Epitome

3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Epitome \E*pit"o*me\, n.; pl. {Epitomes}. [L., fr. Gr. ? a
     surface incision, also, and abridgment, fr. ? to cut into,
     cut short; 'epi` upon + te`mnein to cut: cf. F. ['e]pitome.
     See {Tome}.]
     1. A work in which the contents of a former work are reduced
        within a smaller space by curtailment and condensation; a


        brief summary; an abridgement.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              [An] epitome of the contents of a very large book.
                                                    --Sydney
                                                    Smith.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. A compact or condensed representation of anything;
        something possessing conspicuously or to a high degree the
        qualities of a class.
        [1913 Webster +PJC]
  
              An epitome of English fashionable life. --Carlyle.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              A man so various that he seemed to be
              Not one, but all mankind's epitome.   --Dryden.
  
     Syn: Abridgement; compendium; compend; abstract; synopsis;
          abbreviature. See {Abridgment}.
          [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  epitome
       n 1: a standard or typical example; "he is the prototype of good
            breeding"; "he provided America with an image of the
            good father" [syn: {prototype}, {paradigm}, {image}]
       2: a brief abstract (as of an article or book)

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  84 Moby Thesaurus words for "epitome":
     abbreviation, abbreviature, abrege, abridgement, abridgment,
     abstract, antetype, antitype, apocope, archetype, biotype,
     breviary, brief, capsule, classic example, compend, compendium,
     compression, condensation, condensed version, conspectus,
     contraction, criterion, curtailment, digest, draft, elision,
     ellipsis, embodiment, essence, exemplar, foreshortening, fugleman,
     fugler, genotype, head, imitatee, last word, lead, mirror, model,
     original, outline, overview, pandect, paradigm, pattern,
     personification, precedent, precis, prototype, quintessence, recap,
     recapitulation, reduction, representative, resume, retrenchment,
     review, rubric, rule, shortened version, shortening, skeleton,
     sketch, standard, sum, summary, summation, summing-up, survey,
     syllabus, syncope, synopsis, telescoping, thumbnail sketch,
     topical outline, truncation, type, type species, type specimen,
     typical example, ultimate, urtext