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.
And North American scientists are hoping for their own new observatory: a project called Deep Synoptic Array–2000 that astronomers have proposed building in Nevada.
From Scientific American • Jun. 28, 2023
Astronomers will also have the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, already under construction in Chile, which will in effect make movies of the entire universe every few nights.
From New York Times • Dec. 23, 2019
The agency is already expecting to strain to pay for operating new telescopes—such as the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, an 8.4-meter survey telescope in Chile—let alone two much bigger ones.
From Science Magazine • May 21, 2018
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
Yet our Synoptic Gospels are not the only sources, and the material borrowed is handled with sovereign superiority.
From The Making of the New Testament by Bacon, Benjamin Wisner
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.
