epic

plural epics · alternative obsolete epick

1. An extended narrative poem in elevated or dignified language, celebrating the feats of a deity, demigod (heroic epic), other legend or traditional hero.

   The Icelandic epic took all night to recite.

   Synonyms: epopee, epos

2. A series of events considered appropriate to an epic; any work of literature, film, etc. having heroic deeds and adventures as its subject matter.

   The book was an epic in four volumes.

   1 more example

   These epics nearly always had runaway trains, nincompoops floundering with the controls and a collapsed bridge just ahead!

   1958 February 28, David Gunston, “Railways on the Screen”, in Railway Magazine, page 88

3. computingA large or extended user story.

   Epics are shown in a separate list from user stories. This is because it is the user stories that are developed, not epics. Epics are decomposed into child user stories.

   2019, Leslie Munday, Using Agile In A Quality Driven Environment, page 56

comparative more epic · superlative most epic · alternative obsolete epick

1. Of or relating to an epic.

   Beowulf is an epic poem.

   1 more example

   The main theme of epic poetry is, of course, the hero, his life, his greatness of character, his deeds and his death.

   1983, Jan Knappert, Epic Poetry in Swahili and other African Languages, page 58

   Synonyms: epical

2. Momentously heroic; grand in scale or character.

   The epic defense was rewarded with the highest military decorations

   2 more examples

   China's epic traffic jam "vanished" [title of article]

   2010 August 25, Agence France-Presse, “China's epic traffic jam 'vanished'”, in Google News, archived from the original on 28 Aug 2010

   After all, Epic Fury captures the Trump presidency in its essence. Everything Mr. Trump does, at least as he sees it, is epic — the biggest, the most, the first, “like we’ve never seen before,” as he likes to say.

   2026 March 16, Peter Baker, “In Choosing ‘Epic Fury,’ Trump Names a War and Defines His Presidency”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC

3. colloquialExtending beyond the usual or ordinary.

   You made an epic mistake.

   2 more examples

   The after-prom party was truly epic.

   Then tell him his daughter's an epic shag.

   2018, Anthony McCarten, Bohemian Rhapsody (motion picture), spoken by Freddie Mercury (Rami Malek)

   Synonyms: extraordinary, momentous, remarkable

alternative obsolete epick

1. not comparablecategory theoryThat is an epimorphism.

1. abbreviationacronymcomputingAcronym of explicitly parallel instruction computing.
2. abbreviationacronymbusinessAcronym of epitaxial integrated circuit.

1. abbreviationacronymlawAcronym of Estates and Protected Individuals Code.
2. abbreviationacronymAcronym of East Plano Islamic Center.

   The Texas Rangers investigation is one of at least five announced investigations targeting EPIC or EPIC City. Those include investigations led by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, the Texas Workforce Commission, the Texas State Board of Securities and the Texas Funeral Service Commission.

   2025 March 31, Adrian Ashford, “Gov. Abbott directs Texas Rangers to investigate EPIC for ‘potential criminal activities’”, in The Dallas Morning News

comparative more Epic · superlative most Epic

1. datedAlternative letter-case form of epic (“relating to epic poems”).

   We shall speak, therefore, of the Epic tradition as an already established fact, and we shall discuss it only from the point of view of the fifth and fourth centuries in Athens.

   1919, Cecil Delisle Burns, Greek Ideals: A Study of Social Life, page 99

   2 more examples

   But the absolute isolation which marks the narrative of the Bundehesh, not a trace of any analogous record being found either in the Zend-Avesta or in the Epic tradition, as collected by Firdouzi, Ḫamza, and the other writers of the Musselman epoch, is of a nature to inspire great doubts in regard to its character as a genuine Iranian legend.

   1882 [1880], François Lenormant, translated by Francis Brown, The Beginnings of History According to the Bible and the Traditions of the Oriental Peoples: From the Creation of Man to the Deluge, page 331

   Egil’s Saga, I think, one cannot at present obtain at all, and the Saga of the Laxdale men I only possess in Latin. These and the rest are truly Epic narratives, the Odysseys of a ruder race than the Achæans.

   1890 November, Andrew Lang, “At the Sign of the Ship”, in Longman’s Magazine, volume 17, number 97, page 107

2. Pertaining to a dialect characteristic of epic poems, especially Epic Greek.

   The first syllable is lengthened, as the antistrophic line […] shows, an Epic scansion in accordance with the Epic phrase […]

   1957, Herbert Jennings Rose, A Commentary on the Surviving Plays of Aeschylus […], page 94, note 80

   2 more examples

   Every δῆμος [dêmos] had one or more towns (πόλεις [poleis]), and accordingly for the complete description of the land, usual in the Epic phraseology, both expressions are commonly united […]

   1880 [1855], Georg Friedrich Schömann, translated by E. G. Hard and J. S. Mann, The Antiquities of Greece, volume 1, page 66

   It commonly signifies the indigenous religion(s) of South Asia, now increasingly called by the Epic term Sanātana Dharma (eternal religion).

   2006, Encyclopedia of India, volume 2, page 188

plural Epics

1. Alternative letter-case form of epic (“extended narrative poem”); especially a poem within a particular tradition of epics.

   Compare Milton’s Epics with the other great Epics of the world.

   1882, “Hilary Term: Senior Sophisters—Modern Literature”, in Dublin Examination Papers […], page 12

   4 more examples

   He calls for a special kind of instrument, bearing a name which smacks of the Norse Epics—a “Nibling.”

   1881, “Pekin” [Louis Kossuth Lawrie], In the C.P.; or, Sketches in Prose & in Verse, Descriptive of Scenes and Manners in the Central Provinces of India, page 180

   The “Idylls of the King,” more of a complete Epic than any of the great Epics, showed how high is that aim which every commonwealth of men is bound to propose to itself; […]

   a. 1902, Aubrey de Vere, “The Reception of the Early Poems”, in Hallam Tennyson, Alfred Lord Tennyson: A Memoir by His Son, published 1905, page 511

   The Epic has a continuous history from the Mycenaean era to the making of the Iliad.

   1956, Denys L. Page, History and the Homeric Iliad, page 222

   This conciliatory approach to the Gītā is a clear enough indication of its being influenced by the world of the Epics to which it belongs.

   1992, Varghese Malpan, A Comparative Study of the Bhagavad-Gītā and the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius of Loyola on the Process of Spiritual Liberation, page 43