exordium means A beginning. It carries an Arena rating of 1698, earned across 5 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, exordium ranks #3,423 of 17,126 for Most Elegant Words, #5,393 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words, #5,529 of 17,130 for Most Beautiful Words, #6,432 of 17,142 for Most Ingenious Words.
exordium is pronounced /ɛɡˈzɔːdɪəm/.
Why “exordium” is a great word
EXORDIUM — [Noun] The formal, rhetorical opening of an oration or discourse, crafted to prepare the audience’s disposition and secure their attention. From the Latin exordium (“beginning, commencement”), from exōrdīrī (“to begin”), from ex- (“out of, from”) + ōrdīrī (“to begin, to lay the warp”). First attested in English c. 1525–35. Unlike a prologue, which sets a narrative scene, or a preamble, which states legal intent, an exordium is a strategic appeal, the first careful stitch in the fabric of persuasion. It is the orator’s measured breath before the argument, the clearing of the throat that becomes a melody, the deliberate laying of a foundation upon which a cathedral of ideas might be raised—a reminder that every great structure is foretold in its beginning.
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin exordium (“beginning, commencement”), from exōrdior (“to begin, commence”), from ex (“out of, from”) + ōrdior (“to begin”).
noun
- A beginning.
- The introduction to an essay or discourse.e.g.“Cicero thinks, in discourses of philosophy, the exordium to be the hardest part: if it be so, I wisely lay hold on the conclusion.” — 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 17, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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