synoptic
Americanadjective
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pertaining to or constituting a synopsis; affording or taking a general view of the principal parts of a subject.
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(often initial capital letter) taking a common view: used chiefly in reference to the first three Gospels synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, from their similarity in content, order, and statement.
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(often initial capital letter) pertaining to the synoptic Gospels.
adjective
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of or relating to a synopsis
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(often capital) Bible
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(of the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke) presenting the narrative of Christ's life, ministry, etc from a point of view held in common by all three, and with close similarities in content, order, etc
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of, relating to, or characterizing these three Gospels
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meteorol showing or concerned with the distribution of meteorological conditions over a wide area at a given time
a synoptic chart
noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of synoptic
1755–65; < Greek synoptikós, equivalent to synop- ( see synopsis) + -tikos -tic
Explanation
If you’ve heard of a movie synopsis, which gives an overview of the plot, you can guess what synoptic means: summarizing. At the end of your 900-page treatise on morals, try to give a synoptic conclusion to drive your ideas home. Synoptic can be broken down to syn-, meaning together, and -optic, meaning view or sight. So something that is synoptic pulls everything together. At the end of a long day touring your great aunt’s ancestral home, hearing endless stories about every dinner party she ever gave and all the people that ever stayed there, you might synoptically comment, “Basically she cooks well and has lots of fancy friends.”
Vocabulary lists containing synoptic
30 GRE Words Beginning with "Q" "R" and "S"
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American Gods
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Vocabulary Video Contest (2013) - List 2
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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.
Take, for example, the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, formerly known as the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, currently under construction in Chile.
From New York Times • May 31, 2022
In late 2019, for instance, the National Science Foundation renamed its currently under construction Large Synoptic Survey Telescope in honor of astronomer Vera C. Rubin, who was instrumental in the discovery of dark matter.
From Scientific American • Apr. 4, 2022
A bigger budget would also let NSF start construction of the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, a $665 million facility in Cerro Pachon, Chile, to which the Department of Energy has committed $160 million.
From Science Magazine • Apr. 12, 2013
Big, wide-field surveys of the sky with instruments such as the upcoming Large Synoptic Survey Telescope will inevitably uncover all sorts of unexpected phenomena, so Walkowicz’s work could pre-explain at least some of them.
From Time • Nov. 28, 2012
A professor was obliged to withdraw a book he had written, in which the results of criticism, with regard to the Synoptic Gospels, had been accepted and applied.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 11, Slice 1 "Franciscans" to "French Language" by Various
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.
