classic

(klăs'ĭk)
adj.

1. 1. Belonging to the highest rank or class.
   2. Serving as the established model or standard: a classic example of colonial architecture.
   3. Having lasting significance or worth; enduring.
2. 1. Adhering or conforming to established standards and principles: a classic piece of research.
   2. Of a well-known type; typical: a classic mistake.
3. Of or characteristic of the literature, art, and culture of ancient Greece and Rome; classical.
4. 1. Formal, refined, and restrained in style.
   2. Simple and harmonious; elegant: the classic cut of a suit; the classic lines of a clipper ship.
5. Having historical or literary associations: classic battlefields of the Civil War.

n.

1. An artist, author, or work generally considered to be of the highest rank or excellence, especially one of enduring significance.
2. A work recognized as definitive in its field.
3. 1. A literary work of ancient Greece or Rome.
   2. classics The languages and literature of ancient Greece and Rome. Used with the.
   3. One that is of the highest rank or class: The car was a classic of automotive design.
4. A typical or traditional example.
5. Informal. A superior or unusual example of its kind: The reason he gave for being late was a classic.
6. A traditional event, especially a major sporting event that is held annually: a golf classic.

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1. Classical is the customary word when reference is to the arts and literature of ancient Greece and Rome (a classical scholar / classical Greek / architecture of classical proportions), to traditional forms of dance (classical ballet), and to serious or conventional music, i.e. that of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, etc. (although it applies more strictly to the 18th century, after the Baroque period and before the age of Romanticism). Classical has come to be widely used in marketing circles to denote anything made in a supposedly traditional style:

Classical designs of branded clothing are on show—Shanghai Star, 2003.

2. Classic means 'of acknowledged excellence' (the classic textbook on the subject) or 'remarkably typical' (a classic example of money wasting) and in some uses combines the two

(Chefs learn the classic sauces in their first years of training—Times, 2004).

In general use, it has come to mean little more than 'significant, or noteworthy':

Most home workers are women...a classic case of powerless employees—Guardian, 1973

It was never classic snooker but at least it kept the sell-out crowd on the edge of their seats—York Evening Press, 2003.

The Classic races in Britain are the five main flat races, namely the Two Thousand and the One Thousand Guineas, the Derby, the Oaks, and the St Leger.

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(1) A moniker applied to the original version of a product, typically hardware. For example, the first iPod with the click wheel became known as the classic model after the iPod touch was released.

(2) A programming interface (API) in the PowerPC versions of the Mac OS X operating system that provided compatibility with earlier Mac OS 9 applications. Originally called the "Blue Box," Classic was dropped in the Intel versions of OS X and later for the PowerPC with the Version 10.5 (Leopard) of OS X. See Blue Box.

(3) A Mac or Mac operating system prior to Mac OS X. See Mac OS.

(4) A streamlined remake of the original "hi-rise" Macintosh. The Classic came out in 1990, six years after the first Macintosh was introduced. See Macintosh and Macintosh models - early.

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adjective

1. Having the nature of, constituting, or serving as a type: archetypal, archetypic, archetypical, classical, model, paradigmatic, prototypal, prototypic, prototypical, quintessential, representative, typic, typical. See same/different/compare, usual/unusual.
2. Characterized by enduring excellence, appeal, and importance: classical, vintage. See good/bad.

adj

Definition: characteristic, regular
Antonyms: abnormal, irregular, uncharacteristic

adj

Definition: model
Antonyms: second-rate

classic (classics, classical). The English terms are derived from the Latin adjective classicus meaning ‘of the highest class’ (of the five classes of Roman citizens divided by Servius Tullius on a property basis). Aulus Gellius in the second century AD seems to have been the first to use the adjective figuratively to describe a writer, but Cicero had already taken the noun classis (‘class’) from its political and military sphere and used it to describe a ‘class’ of philosophers (see also CANONS). Renaissance scholars writing in Latin adopted the adjective to describe Greek and Latin authors in general, and from this the modern usage is derived. The terms are sometimes used with a narrower, temporal meaning to describe what is thought to be the best period, in a cultural sense, of the Greek and Roman civilizations. Thus, the classical period of ancient Greece was most of the fifth and fourth centuries BC, roughly from the defeat of the Persians in 480 to the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC, and that of Rome the first century BC and the following century up to the death of Augustus in AD 14, sometimes referred to as the Golden Age.

A descriptive term for a period in Western music, encompassing roughly the last half of the eighteenth century, that includes the works of Franz Josef Haydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and the early works of Ludwig van Beethoven, among other composers.

For a list of words related to classic, see:

• Beautiful, attractive, or well-formed
• Books and Pages - classic: work of universally recognized and enduring excellence, great authority, and importance
• Baseball - classic: a memorable game
• Respectful or Admiring Reference

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See words rhyming with "classic."

  See crossword solutions for the clue Classic.

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Dansk (Danish)
adj. - klassisk
n. - klassiker, klassisk

Nederlands (Dutch)
klassiek, typerend, classicistisch, klassieker, kunst(enaar) uit de klassieke oudheid, classicistische kunstenaar

Français (French)
adj. - classique
n. - classique, (Littérat, Cin) les classiques (npl)

Deutsch (German)
n. - Klassiker
adj. - klassisch

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - κλασικό έργο, κλασσική δημιουργία (της αρχαίας ελληνικής ή ρωμαϊκής περιόδου), κλασικός (συγγραφέας κ.λπ.), κλασικό παράδειγμα, αρχέτυπο, (καθομ.) οι πέντε κυριότερες βρετανικές ιπποδρομίες, (πληθ.) κλασική φιλολογία
adj. - κλασικός, διαχρονικής (καλλιτεχνικής ή πολιτιστικής) αξίας

Italiano (Italian)
classico

Português (Portuguese)
n. - autor (m) artista (m) (f) clássico, obra (f) clássica
adj. - clássico

Русский (Russian)
классик, классический

Español (Spanish)
adj. - clásico, histórico
n. - autor clásico, estudiante de lenguas clásicas, clásico

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - klassiker, klassiskt evenemang
adj. - klassisk

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
第一流的, 古典的, 最优秀的, 杰作, 名著

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
adj. - 第一流的, 古典的, 最優秀的
n. - 傑作, 名著

한국어 (Korean)
adj. - 일류의, 고전적인, 전형적인
n. - 고전 작가, 최고 작품

日本語 (Japanese)
adj. - 第一級の, 典型的な, 古典の, 古典的な, 有名な, クラシックな
n. - 古典, 古典的作家, 古典作品, 古典作家, 古典語, 古典文学

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) فنان أو مؤلف فذ, أثر أدبي أو فني رائع (صفه) كلاسيكي, ممتاز, رائع‏

עברית (Hebrew)
adj. - ‮קלסי, מעולה, מופתי, טיפוסי וחשוב מאד, שייך לתרבות היוונית או הרומית העתיקות‬
n. - ‮סופר-מופת, יצירה קלסית, קלסיקון, מאורע קלסי‬

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