Definitions

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

  • adjective Of, relating to, or characteristic of Plato or his philosophy.
  • adjective Friendly or affectionate without involving sexual relations.
  • adjective Speculative or theoretical.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Pertaining to Plato (about 427-347 b. c.), or to his doctrines.
  • noun A follower of Plato; a Platonist.
  • noun One who loves with a Platonic affection.
  • Pertaining to the Greek comic poet Plato (about 427-388 b. c.).

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

  • noun A follower of Plato; a Platonist.
  • adjective Of or pertaining to Plato, or his philosophy, school, or opinions.
  • adjective Pure, passionless; nonsexual; philosophical.
  • adjective the five regular geometrical solids; namely, the tetrahedron, hexahedron or cube, octahedron, dodecahedron, and icosahedron.
  • adjective a pure, spiritual affection, subsisting between persons of opposite sex, unmixed with carnal desires, and regarding the mind only and its excellences; -- a species of love for which Plato was a warm advocate.
  • adjective (Astron.) a period of time determined by the revolution of the equinoxes, or the space of time in which the stars and constellations return to their former places in respect to the equinoxes; -- called also great year. This revolution, which is caused by the precession of the equinoxes, is accomplished in about 26,000 years.

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

  • adjective Of or relating to the ancient Greek philosopher Plato or his philosophies.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective of or relating to or characteristic of Plato or his philosophy
  • adjective free from physical desire

Etymologies

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

[After Plato.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Latin platonicus; surface analysis is Plato + -n- ("(intervocalic)") +‎ -ic (“relating to”).

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Examples

  • ˜Platonic solids™ (the tetrahedron or pyramid, the cube, the octahedron, the dodecahedron, and the icosahedron, assigned in the Platonic tradition starting with Timaeus 54d-56b to the elements of which the universe was composed and to the universe itself or to the fifth element, ether).

    Speusippus Dancy, Russell 2003

  • However, admiration for Socrates is not enough to merit the label Platonic, and it must be acknowledged that the theory of Forms never found a home in

    Dictionary of the History of Ideas JOHN FISHER 1968

  • Moreover he proposed that the choices of such OR self-collapses are not random, but influenced by what he termed Platonic information embedded in Planck scale geometry.

    Deepak Chopra: Can Science Explain the Soul? 2010

  • Those intuitions which we call Platonic are seldom scientific, they seldom explain the phenomena or hit upon the actual law of things, but they are often the highest expression of that activity which they fail to make comprehensible.

    The Sense of Beauty Being the Outlines of Aesthetic Theory George Santayana 1907

  • The belief in Platonic idealism may be the primary dividing line in philosophy, really.

    Designing a Hermetically Sealed, Self-Pleasing Ideology darkerblogistan 2009

  • A few of these instances may, perhaps, represent what is usually called a Platonic union.

    Famous Affinities of History — Complete Lyndon Orr

  • A few of these instances may, perhaps, represent what is usually called a Platonic union.

    Famous Affinities of History — Volume 4 Lyndon Orr

  • Tom could just as easily be described as my Platonic Soul Mate PSM, but by God, keep your eye on that “P.”

    Live and Let Love Andrea Buchanan 2011

  • Tom could just as easily be described as my Platonic Soul Mate PSM, but by God, keep your eye on that “P.”

    Live and Let Love Andrea Buchanan 2011

  • Only five shapes fit the bill: the tetrahedron, the cube, the octahedron, the icosahedron and the dodecahedron, the quintet known as the Platonic solids since Plato wrote about them in the Timaeus.

    HERE’S LOOKING AT EUCLID Alex Bellos 2010

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