Standard Lemma 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.
Sound
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noun
A disorder characterized by appetite and craving for non-edible substances, such as chalk, clay, dirt, ice, or sand.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: uncountable, usually
Topics: medicine, pathology, sciences
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: allotriophagy, chthonophagia, cittosis, geophagy, pique
Antonyms: none provided
noun
A magpie.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
A size of type between small pica and English, now standardized as 12-point.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: uncountable
Topics: media, printing, publishing, typography
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
A font of this size.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: uncountable, usually
Topics: media, publishing, typography
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
A unit of length equivalent to 12 points, officially 35⁄83 cm (0.166 in) after 1886 but now (computing) 1⁄6 in.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable
Topics: media, publishing, typography
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
A pie or directory: the book directing Roman Catholic observance of saints' days and other feasts under various calendars.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, uncommon, uncountable
Topics: ecclesiastical, lifestyle, religion
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Archaic form of pika (“small lagomorph”).
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: alt-of, archaic
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Abbreviation of phenolic impregnated carbon ablator.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: abbreviation, alt-of, countable, uncountable
Qualifier: space flight
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Initialism of posterior inferior cerebellar artery.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: abbreviation, alt-of, countable, initialism, uncountable
Topics: anatomy, medicine, sciences
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
magpies
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: genus Pica
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: bird genus
noun
a linear unit (1/6 inch) used in printing
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: em, pica em
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: linear unit, linear measure
noun
an eating disorder, frequent in children, in which non-nutritional objects are eaten persistently
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: eating disorder
Narrower terms: geophagy, geophagia
History
Borrowed from Latin pīca (“jay; magpie”). Doublet of pie (“magpie”). * (pathology): From the idea that magpies will eat almost anything.
From Medieval Latin pica (“pica: a service book”), possibly from Latin pīca (“magpie”) after the piebald appearance of the typeset page (cf. pie (“disordered type”)). The relation to the printer's measure is unclear, as no edition of the text in pica type is known. The French pica derives from English rather than vice versa.
Across languages
12 source translations are retained for this English entry.
