Definitions for cynics

• Definition
• Anagrams (48)

cynics cyn·ic

Spelling: [sin-ik]

IPA: /ˈsɪn ɪk/

Cynics is a 6 letter English word. It's valid Scrabble word worth 12 points. It's valid Words with friends word worth 14 points.

You can make 48 anagrams from letters in cynics (ccinsy).

Definitions for cynics

noun

1. a person who believes that only selfishness motivates human actions and who disbelieves in or minimizes selfless acts or disinterested points of view.
2. (initial capital letter) one of a sect of Greek philosophers, 4th century b.c., who advocated the doctrines that virtue is the only good, that the essence of virtue is self-control, and that surrender to any external influence is beneath human dignity.
3. a person who shows or expresses a bitterly or sneeringly cynical attitude.

adjective

1. cynical.
2. (initial capital letter). Also, Cynical. of or relating to the Cynics or their doctrines.
3. Medicine/Medical Now Rare. resembling the actions of a snarling dog.

Origin of cynics

1540-50; LatinCynicus Greek Kynikós Cynic, literally, doglike, currish, equivalent to kyn- (stem of kýōn) dog + -ikos -ic

Examples for cynics

One may be a cynic; nevertheless that sort of music soon upsets one's stomach.

Suppose he is a cynic, it is to his interest to govern well.

In 1783 he died the death of Diogenes, minus the wit of the cynic.

At her core as both a mother and a politician was a guiding emotion that would make a cynic scoff.

Putin, after all, is not the only cynic on center stage in the Ukraine crisis.

A cynic might say that the report is like the movie Clue, perfectly set up for a multiplicity of endings.

You, dear reader and refusenik, will likely be called a cynic or a sad sack by friends.

Distrustful of engaging fully, the cynic engages superficially, gets the drug he needs, and moves along.

It was composed of a few overturned omnibuses; for the true Parisian is a cynic.

A cynic sends us a tip for the recruiting department of our army.