PLATONIC • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Platonic

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

/plətˈɑnɪk/ Listen

adjective

Platonical, Platonic adj.

Of or pertaining to Plato, or his philosophy, school, or opinions.

Pure, passionless; nonsexual; philosophical.

Platonic bodies, the five regular geometrical solids; namely, the tetrahedron, hexahedron or cube, octahedron, dodecahedron, and icosahedron.

Platonic love, a pure, spiritual affection, subsisting between persons of opposite sex, unmixed with carnal desires, and regarding the mind only and its excellences; a species of love for which Plato was a warm advocate.

Platonic year (Astron.), a period of time determined by the revolution of the equinoxes, or the space of time in which the stars and constellations return to their former places in respect to the equinoxes; called also great year. This revolution, which is caused by the precession of the equinoxes, is accomplished in about 26,000 years.

noun

Platonic n. A follower of Plato; a Platonist.

See images of 'Platonic'

Etymology of 'Platonic'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

Share |

"Platonic" Quotes from Famous Books

... glances, and presence have the subtle power to fill his thoughts, quicken his pulse, stir his soul, and awaken his whole nature into new life. He usually passes through a luminous haze of congeniality, friendship, Platonic affinity, or even brotherly regard, till something suddenly clears up the mist and he finds, like the first man, lonely in Eden, that there is but one woman for him in all ...

— Opening a Chestnut Burr • Edward Payson Roe

... took it out of my mouth," said Bones. "It sounds inexplicable that I can be interested in a platonic, fatherly kind of way in the future of ...

— Bones in London • Edgar Wallace

... her house again, and to return to it as soon as he could stand on his feet. The beautiful social customs of eighteenth-century Italy authorised and even imposed upon a man who had accepted the position of cavaliere servente (a sort of pseudo-platonic vice-husbandship which covered illicit connections with a worldly propriety) to attend upon his lady from the moment of her getting up in the morning to the moment when she returned home or dismissed her guests at night, ...

— The Countess of Albany • Violet Paget (AKA Vernon Lee)

... proceeded became more animated, owing particularly to my accusing him of viewing all politics from a Hungarian point of view, which he did not deny, though he maintained that the dispute was a mere platonic one, as the Entente peace terms appeared to be such that Austria would be left with much less than Hungary. I was also first to state the terms under which we could make peace; then only would it be seen ...

— In the World War • Count Ottokar Czernin

... believe, the text of Porphyry really sets forth the theology of the magi, slightly modified by Platonic ideas based on popular beliefs of the Greeks and perhaps of the barbarians, we shall be able to draw interesting conclusions in regard to the mysteries of Mithra. For instance, one of the principles ...

— The Oriental Religions in Roman Paganism • Franz Cumont

More quotes...