Apothegm
Definition, Meaning & Examples
Pronunciation /ˈæ.pə.θɛm/ · Part of speech noun
Quick meaning: Apothegm is a noun meaning A short, witty, instructive saying; an aphorism or maxim.
Meaning
A short, witty, instructive saying; an aphorism or maxim.
Example Sentences
The gnomic belief that the world is conditioned by love is no idle apothegm.
For the gods have withheld from the barbarians the light of discretion, as that their poetry is not, like ours, full of choice apophthegms and useful maxims, but is all of love and war.
“Fashion is not an art,” says [Pierre] Bergé, “but it takes an artist to make fashion.” The 84-year-old unburdens himself of this apothegm with the foxy charm of the late French actor Charles Boyer.
Which means roughly that business keeps one safe from love—ominous talk when one’s lover is a courtesan. I hoped that it was just another literary conceit I ought to know. (It is, I later learned, an apothegm by Ovid.)
Word Forms
- apothegms
- apophthegm
Synonyms for apothegm
Depending on context, synonyms include byword, saying, adage, saw, proverb, maxim.
Related Words
Related dictionary entries include aphorism, apophthegm, sentence, epigram, parody, gnome.
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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.