epigraphnoun [ C ]
uk/ˈep.ɪ.ɡrɑːf/us/ˈep.ə.ɡræf/specializeda saying or a part of a poem, play, or book put at the beginning of a piece of writing to give the reader some idea of what the piece is about
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Books & parts of books
- addendum
- artwork
- bibliography
- binder
- binding
- blurb
- chapter
- erratum
- extract
- flyleaf
- folio
- foreword
- frontispiece
- library
- margin
- monograph
- preface
- prologue
- serial
- table
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Examples from literature
- It would give wide latitude to a witty remark, which has become proverbial, to make it the epigraph of these memoirs.
- The two plays bearing as epigraph the name of that famous soldier and conspirator are a storehouse of lofty thought and splendid verse, with scarcely a flash or sparkle of dramatic action.