epic

«epic» in Mova's school dictionary: A long poem or story about the adventures of heroes… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 1 sentence of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun (epic, epics); adjective (epic, more epic)

meaning for a pupil

1) (noun) A long poem or story about the adventures of heroes, often in ancient times, such as the Odyssey or Beowulf. tree →

2) (noun) A long film or book about big, exciting events. tree →

3) (adjective) Very big, long, brave or impressive: «an epic journey». tree →

4) (adjective, slang) Really great, amazing: «That party was epic!» tree →

5) (adjective, slang) «epic fail» — a huge, funny failure. tree →

sense in the lessons

In English and history: epic poems (the Iliad, the Odyssey, Beowulf, Gilgamesh), heroes and quests. In everyday and children's slang: «epic» for anything brilliant. Phrases: «an epic journey», «epic battle», «epic fail» (slang), «of epic proportions».

examples

• Beowulf is an old English epic about a hero who fights a monster. tree →
• Homer's Odyssey is an epic poem. tree →
• The explorers made an epic journey across the ice. tree →
• We watched an epic film about knights and dragons. tree →
• That water fight was epic! (slang) tree →
• Falling in the pond in my new clothes was an epic fail. tree →
• The final was an epic battle that went to penalties. tree →
• CALLIOPE, the most honoured of the Muses, presided over heroic song and epic poetry, and is represented with a pencil in her hand, and a slate upon her knee. tree →

note

Countable noun. The slang senses («epic!», «epic fail») are informal — not for formal writing. Do not confuse with «epoch» (a long period of time). Adjective form also «epical» (rare).

In the corpora

• Stories of great floods appear in many ancient cultures, for example in the Epic of Gilgamesh from Mesopotamia.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «epic» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.