Word of the Day

: January 19, 2008

apodictic

adjective ap-uh-DIK-tik

What It Means

: expressing or of the nature of necessary truth or absolute certainty

apodictic in Context

The apodictic tone of Liza's writing reflects her complete confidence in the correctness of her statements.

Did You Know?

There's something remarkable about a word which, when periodically dusted off, proves to have retained its freshness over 350 years -- and that's the case with "apodictic." It's a handy word that can describe a conclusive concept, a conclusive person, or even that conclusive person's conclusive remarks. A well-known close relative of "apodictic" is "paradigm" ("an outstandingly clear or typical example"); both words are built on Greek "deiknynai," meaning "to show." More distant relatives (from Latin "dicere," a relative of "deiknynai" that means "to say") include "diction," "dictate," "edict," and "predict."