EPIC

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does epic mean? 

• EPIC (noun)
  The noun EPIC has 1 sense:

1. a long narrative poem telling of a hero's deeds

  Familiarity information: EPIC used as a noun is very rare.

• EPIC (adjective)
  The adjective EPIC has 2 senses:

1. very imposing or impressive; surpassing the ordinary (especially in size or scale)

2. constituting or having to do with or suggestive of a literary epic

  Familiarity information: EPIC used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• EPIC (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A long narrative poem telling of a hero's deeds

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

epic; epic poem; epos; heroic poem

Hypernyms ("epic" is a kind of...):

poem; verse form (a composition written in metrical feet forming rhythmical lines)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "epic"):

chanson de geste (Old French epic poems)

rhapsody ((in ancient Greece) an epic poem adapted for recitation)

heroic; heroic meter; heroic verse (a verse form suited to the treatment of heroic or elevated themes; dactylic hexameter or iambic pentameter)

Instance hyponyms:

Aeneid (an epic in Latin by Virgil; tells the adventures of Aeneas after the Trojan War; provides an illustrious historical background for the Roman Empire)

Divina Commedia; Divine Comedy (a narrative epic poem written by Dante)

Iliad (a Greek epic poem (attributed to Homer) describing the siege of Troy)

Odyssey (a Greek epic poem (attributed to Homer) describing the journey of Odysseus after the fall of Troy)

Nibelungenlied (an epic poem written in Middle High German and based on the legends of Siegfried and Teutonic kings)

Derivation:

epic; epical (constituting or having to do with or suggestive of a literary epic)

• EPIC (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Very imposing or impressive; surpassing the ordinary (especially in size or scale)

Synonyms:

epic; heroic; larger-than-life

Context example:

heroic sculpture

Similar:

big; large (above average in size or number or quantity or magnitude or extent)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Constituting or having to do with or suggestive of a literary epic

Classified under:

Relational adjectives (pertainyms)

Synonyms:

epic; epical

Context example:

epic tradition

Pertainym:

epic (a long narrative poem telling of a hero's deeds)

Derivation:

epic; epos (a long narrative poem telling of a hero's deeds)

 Context examples 

When I think of the play of force and matter, and all the tremendous struggle of it, I feel as if I could write an epic on the grass.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

WASP-39b likely had an interesting evolutionary history as it migrated in, taking an epic journey across its planetary system and perhaps obliterating planetary objects in its path.

(NASA Finds a Large Amount of Water in an Exoplanet's Atmosphere, NASA)

The researchers suggest Saturn's extra-wet interior might explain why the planet has such epic tantrums, whereas Jupiter does not.

(Study Explains Saturn's Epic Tantrums, NASA)

A study modeled fracture chain reactions and water amounts necessary to repeat a rare, epic collapse such as the 2002 shattering of the iconic shelf "Larsen B."

(Reframing the dangers Antarctica's meltwater ponds pose to ice shelves and sea level, National Science Foundation)

This suggests, as one example, that you could have epic computer problems or car trouble this month, especially in the first days of November.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)