Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Peripeteia.
Wiktionary
- n. Alternative form of peripeteia.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a sudden and unexpected change of fortune or reverse of circumstances (especially in a literary work)
Etymologies
- French péripétie, from Greek peripeteia; see peripeteia. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“peripety," or sudden reversal of circumstances, on which the plot of the "H.llenica" hinges, see Grote, "H. G." x.”
“It is a turning-point, a veritable moral peripety, though the decisive step was taken long ago.”
“For the “peripety,” or sudden reversal of circumstances, on which the plot of the”
“And, in a real peripety, it turns out that the area of political science where mathematics has had the greatest success is elections, the most exciting and decisive part of democratic life, where public opinion turns into government and policy.”
“Hence a sudden and complete peripety in the student's mind.”
“For him to fall in love was itself a violent peripety, bound to produce a violent upheaval; and such was his pride that for his love to be unrequited would naturally enamour him of death.”
“For him to fall in love was itself a violent peripety, bound to produce a violent up-heaval; and such was his pride that for his love to be unrequited would naturally enamour him of death.”
“The peripety was according to the best rules of tragic art.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘peripety’.
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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
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The Aubrey/Maturin List I'm Gonna Mak...
I'm wading through Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin novels one by one, and someday, I'll wade through them again and list all the words I learned while reading them.
Edit: I started ma...studdingsail, carronade, mumchance, grumlin-futtocks, crosscat-harpings, holystone, sennit, orlop, orchitis, negus, kevel, altumal and 1112 more...
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Definitions
Esoteric words for me
pleroma, syzygy, antanaclasis, Therapeutae, Essenes, arcane, germane, apposite, conurbation, sinecure, antiphonal, coenobite and 159 more...
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Interesting Words
crepuscular, myriad, serendipity, brouhaha, taupe, mushroom, vignette, babylon, frumpy, miasma, ornery, arraign and 19 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for peripety.
chained_bear "'How would you render peripateia?'
"'Why surely a reverse. But no doubt you mean it in the dramatical sense: can you not say peripety in English? The French certainly have péripétie; though to be sure they use it loosely, in the sense of ordinary vicissitudes.'
"'I believe I have seen peripety. But it is scarcely current English...'"
--Patrick O'Brian, The Letter of Marque, 178–179 Feb 29, 2008