adjective
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of or relating to the Greek astronomer Ptolemy or to his conception of the universe
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of or relating to the Macedonian dynasty that ruled Egypt from the death of Alexander the Great (323 bc ) to the death of Cleopatra (30 bc )
Etymology
Origin of Ptolemaic
1665–75; < Greek Ptolemaikós of Ptolemy, equivalent to Ptolema ( îos ) Ptolemy + -ikos -ic
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The Ptolemaic period spanned about three centuries until the Roman conquest in 30 B.C.
From Reuters
Others suggest her final resting place could be about 30 miles away, in the ancient temple of Taposiris Magna, built by her Ptolemaic ancestors on the Nile Delta.
From The Guardian
They rely on an amalgam of records — including ice cores, historical chronicles and climate modeling — to pinpoint how volcanism affected civilizations ranging from the Roman Republic to Ptolemaic Egypt to pre-Columbian Mesoamerica.
From New York Times
After all, the geocentric Ptolemaic theory of epicycles was mathematically appealing and its framework was broad enough to describe the motion of all planets on the sky.
From Scientific American
Those discoveries were quickly confirmed by the Jesuit astronomers of the Collegio Romano and others, and the Ptolemaic theory was just as quickly abandoned.
From Washington Post
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
