exemplum
Americannoun
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exempla
plural
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an example or model.
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an anecdote that illustrates or supports a moral point, as in a medieval sermon.
noun
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an anecdote that supports a moral point or sustains an argument, used esp in medieval sermons
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an example or illustration
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of exemplum
1885–90; < Late Latin, Latin: literally, a pattern, model, copy
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.
See Examples For:
For England we may say of this case—Transeat in exemplum!
From The Posthumous Works of Thomas De Quincey, Vol. 1 by Alexander H. (Alexander Hay) Japp
The Welsh Methodists, ad exemplum, marched with this Calvinistic branch—as they do today.
From The Story of the Hymns and Tunes by Theron Brown
Certainly the convent never went to sleep in a sermon which had the tale of Chauntecleer and Pertelote for its exemplum.
From Medieval English Nunneries c. 1275 to 1535 by Eileen Power
The exemplum is obviously a stock means of rhetoric.
From Rhetoric and Poetry in the Renaissance A Study of Rhetorical Terms in English Renaissance Literary Criticism by Donald Lemen Clark
On its surface it might be mistaken for a native demon-story told as an exemplum to children not to answer strange knocks at the door at night.
From Filipino Popular Tales by Dean Spruill Fansler
Latin, 146, with "exempla," 154, English, 205 ff., in Chaucer, 335, 354, in Langland, 387, by Wyclif, 434.
From A Literary History of the English People From the Origins to the Renaissance by Jean Jules Jusserand
Remarks.—Almost all Alfonsi's exempla are from the East.
From More English Fairy Tales by John Dickson Batten
On the whole subject of exempla see the Introduction to T. F. Crane’s edition of the Exempla of Jacques de Vitry, and the references given there.
From Medieval English Nunneries c. 1275 to 1535 by Eileen Power
Caesarius narrates a great many other exempla concerning nuns, but I have quoted the most characteristic.
From Medieval English Nunneries c. 1275 to 1535 by Eileen Power
J. Small, Edinburgh, 1862, 8vo, homilies interspersed with exempla, compiled ab.
From A Literary History of the English People From the Origins to the Renaissance by Jean Jules Jusserand
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.
