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byzantine
WORDNET DICTIONARY
Noun byzantine has 1 sense
- byzantine(n = noun.person) Array - a native or inhabitant of Byzantium or of the Byzantine Empire; Array is a member of byzantine empire, byzantium, eastern roman empire, byzantium
is a kind of asian, asiatic
Adjective byzantine has 3 senses
- byzantine(a = adj.pert) Array - of or relating to the Eastern Orthodox Church or the rites performed in it; "Byzantine monks"; "Byzantine rites"
- byzantine(a = adj.pert) Array - of or relating to or characteristic of the Byzantine Empire or the ancient city of Byzantium; Array
- byzantine(s = adj.all) convoluted, involved, knotty, tangled, tortuous - highly complex or intricate and occasionally devious; "the Byzantine tax structure"; "Byzantine methods for holding on to his chairmanship"; "convoluted legal language"; "convoluted reasoning"; "the plot was too involved"; "a knotty problem"; "got his way by labyrinthine maneuvering"; "Oh, what a tangled web we weave"; "tortuous legal procedures"; "tortuous negotiations lasting for months"
CIDE DICTIONARY
byzantine, n. [OE. besant, besaunt, F. besant, fr. LL. Byzantius, Byzantinus, fr. Byzantium.].
A gold coin, so called from being coined at Byzantium . See Bezant. [1913 Webster]
byzantine, a.
Of or pertaining to Byzantium . [1913 Webster]
"Its leading forms are the round arch, the dome, the pillar, the circle, and the cross. The capitals of the pillars are of endless variety, and full of invention. The mosque of St. Sophia, Constantinople, and the church of St. Mark, Venice, are prominent examples of Byzantine architecture."
[1913 Webster]
OXFORD DICTIONARY
byzantine, adj. & n.
--adj.
1 of Byzantium or the E. Roman Empire.
2 (of a political situation etc.): a extremely complicated. b inflexible. c carried on by underhand methods.
3 Archit. & Painting of a highly decorated style developed in the Eastern Empire.
--n. a citizen of Byzantium or the E. Roman Empire.
--adj.
1 of Byzantium or the E. Roman Empire.
2 (of a political situation etc.): a extremely complicated. b inflexible. c carried on by underhand methods.
3 Archit. & Painting of a highly decorated style developed in the Eastern Empire.
--n. a citizen of Byzantium or the E. Roman Empire.
Derivative
Byzantinism n. Byzantinist n.
Etymology
F byzantin or L Byzantinus f. Byzantium, later Constantinople and now Istanbul
THESAURUS
byzantine
Machiavellian, artful, balled up, calculating, canny, collusive, complex, complicated, confounded, confused, connivent, conniving, conspiring, contriving, convoluted, crabbed, crafty, cunning, daedal, designing, devious, elaborate, embrangled, entangled, fouled up, foxy, gordian, guileful, implicated, insidious, intricate, intriguing, involuted, involved, knotted, knotty, knowing, labyrinthian, labyrinthine, loused up, many-faceted, matted, mazy, meandering, messed up, mixed up, mucked up, multifarious, pawky, perplexed, plotting, ramified, roundabout, scheming, screwed up, shrewd, slick, sly, snarled, sophisticated, stratagemical, subtile, subtle, tangled, tangly, twisted, up to, wily
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