Word.ws English Dictionary

epithetry

epithetry noun: the art or practice of using epithets.

Noun

epithetry (uncountable)

  1. (rare) The art or practice of using epithets.
    • Chang Loi’s ancestry with choice bits of elephant-folk epithetry so tangful they made even Barnsdale’s accustomed ears to pringle with their novelty and warmth.1919 August, George Gilbert, “The Mottled Slayer”, in Sunset, the Pacific Monthly, volume 43, number 2, →OCLC, page 20
    • Political epithetry of course is quite different from gobbledygook or bafflegab, which means bureaucratic lingo; we are keeping our pulse on bafflegab, too, but have time here only to report one new addition: 'quid pro quid.1956, Eric Sevareid, Small Sounds in the Night: a Collection of Capsule Commentaries on the American Scene, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, →OCLC, page 39

Origin of epithetry

From epithet + -ry.

Questions about epithetry

What does epithetry mean?
Epithetry means the art or practice of using epithets.
What part of speech is epithetry?
Epithetry is a noun.

Words near epithetry in the dictionary

  1. epithetizes
  2. epithetizing
  3. epithetless
  4. epitheton
  5. epithetons
  6. epithetry
  7. epithets
  8. epithionitrile
  9. epithionitriles
  10. epithite
  11. epithites

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: epithetry (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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Cite this entry: “epithetry.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/epithetry. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.