dramatic - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

Ancient Greek δράω (dráō)

Proto-Indo-European *-mn̥

Ancient Greek -μᾰ (-mă)

Ancient Greek δρᾶμα (drâma)

Proto-Indo-European *-tis

Ancient Greek -τις (-tis)

Ancient Greek -σῐς (-sĭs)

Proto-Indo-European *-kos

Ancient Greek -κός (-kós)

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Proto-Indo-European *-tós

Ancient Greek -τος (-tos)

Ancient Greek -κός (-kós)

?

Ancient Greek -τικός (-tikós)

English dramatic

Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek δρᾱμᾰτῐκός (drāmătĭkós), from δρᾶμα (drâma) + -τικός (-tikós). By surface analysis, drama +‎ -tic.

dramatic (comparative more dramatic, superlative most dramatic)

  1. Of or relating to the drama.
    • 1911, “Music”, in 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica:
      Monteverde found the conditions of dramatic music more favourable to his experiments than those of choral music, in which both voices and ears are at their highest sensibility to discord.
    • 1924, Herbert Weir Smyth, “VI. Orestea. I: Agamemnon”, in Aeschylean Tragedy, page 151:
      The Orestea is in effect one great single tragedy in three separate parts, each with its own dramatic purpose, yet harmonized by a common inspiration—three great acts of a drama, simple but complex; the whole, as its component members, showing unity of action in rise, crisis, and fall, and progressing in a series of like orderly stages toward a definite dramatic goal.
  2. Striking in appearance or effect.
    a dramatic view of the Alps
    • 1986, Ronald Reagan, Proclamation 5430:
      Each year remarkable advances in prenatal medicine bring ever more dramatic confirmation of what common sense told us all along-that the child in the womb is simply what each of us once was: a very young, very small, dependent, vulnerable member of the human family.
    • 2025 March 13, Kaanita Iyer, “Johns Hopkins laying off more than 2,000 workers after dramatic cut in USAID funding”, in edition.cnn.com‎[1]:
      Johns Hopkins laying off more than 2,000 workers after dramatic cut in USAID funding […] Daniels warned in the message that the dramatic cut in USAID funding will result in “impacts to budgets, personnel, and programs.”
  3. Having a powerful, expressive singing voice.
  4. (informal) Tending to exaggerate in order to get attention.
    You're not bleeding out; the knife barely scratched your skin. Stop being so dramatic!

of or relating to the drama

striking in appearance or effect

Borrowed from French dramatique, from Latin dramaticus. Equivalent to dramă +‎ -atic.

dramatic m or n (feminine singular dramatică, masculine plural dramatici, feminine/neuter plural dramatice)

  1. dramatic