Poetic

How to spell poetic

6 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce poetic

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does poetic mean?

1. adjectiveRelating to poetry, or written with the imaginative, expressive beauty characteristic of poetry.

Poetic in a sentence

• Her travel diary used surprisingly poetic language to describe the coast.

• The novel is admired for its poetic rhythm and vivid imagery.

Where does poetic come from?

Language of origin: Greek

This adjective traces back to the Greek poiētikos, meaning 'capable of making' or 'creative', which was built on poiētēs, 'a maker or composer', and ultimately on the verb poiein, 'to make or create'. In ancient Greece a poet was literally thought of as a maker of things in words, and that sense of crafting carried into the Latin poeticus and then into the Old French poetique. English adopted the word in the late 1400s, by which time it had narrowed from the general idea of making to the specific business of verse and the heightened, imaginative language we associate with poetry. The same Greek poiein root quietly survives in the rarer word 'poiesis', used in fields like biology for the making of something. The single 't' and the smooth oh-eh opening are the spots writers should watch, since the word looks deceptively like it might double a letter.

How the word is built

• poet (from Greek poiētēs: a maker, composer)
• -ic (adjective suffix: relating to)