Definition of PARAGON

Paragon Has Old Italian and Greek Roots

Noun

Paragon derives from the Old Italian word paragone, which literally means "touchstone." A touchstone is a black stone that was formerly used to judge the purity of gold or silver. The metal was rubbed on the stone and the color of the streak it left indicated its quality. In modern English, both touchstone and paragon have come to signify a standard against which something should be judged. Ultimately, paragon comes from the Greek parakonan, meaning "to sharpen," from the prefix para- ("alongside of") and akonē, meaning "whetstone."

Examples of paragon in a Sentence

Noun in Arthurian legend, Sir Galahad is depicted as the one knight who is a paragon of virtue

Recent Examples on the Web: Noun The international community took its eye off Myanmar, assuming Suu Kyi could handle the country's numerous problems while remaining a paragon of democracy. — James Griffiths, CNN, "The West turned Aung San Suu Kyi into a saint. She was always going to disappoint," 13 Dec. 2019 Yet the former First Lady, paragon of cool elegance and unfailing good taste, was in fact utterly devoted to that earthy fragrance note so inextricably commingled with counter-culture rebellion and free love. — April Long, Town & Country, "Jackie Kennedy's Unexpected Love of Patchouli," 28 July 2019 After decades of congressional budget hearings where Big Bird was cited as the paragon of the virtuous entertainment that only taxpayer-supported public television could provide, the Sesame Workshop moved the show to HBO in 2015. — Bryan Greene, Smithsonian, "The Unmistakable Black Roots of ‘Sesame Street’," 7 Nov. 2019 Two years ago Russia’s health minister put Chukotka’s alcoholism rate at nearly six times higher than elsewhere in Russia, itself no paragon of sobriety. — The Economist, "Russia’s Chukotka and America’s Alaska are an era apart," 17 Oct. 2019 The paragon of dynamic geometry is unencumbered by any power-hungry, number-crunching processor that gauges steps in line with sensor data. — David Wilson, Popular Mechanics, "Machine Beats Man," 16 Oct. 2019 And the coup de grâce: The dispute was largely over whether the de Blasio administration blundered by bypassing Mother Cabrini, the patron saint of immigrants and a paragon to many Italian-Americans, with a statue. — Jeffery C. Mays, New York Times, "Actor Charged Racism Over Statue. N.Y. Politics Took It From There.," 11 Oct. 2019 India is a paragon neither of democracy nor of environmentalism. — The Economist, "Are dictatorships better than democracies at fighting climate change?," 19 Sep. 2019 America’s accounting watchdog is not exactly a paragon of effectiveness. — Max De Haldevang, Quartz, "Whistleblowers say US audit watchdog is not doing its job. That should worry us all.," 16 Oct. 2019

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'paragon.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.