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| Language that describes qualities that cannot be perceived with the five senses. For instance, calling something pleasant or pleasing is abstract, while calling something yellow or sour is concrete. The word domesticity is abstract, but the word sweat is concrete. The preference for abstract or concrete imagery varies from century to century. |
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2.pertaining to or functioning as an adjective; adjectival :
the adjective use of a noun.
3.Law. concerning methods of enforcement of legal rights, as pleading and practice (opposed to substantive ).
4.(of dye colors) requiring a mordant or the like to render them permanent (opposed to substantive ).
5.Archaic. not able to stand alone; dependent:Women were seen by some (by some men, that is) as adjective creatures, needing to be cared for and protected from the vicissitudes of life. |
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| noun, Grammar.1.any member of a class of words that function as modifiers of verbs or clauses, and in some languages, as Latin and English, as modifiers of adjectives, other adverbs, or adverbial phrases, as very in very nice, much in much more impressive, and tomorrow in She'll write to you tomorrow. They relate to what they modify by indicating place (I promise to be there), time (Do your homework now!), manner (She sings beautifully), circumstance (He accidentally dropped the glass when the bell rang), degree (I'm very happy to see you), or cause (I draw, although badly). |
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noun, plural allegories.1.a representation of an abstract or spiritual meaning through concrete or material forms; figurative treatment of one subject under the guise of another.
2.a symbolical narrative: the allegory ofPiers Plowman.
3.emblem (def 3). |
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noun 1.the commencement of two or more stressed syllables of a word group either with the same consonant sound or sound group (consonantal alliteration) as in from stem to stern, or with a vowel sound that may differ from syllable to syllable (vocalic alliteration) as in each to all.
Compare consonance (def 4a).
2.the commencement of two or more words of a word group with the same letter, as in apt alliteration's artful aid. |
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noun 1.a passing or casual reference; an incidental mention of something, either directly or by implication:
The novel's title is an allusion to Shakespeare.2.the act of alluding; the making of a casual or indirect reference to something:
The Bible is a fertile source of allusion in art.
3.Obsolete. a metaphor or parable. |
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noun, 1.a similarity between like features of two things, on which a comparison may be based:the analogy between the heart and a pump.2.similarity or comparability:
I see no analogy between your problem and mine.3.Biology. an analogous relationship.
4.Linguistics.the process by which words or phrases are created or re-formed according to existing patterns in the language, as when shoon was re-formed as shoes, when -ize is added to nouns like winter to form verbs, or when a child says foots for feet.a form resulting from such a process.5.Logic. a form of reasoning in which one thing is inferred to be similar to another thing in a certain respect, on the basis of the known similarity between the things in other respects. |
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noun,a short account of a particular incident or event, especially of an interesting or amusing nature.
2.a short, obscure historical or biographical account. |
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noun 1.a person who is opposed to, struggles against, or competes with another; opponent; adversary.
2.the adversary of the hero or protagonist of a drama or other literary work:
Iago is the antagonist of Othello.
3.Physiology. a muscle that acts in opposition to another.
Compare agonist (def 3).
4.Dentistry. a tooth in one jaw that articulates during mastication or occlusion with a tooth in the opposing jaw.5.Pharmacology. a drug that counteracts the effects of another drug. |
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adjective 1.preceding; prior:an antecedent event.noun 2.a preceding circumstance, event, object, style, phenomenon, etc.
3.antecedents.ancestors.the history, events, characteristics, etc., of one's earlier life:Little is known about his birth and antecedents.4.Grammar. a word, phrase, or clause, usually a substantive, that is replaced by a pronoun or other substitute later, or occasionally earlier, in the same or in another, usually subsequent, sentence. In Jane lost a glove and she can't find it, Jane is the antecedent of she and glove is the antecedent of it.
6.Logic. the conditional element in a proposition, as “Caesar conquered Gaul,” in “If Caesar conquered Gaul, he was a great general.”. |
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noun 1.an event, conclusion, statement, etc., that is far less important, powerful, or striking than expected.
2.a descent in power, quality, dignity, etc.; a disappointing, weak, or inglorious conclusion: After serving as president, he may find life in retirement an anticlimax.
3. a noticeable or ludicrous descent from lofty ideas or expressions to banalities or commonplace remarks: We were amused by the anticlimax of the company's motto: “For God, for country, and for Acme Gasworks.”. |
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noun,1. opposition; contrast:
the antithesis of right and wrong.
2.the direct opposite (usually followed by of or to):Her behavior was the very antithesis of cowardly.
