dickensian
/dəˈkɛn.zi.ən/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.18 in modern English
17
Scrabble Score
10
Letters
4
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Of, pertaining to, or created by the English author Charles Dickens.
adj
Similar to Dickens' writing style, especially in commenting on society, or in using emotion, humour, or rich descriptions.
adj
Reminiscent of the environments and situations most commonly portrayed in Dickens' writings, such as poverty, social injustice, and other aspects of Victorian England.
Example Sentences
- "a Dickensian name"
- "At last the first glimpse from a bridge of an open-top red bus, and a noticeable darkening of the atmosphere from the smoke of London: then the increasingly dingy stations with double-barrel names, set amid what has always been to me the outstanding feature of the "Premier Line" approach to London—the positively marvellous display of crazy chimney-pots on the grey inner suburban houses. As many as twenty, all of varying style, standing together like ranks of jagged teeth, and providing a Dickensian back-cloth which no other route can boast."
- "As though in expiation of their sires' wealth, schoolboys often had to live in conditions that would have disgraced a Dickensian workhouse."
- "As earlier implied, the planet is threatened on three major fronts: […] (3) by a Dickensian world of wretched excess and wretched despair."
- "Down in the subway under the roundabout the looming social ordeal started to weigh down on me, […] By the time I pressed a huge and over-polished brass bell I'd devolved into a shifty-eyed, cinder-cheeked Dickensian urchin, and when the door opened I half expected to see Mrs Bridges throw up her fat, floury hands and scream for the cook's boy."
- "Leaning against piracy fits in with China's desire to cast off its image of a country where exploited workers toil for a pittance in Dickensian factories that turn the air and water black with the pollution they discharge."
Etymology
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /dəˈkɛn.zi.ən/
- British English: /dɪˈkɛn.zɪ.ən/