# epic

Pronunciation: say "EP-ik" US/UK /ˈɛp.ɪk/, AUS /ˈep.ɪk/

## Adjective

1. Heroic in a momentous way, or grand in scale or character.
   - Simple: Very brave and important, or very large and grand.
   - _The miners' epic struggle to dig out their trapped colleagues lasted eleven days._
   - _Shackleton's crew survived an epic journey across the frozen Southern Ocean in a small open boat._
2. Extremely impressive or remarkable, far beyond the ordinary. *(slang)*
   - Simple: Really amazing or great, in a way that stands out.
   - _Her guitar solo at the end of the show was absolutely epic._
   - _Did you see that catch? Epic._
5. Going well beyond what is usual or ordinary. *(slang)*
   - Simple: Way beyond what is normal or usual.
   - _Forgetting the rings on the wedding day was an epic blunder._
   - _The sequel was an epic fail, and the studio quietly canceled the series._
6. Relating to an epic, such as a long narrative poem about heroic deeds.
   - Simple: Having to do with an epic, a long poem or story about heroes.
   - _Long, elaborate similes are a familiar feature of epic verse._
   - _She wrote her thesis on the epic tradition of West Africa._
8. Of a morphism in category theory, being an epimorphism.
   - Simple: In higher math, said of a map that is an epimorphism.
   - _Every surjective homomorphism of groups is epic._
   - _In the category of rings, the inclusion of the integers into the rationals is epic but not surjective._

## Noun

3. A series of events worthy of an epic poem, or any book, film, or other work that takes heroic deeds and adventures as its subject.
   - Simple: An exciting book or movie about heroes and adventures, or a series of real events like one.
   - _The studio spent a fortune on its new war epic, complete with thousands of extras._
   - _Getting the piano up four flights of stairs became an epic the neighbors still talk about._
4. A long narrative poem in elevated or dignified language that celebrates the deeds of a god, demigod, legendary figure, or traditional hero.
   - Simple: A long poem that tells the story of a great hero or god in grand, serious language.
   - _Bards once performed the epic from memory over several nights._
   - _Generations of scholars have compared the great epics of Greece and India._
7. In software engineering, a large or extended user story.
   - Simple: In building software, a large goal written from the user's point of view.
   - _The product owner broke the onboarding epic into a dozen user stories for the next sprint._
   - _Some teams track epics on a separate board from their everyday user stories._

## Origin

**Meanings 1–7** — From Middle French épique, from Latin epicus, from Ancient Greek epikós, which comes from épos ("word, story").
**Meaning 8** — From the prefix epi-, from Ancient Greek epí ("on top of").

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/epic (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).