Word.ws English Dictionary

Ciceronian

UK/sɪsəˈɹəʊnɪən//sɪsəˈɹoʊnɪən/

Ciceronian adjective: of or relating to Marcus Tullius Cicero, or the ideas in his philosophical treatises.

Adjective

Ciceronian (comparative more Ciceronian, superlative most Ciceronian)

  1. Of or relating to Marcus Tullius Cicero, or the ideas in his philosophical treatises.
  2. (rhetoric) Eloquent, resembling Cicero’s style.
    • 'But why should I attempt to depict and describe in detail, and feature by feature, the beauty of the peerless Dulcinea, the burden being one worthy of other shoulders than mine, an enterprise wherein the pencils of Parrhasius, Timantes, and Apelles, and the graver of Lysippus ought to be employed...1885, Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, “Of the Reply Don Quixote Gave His Censurer, with Other Incidents, Grave and Droll”, in John Ormsby, transl., The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha […]...
  3. (rhetoric) With effusive use of antithesis and long sentences.

Noun

Ciceronian (plural Ciceronians)

  1. One who adopts or favours Cicero's literary style.
    • One thing is observable in all the professed Ciceronians, namely, the using a multitude of words to express their meaning. This they learned from their master, since it cannot be denied that Cicero is rather verbose.1758, The Critical Review, or Annals of Literature, volume 6, page 275
    • The fact that he scoffed at their so-called purity of style, declaring that any reputable Latin was standard and that matter was more important than form, brought him into conflict with the sect of Ciceronians.1910, Izora Scott, Controversies Over the Imitation of Cicero in the Renaissance

Forms of Ciceronian

Adjective
comparativemore Ciceronian
superlativemost Ciceronian
Noun
pluralCiceronians

Origin of Ciceronian

From the Latin Cicerōniānus.

Words formed from Ciceronian

Words that rhyme with Ciceronian

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about Ciceronian

What does Ciceronian mean?
Ciceronian means of or relating to Marcus Tullius Cicero, or the ideas in his philosophical treatises.
What part of speech is Ciceronian?
Ciceronian can be an adjective or a noun.
How do you pronounce Ciceronian?
Ciceronian is pronounced /sɪsəˈɹəʊnɪən/ (UK).

Words near Ciceronian in the dictionary

  1. cicerone
  2. ciceroned
  3. cicerones
  4. ciceroneship
  5. ciceroni
  6. Ciceronian
  7. Ciceronianism
  8. Ciceronianisms
  9. Ciceronianist
  10. Ciceronianists
  11. Ciceronians

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Ciceronian (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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