3.Rhetoric.the placing of a sentence or one of its parts against another to which it is opposed to form a balanced contrast of ideas, as in “Give me liberty or give me death.”.the second sentence or part thus set in opposition, as “or give me death.”.
4.Philosophy. See under Hegelian dialecti |
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noun 1.a word opposite in meaning to another. Fast is an antonym of slow.
Compare synonym (def 1). |
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| noun 1. the sign ('), as used: to indicate the omission of one or more letters in a word, whether unpronounced, as in o'er for over, or pronounced, as in gov't for government; to indicate the possessive case, as in man's; or to indicate plurals of abbreviations and symbols, as in several M.D.'s, 3's. |
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noun 1. the original pattern or model from which all things of the same kind are copied or on which they are based; a model or first form; prototype.
2.(in Jungian psychology) a collectively inherited unconscious idea, pattern of thought, image, etc., universally present in individual psyches. |
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| adverb 1.on or to one side;away from some position or direction:to turn aside 2.away from one's thoughts or consideration: to put one's cares aside.3. in reserve; in a separate place, as for safekeeping; apart; away:to put some money aside for a rainy day.4. away from a present group,especially for reasons of privacy; off to another part, as of a room; into or to a separate place 5.in spite of; put apart; not-withstanding: all kidding aside; unusual circumstances aside. noun 6. a part of an actor's lines supposedly not heard by others on the stage and intended only for the audience.7. words spoken so as not to be heard by others present.8.a temporary departure from a main theme or topic, especially a parenthetical comment or remark; short digression |
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noun 1. an expression whose meaning is not predictable from the usual meanings of its constituent elements, as kick the bucket or hang one's head, or from the general grammatical rules of a language, as the table round for the round table, and that is not a constituent of a larger expression of like characteristics.
2. a language, dialect, or style of speaking peculiar to a people.
3.a construction or expression of one language whose parts correspond to elements in another language but whose total structure or meaning is not matched in the same way in the second language.
4. the peculiar character or genius of a language.
5.a distinct style or character, in music, art, etc.:
the idiom of Bach. |
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noun 1. resemblance of sounds.
2. Also called vowel rhyme. Prosody. rhyme in which the same vowel sounds are used with different consonants in the stressed syllables of the rhyming words, as in penitent and reticence.
3. partial agreement or correspondence. |
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noun 1. the gaseous envelope surrounding the earth; the air. 2. this medium at a given place.3. Astronomy. the gaseous envelope surrounding a heavenly body.
4. Chemistry. any gaseous envelope or medium.5. a conventional unit of pressure
6. a surrounding or pervading mood, environment, or influence:
an atmosphere of impending war; a very tense atmosphere.7.the dominant mood or emotional tone of a work of art, as of a play or novel:the chilly atmosphere of a ghost story.
verb (used with object), atmosphered, atmosphering. 9. to give an atmosphere to:
The author had cleverly atmosphered the novel for added chills. |
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noun, plural cacophonies.
1.harsh discordance of sound; dissonance:
a cacophony of hoots, cackles, and wails.
2.a discordant and meaningless mixture of sounds:the cacophony produced by city traffic at midday.
3.Music. frequent use of discords of a harshness and relationship difficult to understand. |
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noun 1.an ecclesiastical rule or law enacted by a council or other competent authority and, in the Roman Catholic Church, approved by the pope.
2.the body of ecclesiastical law.
3.the body of rules, principles, or standards accepted as axiomatic and universally binding in a field of study or art: the neoclassical canon.
4.a fundamental principle or general rule:
the canons of good behavior.
5.a standard; criterion:the canons of taste.
6. the books of the Bible recognized by any Christian church as genuine and inspired.
7.any officially recognized set of sacred books. |
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noun 1. a picture, description, etc., ludicrously exaggerating the peculiarities or defects of persons or things:
His caricature of the mayor in this morning's paper is the best he's ever drawn.
2.the art or process of producing such pictures, descriptions, etc.
3.any imitation or copy so distorted or inferior as to be ludicrous.
verb (used with object), caricatured, caricaturing.
4.to make a caricature of; represent in caricature. |
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noun 1. a trite, stereotyped expression; a sentence or phrase, usually expressing a popular or common thought or idea, that has lost originality, ingenuity, and impact by long overuse, as sadder but wiser, or strong as an ox.
2. (in art, literature, drama, etc.) a trite or hackneyed plot, character development, use of color, musical expression, etc.
3.anything that has become trite or commonplace through overuse.
4. British Printing.a stereotype or electrotype plate.
a reproduction made in a like manner.
adjective
5.trite; hackneyed; stereotyped; clichéd. |
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