Did you know?

In 351 B.C., the Greek orator Demosthenes delivered a fiery speech warning his countrymen against the imperialistic designs of Philip II, king of Macedon, and chastising them for their timidity and inaction. In Greek, this and subsequent such speeches on the subject made by Demosthenes were known as philippikoi logoi, literally, "speeches relating to Philip." Demosthenes is known to have delivered only three Philippics; in contrast, the Philippics of the Roman statesman Marcus Tullius Cicero attacking Marc Antony some 300 years later - orationes philippicae in Latin (so-named because of their similarity to Demosthenes' orations) - numbered fourteen. We still capitalize the word when we refer to these famous diatribes, but ever since 1592, philippic has been used (usually in lowercase) in a broader sense as well.

Examples of philippic in a Sentence

the head coach was briefly suspended after launching into a foul-mouthed philippic during a press conference

Recent Examples on the Web Early Friday morning, around 1 am Eastern, President Donald Trump had published a 102-word philippic to his Facebook and Twitter pages. — Benjamin Wofford, Wired, 10 Mar. 2022

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