Phrase guide
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
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noun
A dogmatic and unproved proposition or dictum that is accepted solely on the authority of someone who is known to have asserted it.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, rhetoric, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
An authority who makes such an assertion.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
an unsupported dogmatic assertion
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: ipsedixitism
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: assertion, averment, asseveration
History
Borrowed from Latin ipse dīxit (“he himself said it”), calque of Ancient Greek αὐτὸς ἔφα (autòs épha). Originally used by the followers of Pythagoreanism, who claimed this or that proposition to be uttered by Pythagoras himself. Extended during the Middle Ages to the statements of Aristotle, and more famously used in such contexts.
