epic
An extended narrative poem in elevated or dignified language, celebrating the feats of a deity, demigod (heroic epic), other legend or traditional hero.
Example
“The Icelandic epic took all night to recite.”
Other meanings
A series of events considered appropriate to an epic; any work of literature, film, etc. having heroic deeds and adventures as its subject matter.
“The book was an epic in four volumes.”
A large or extended user story.
Synonyms
- heroic poem
Example sentences
Word history
From Ancient Greek "ἐπικός".
Where this comes from
This definition is adapted from “epic” on Wiktionary, by its contributors; example sentences are from Tatoeba, credited to their authors above; related-word lists use Open English WordNet (CC BY 4.0, based on Princeton WordNet), published under CC BY-SA 4.0. This page is published under the same licence.