Meanings
- not comparableOf or pertaining to a type of analysis in which different works are compared and contrasted.
After finishing his syntopical reading of the leaders' speeches, he wrote an essay comparing the language used by Reagan, Carter, Gorbachev, and Qaddafi.
2 more examples
A good college, if it does nothing else, ought to produce competent syntopical readers. A college degree ought to represent general competence in reading such that a graduate could read any kind of material for general readers and be able to undertake independent research on almost any subject (for that is what syntopical reading, among other things, enables you to do).
1972, Mortimer J. Adler with Charles Van Doren, chapter 3, in How to Read a Book, Touchstone September 2014 edition, New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, →OCLC, pages 28, 29(...) and it is their words and wisdom, accumulated over long periods of syntopical reading, that make up this text.
1997, Dhun H. Sethna, Investing Smart
Origin
- Englishsyntopic(on)
- Proto-Indo-European*h₂el-
- Proto-Indo-European*h₂élisder.?
- Englishsyntopical
From syntopic(on) + -al.
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Anagrams
Cite this entry
syntopical. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/syntopical
“syntopical.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/syntopical. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “syntopical,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/syntopical.
Source: syntopical on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.