain memorial statues and busts.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Of or pertaining to a portrait or likeness or to portraiture; of the nature of a portrait.
- Of, pertaining to, or resembling in any way an icon or sacred image, or the style of such image-paintings.
- In art, conventional: applied to such work as the statues of victorious athletes commonly dedicated to divinities in antiquity, or to memorial statues and portrait-busts executed after fixed models or types, as the busts of the sovereign set up in British courts of justice.
Wiktionary
- adj. Relating to, or having the characteristics of, an icon.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. relating to or having the characteristics on an icon
Etymologies
- icon + -ic (Wiktionary)
Examples
“Brimming with both vagueness and import, the label "iconic" has been slapped on everything from fashion to corporate logos, public buildings to television characters.”
“Although the term iconic is increasingly used to mean simply prominent or attention-getting buildings, architectural icons embody specific messages.”
“The word iconic gets thrown around way too often, but in the case of the Jeep it qualifies.”
“I'm not taking away from what was achieved or the bravery displayed but the term iconic suggests somewhat modern images.”
“What must be said, though, is that in an age when the word "iconic" has become a synonym for "vaguely familiar if you're particularly interested in that sort of thing", teenage Reece Topley's start to the County Championship season is already only a couple of wickets short of being "totally unforgettable".”
The Guardian: Let's drink to the dobbers – cricket's decaf bowlers | Harry Pearson
“Late last week, Noonan made a rather personal attack on Obama for what she described as his iconic bow to the emperor of Japan.”
“Dressed in white, she wandered round the Acropolis "which surely defines the word 'iconic' ", revealed that this is "the largest ancient building created entirely from marble" and claimed that "from the White House to the Bank of England, its architecture had been slavishly copied".”
Telegraph.co.uk - Telegraph online, Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph
“Few labels are so recklessly applied as the word "iconic".”
Telegraph.co.uk - Telegraph online, Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph
“It has been pointed out on Comment is Free today that the word "iconic" should be confined to Russian and Greek... art and that is probably true.”
“But what makes it iconic is incompatible with our new game!”
Mike Mearls Strangles Realism In D&D Like It’s An Unruly Hooker « Geek Related
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘iconic’.
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PHIL - vocabulary of thinking
philosophy, Socratic, dialogue, philosopher, Athenian, philosophical, politic, Greek, method, death, ancient, believe and 243 more...
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Russian Doll Words
A Russian Doll word is a word that, when you remove the first and last letters, is either the empty string, or a Russian Doll word. These are all of the 6 or more letter Russian Doll words found in...
waspiness, upraisers, strainers, sporangia, raspiness, prelatess, methanals, gaspiness, washings, uprisers, upraises, upraiser and 2373 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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words to describe everything GOLD
emotions, reactions, senses, how do we feel when we wear gold, generational, memories,
Sensual, illuminated, history, intricate, classic, bright, luxe, sparkly, splashy, metallic, perfection, gilt and 30 more...
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capitalcreative's Words
deviltry, visceral, cassanova, assuage, genesis, hot minute, osmosis, wistful, sublime, loathe, farfetched, newfangled and 283 more...
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icono-, icon-
of or relating to images or icons
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Hiroe's Words
facetious, bardic, twatwaffle, cattywampus, splendiferous, zomg, merf, fwaa, fnord, tortify, schwiz, blort and 225 more...
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stpeter's Words
abase, abasement, abashed, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abhorrent, abide, abject, ablation, abnegation and 3536 more...
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Some Words I Love to Use
arcology, strumpet, crux, confected, pedant, bluestocking, cogitation, incensed, lovecraftian, cygnet, dactyl, adytum and 539 more...
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ginnylev's Words
neuroplasticity, repudiate, scintilla, ruminate, tautology, ombudsman, exigent, filibuster, grace, ambidextrous, amends, disclosure and 623 more...
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MsHalston's Words
theoretically, insufferable, apolitico, milquetoast, egregious, aplomb, elan, fraught, flummox, befrocked, moll, molten and 605 more...
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Words of the Day
glabella, chirotony, nook-shotten, crapehanger, filemot, swirlie, egosurf, lexiphanicism, Ruritanian, stichometry, chrononaut, faldstool and 2041 more...
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adjectives
sartorial, saucy, wieldy, wuthering, dilapidated, rough-and-ready, flabbergasted, ravishing, seminal, snooty, galore, scrumptious and 386 more...
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watchful words
wary, ware, ward, steward, warder, award, reward, wardrobe, guard, regard, rearward, arcturus and 25 more...
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Words.
synesthesia, synaesthesia, twilit, twilight, abysmal, perpetual, mellifluous, incandescent, brilliant, radiant, articulate, discombobulated and 55 more...
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Describing things I like
sentimental, nostalgia, classic, old-fashioned, lost, era, iconic, charming, cute, adorable, beautiful, artful and 3 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for iconic.
garyth123 I'm thinking of how Sir Sean Connery would pronounce "iconic site" at least in the mouths of what I think are termed impressionists. (Mike Yarwood not Monet.) Mar 28, 2009
bilby In Glasgow, I'd guess a site dipped in batter and deep-fried. Mar 28, 2009
garyth123 "SCOTLAND has won an international contest to host a cutting-edge operation which aims to transform the way companies run major projects around the world and is expected to create about 200 jobs at an iconic site near Glasgow."
Hi-tech inward investment on course to create 200 jobs
What is meant by an iconic site?
Jonathan Meades wrote recently about the overuse of this word: ICONIC: THE ADJECTIVE OF THE AGE Mar 27, 2009