EDIFY

enlighten, edify

(verb) make understand; “Can you enlighten me--I don’t understand this proposal”

Source: WordNet® 3.1


Etymology

Verb

edify (third-person singular simple present edifies, present participle edifying, simple past and past participle edified)

(now rare) To build, construct.

(transitive) To instruct or improve morally or intellectually.

Anagrams

• deify

Source: Wiktionary


Ed"i*fy, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Edified; p. pr. & vb. n. Edifying.] Etym: [F. Ă©difier, L. aedificare; aedes a building, house, orig., a fireplace (akin to Gr. idh to kindle, OHG. eit funeral pile, AS. ad, OIr. aed fire) + facere to make. See Fact, -fy.]

1. To build; to construct. [Archaic] There was a holy chapel edified. Spenser.

2. To instruct and improve, especially in moral and religious knowledge; to teach. It does not appear probable that our dispute [about miracles] would either edify or enlighten the public. Gibbon.

3. To teach or persuade. [Obs.] Bacon.

Ed"i*fy, v. i.

Definition: To improve. [R.] Swift.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition



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Word of the Day

23 November 2024

THEORETICAL

(adjective) concerned primarily with theories or hypotheses rather than practical considerations; “theoretical science”


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Coffee Trivia

The earliest credible evidence of coffee-drinking as the modern beverage appeared in modern-day Yemen. In the middle of the 15th century in Sufi shrines where coffee seeds were first roasted and brewed for drinking. The Yemenis procured the coffee beans from the Ethiopian Highlands.

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