paragon
/ˈpæɹəˌɡɔn/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.05 in modern English
10
Scrabble Score
7
Letters
3
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
Example Sentences
- "In the novel, Constanza is a paragon of virtue who would never compromise her reputation."
- "What a piece of worke is man! how Noble in Reaſon? […] the beauty of the world, the Parragon of Animals;"
- "That thou might'st cherish for thine own / The riches of sweet Mary's son, / Boy-Rabbi, Israel's paragon."
- "Yes, there were instances of grandstanding and obsessive behaviour, but many were concealed at the time to help protect an aggressively peddled narrative of [Oscar] Pistorius the paragon, the emblem, the trailblazer."
- "Liz Cheney and her father are positioning themselves as protectors of the old order, as paragons of truth and as defenders of our American norms."
- "A paragon must embody liberal democracy. To get its hands dirty defending it is below-stairs."
Etymology
Borrowed from Middle French paragon, paragone, from Old Italian paragone, from paragonare (“to test on a touchstone”), perhaps from Ancient Greek παρακονᾶν (parakonân, “to sharpen, whet”), from παρά- (pará-) + ἀκόνη (akónē, “whetstone, sharpening stone”), from ἀκή (akḗ, “point, edge”) (from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eḱ- (“sharp”)).
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈpæɹəˌɡɔn/
- British English: /ˈpæɹəɡən/