epigrammatic

adjective

ep·i·gram·mat·ic ˌe-pə-grə-ˈma-tik

: of, relating to, or resembling an epigram

: marked by or given to the use of epigrams

epigrammatically

ˌe-pə-grə-ˈma-ti-k(ə-)lē

adverb

Example Sentences

Oscar Wilde's epigrammatic observation, “In America the young are always ready to give to those who are older than themselves the full benefits of their inexperience”.

Recent Examples on the Web With the help of blankly matter-of-fact yet omniscient voice-over narration (spoken by Madeleine James), D’Ambrose achieves the span and the depth of a cinematic bildungsroman in shards of experience and epigrammatic flickers.

Richard Brody, The New Yorker, 1 Sep. 2022 Munro’s characters are drawn from the upper classes, and his prose is droll in the British way—wry and epigrammatic.

The New Yorker, 28 June 2021 The writing, so heightened and epigrammatic, seems almost to mock the homespun fashions of traditional realist prose.

Sam Sacks, WSJ, 30 Apr. 2021 There were fantasy stories — Peter Pan, Five Children and It, Mary Poppins — and there were works like Robert McCloskey’s hilarious, epigrammatic Homer Price.

Kathryn Vanarendonk, Vulture, 27 Mar. 2021 The intellectual wit of Oscar Wilde—all that epigrammatic cleverness—does not require a mise-en-scène.

Willard Spiegelman, WSJ, 19 Feb. 2021 Grant unfolds her story in epigrammatic fashion, moving gracefully in time, drawing parallels between multiple generations.

Washington Post, 24 Dec. 2020 Even much of the material left out of those books is tart and epigrammatic.

Paul Elie, The New Yorker, 15 June 2020 Modern life has rarely been articulated with such compression and epigrammatic precision.

Dustin Illingworth, latimes.com, 31 May 2018 See More

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'epigrammatic.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.