Make Your Point > Archived Issues > PRECEPT
Send Make Your Point issues straight to your inbox.
My favorite Latin verb might be capere! It means "to take, to grasp, to seize, to hold, to assume, or to understand." I can't remember all that. Let's say capere means "to take."
The word "precept" has Latin bits that literally mean "(something) taken beforehand."
Part of speech:
"Precept" is a common word, with a very formal, almost religious tone.
"Chief Luthuli's precept: 'Let your courage rise with danger.'"
Explain the meaning of "precept" without saying "tenet" or "maxim."
In R. J. Palacio's novel Wonder, a character defines the word "precept" in several ways:
Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.
1.
There's not really an opposite of PRECEPT. But if we were to invent one, it could be POSTCEPT, and we could define it as
|