Delphic
1
9.9
- adjective
- /ˈdɛl.fɪk/
- Formal
:
delfico
- The politician's Delphic comments left everyone wondering what he truly meant.
- Delphic oracle
Well, he says, the flatterer takes a position against the Delphic maxim.
- Well, he says, the flatterer takes a position against the Delphic maxim.
- And it it's in Johannes Tobias, if I remember rightly, in the list of maxims that come from the Delphic Oracle.
- He says, without doubt, our philosophical tradition has overemphasized the Delphic principle.
Examples
-
In the opening scene of the play, the king of Crete asks the Delphic oracle to prognosticate regarding peace in his kingdom.
Academic text (1993) -
But the report contained enough Delphic statements to satisfy those who would expand the foundation's mission into more applied research and thereby help to improve the nation's industrial competitiveness.
Academic text (1992) -
Eventually you get these little Delphic messages that would be sent to us.
-
It's the old business of who controls the Delphic Oracle.
-
The idea of development had this importance because it contained an explanation of the passage from the past and a Delphic prophecy of the future.
Academic text (1993) -
Like an acolyte at the mouth of the Delphic oracle, I was prepared for once to sit back and listen.
Fiction book (1990) -
Now I was even more desperate to decipher the Delphic words my grandmother had bequeathed to me.
Academic text (1995) -
Like all valid prophetic verse, it engages men in the act of interpretation, as in Petrarch's enduring challenge of Delphic wisdom: Understand me who can, for I can understand myself.
Academic text (2003) -
After all, both the injunction of the Delphic Oracle to "know thyself" and Socrates' resonating pronouncement that "the unexamined life is not worth living" date from the infancy of the Western philosophical tradition.
Academic text (2011) -
They have also reminded us of the popularity in sixteenth-century Netherlands of the adage of the Delphic oracle, "Know thyself," numerous variations of which can be found in proverbs, maxims, and Christian commentaries.
Academic text (2006)
Synonyms
498
5.1
Hard to understand or explain because it seems strange
43
8.1
Hard to understand because it seems secret or mysterious
27
8.1
Hard to understand and often seems mysterious
1
9.9
Mysterious and secret, like a code understood by only a few people
1
9.9
Mysterious and hard to understand with hidden meaning
1
9.3
Hard to understand, like a puzzle
Mysterious and hard to understand, like a prophecy
About the ancient Greek temple at Delphi where people went for oracles
Said or written in a puzzling, mysterious way
Mysterious and hard to understand, often about deep spiritual ideas
Calm and showing no feelings so you cannot know thoughts
Hard to understand because it has a hidden meaning
Hard to understand because it is mysterious and unclear
Compounds
- Literature
A woman at Delphi in ancient Greece who gives mysterious advice from the god Apollo to people who ask
How Mysterious
12
8.9
27
8.1
- Formal
1
9.9
43
8.1
68
6.3
230
4.6
Surface Forms
Morphology
Etymology
The word Delphic comes from Delphi, the famous ancient Greek place where an oracle spoke in strange, hard-to-understand answers. So something called Delphic is 'deliberately mysterious' or hard to interpret.