The Times Literary Supplement (London)
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Does epic mean "impressive" or just "big"?
When epic began to be used as an adjective in English it was in specific reference to the characteristics of the type of poem that bears the same name. A couple of centuries passed, and the word’s meaning came to describe other kinds of works, aside from poetry, which had similarly grand characteristics. More recently, epic has been found used in a highly colloquial fashion, in a manner that is largely synonymous with outstanding, fabulous, or impressive. Before you pass judgment on whether this new sense of epic is acceptable to you or not, you might want to consider that all the words that this sense is synonymous with have also changed their meanings dramatically: outstanding originally described something that projected or stuck out, fabulous had to do with fables, and impressive used to mean “capable of being impressed.”
Synonyms
Examples of epic in a Sentence
Katy Kostakis and James Mercadante, EW.com, 9 July 2024
The three-hour Western epic, directed by and starring Kevin Costner, only grossed $11 million in its North American box office opening on June 28.
—Asher Notheis, Washington Examiner - Political News and Conservative Analysis About Congress, the President, and the Federal Government, 5 July 2024
Tomris Laffly, EW.com, 10 July 2024
Nobody’s ever had an epic career quite like the Brooklyn girl who spent the Sixties writing classic hits for other artists—then spent the Seventies writing her own.
—Rob Sheffield, Rolling Stone, 10 July 2024
See all Example Sentences for epic 
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'epic.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near epic
Cite this Entry
“Epic.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/epic. Accessed 15 Jul. 2024.
Copy CitationKids Definition
epic
1 of 2 adjective
epic
2 of 2 noun
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