Words / G / General

gnomic

adjective/ˈnəʊmɪk/

C2CEFR level
90/100Rarity: very rare
LiteraryRegister

Expressed in brief, cryptic, aphoristic statements that are hard to interpret.

The guru answered every question with a gnomic phrase that left his students puzzling for days.

Similar: cryptic, enigmatic, oracular

Origin: From Greek gnomikos, from gnome 'thought, opinion, maxim'.

Topic: cryptic speech in General English

Rarity runs from 0 (a word everyone knows) to 100 (almost never seen outside specialist or literary writing). Level is the word's real difficulty on the CEFR scale, from A1 to C2.

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