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classics

nounC1Common in everyday speech and writing · #5,638 of 15,258leans written

Classics is the study of ancient Greece and Rome. Read classics, a classics degree, a professor of classics.

It covers the languages, the literature, the history and the archaeology together, which is unusual among subjects. It takes a singular verb: classics is a demanding degree. In Britain the Oxford version is called Greats and is famously long.

Unknown authorUnknown author · Public domain

Definitions of classics

  1. 1nounclassicsThe study of ancient Greece and Rome.C1

    “She studied classics at university, reading Homer and Virgil in the original.”

classics is a field of study.

Where it comes from

  1. French

    classique

  2. English

    classic

  3. English, today

    classics

classic Borrowed from French classique. From French classique, from Latin classicus (“relating to the classes of Roman citizenry, especially the highest”), from classis. by surface analysis, en + class + ic. classy.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in School Subjects

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classics in the wild

  • In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of ancient Greek and Roman literature and their original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin.

    Classics

  • The Chinese classics or canonical texts are the works of Chinese literature authored prior to the establishment of the imperial Qin dynasty in 221 BC.

    Chinese classics

  • The Chinese classics used a form of written Chinese consciously imitated by later authors, now known as Classical Chinese.

    Chinese classics

  • For the 2005 to 2007 seasons, some classics formed part of the UCI ProTour run by the Union Cycliste Internationale.

    Classic cycle races

  • The Gilberton Company, Inc. () was an American publisher best known for the comic book series Classics Illustrated featuring adaptations of literary classics.

    Gilberton (publisher)

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

the classique family

classicclassical

classics — used about once every 1,524 pages · #5,638 · point at the bar for the others