epigrams
Pithy pointed remarks
Epigrams are short, witty statements that make a pointed observation, often with a clever twist or paradox.
The form originated in ancient Greece as brief inscriptions, but evolved into a literary genre prized for its compression and sting.
Oscar Wilde's quips exemplify the modern epigram: I can resist everything except temptation.
An epigrammatic style favors concise, memorable phrasing over elaboration.
Meaning opposite to words
- sarcasmIrony used to mock
- mockeryScornful ridicule or travesty
- lampoonHarsh public mockery
- ridiculeContemptuous mocking treatment
sardonic · critique · derision · trenchant · skewer · barbed · caustic · biting
Briefly and clearly stated
- succinctExpressed with minimal words
- pithyConcise and forceful
- terseBrief to bluntness
- laconicBrief in expression
compact · economy · compendious · compressed · distilled · pith · terseness · elliptical
irony
Meaning opposite to words
ridicule · sardonic · critique · derision · trenchant · skewer · barbed · caustic · biting · acerbic
concise
Briefly and clearly stated
laconic · compact · economy · compendious · compressed · distilled · pith · terseness · elliptical · condensed
quips
Brief witty remarks
- wordplayVerbal wit techniques
- punsJokes using sound similarities
- clevernessMental quickness and skill
banter · wisecrack · repartee · bon mot · one-liner · riposte · zingers · humor · drollery · jokes
maxim
Brief moral principle
saying · dictum · precept · axiom · apothegm · motto · truism · insight · moral · truth
- Byzantine textshagiographies, hagiography, homilies, histories, historiography
- Gryphius workstragedies, sonnets, funeral poems, odes, elegies
- Polish Baroquereligious verse, sonnets, panegyrics
- humorjoke, jokes, joking, comedy, comic
- literary formsnovel, novels, novella, poetry, poetry collections
- poetrypoem, poems, poetry, verse, verses
epigramstreatises
Formal scholarly compositions
dissertations · tomes · novels · essays · monographs
epigramsplatitudes
Trite moral remarks
banalities · bromides · clichés · truisms · circumlocutions
epigramsrambling
Long-winded and unfocused
digressions · circumlocutions · verbosity · prolixity · long-windedness