Agon
Definition, Meaning & Examples
Pronunciation /ˈæ.ɡəʊn/ · Part of speech noun
Quick meaning: Agon is a noun meaning (countable) A struggle or contest; conflict; especially between the protagonist and antagonist in a literary work.
Meaning
(countable) A struggle or contest; conflict; especially between the protagonist and antagonist in a literary work.
More Meanings
- (countable) An intellectual conflict or apparent competition of ideas.
- (countable) A contest in ancient Greece, as in athletics or music, in which prizes were awarded.
- (uncountable) A two-player board game played on a hexagonally-tiled board, popular in Victorian times.
Example Sentences
One way of reading Beowulf is to think of it as three agons in the hero's life[.]
Freud's originality stemmed from his aggression and ambition in his agon with biology.
The point, though, is that to fully and uncritically surrender to such agon against individuals is to invite one's own ethical degeneration; […]
It was not ecological pressure or shortages of protein, as anthropologist Marvin Harris has claimed; institutionalized violence, as opposed to the stylized agons of hunters over grievances, was the shadow side of the Neolithic Revolution.
Word Forms
- agons
- agones
Related Words
Related dictionary entries include contest, battle, agony, antag, fight, conflict.
Related Dictionary Tools
Sources & Attribution
FreeDictionaryAPI.com / Wiktionary · Original source · CC BY-SA 4.0
Dictionary data is provided by FreeDictionaryAPI.com and sourced from Wiktionary under its stated license.