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say it: KLAS-i-kuhl
classical is an adjective and noun meaning "of or relating to the first significant period of a civilization, culture, area of study, etc.". It carries 8 recorded senses.
of or relating to the first significant period of a civilization, culture, area of study, etc.
“classic Chinese pottery”
“classical Marxism”
of or relating to the study of the literary works of ancient Greece and Rome
“a classical scholar”
of or relating to the languages used by ancient standard authors
“classical Greek”
well-known and long-established in form or style
“a classical ballet”
“classic double-breasted suit”
“the classic struggle between good and evil”
(physics) relating to or based on concepts that preceded the theories of relativity and quantum mechanics
physics
of or relating to music in the European tradition, such as symphonies and operas
“classical music”
music
of or pertaining to or characteristic of the ancient Greeks and Romans, especially their art, literature, or culture
“classical mythology”
“the classical world”
fine arts
traditional genre of music conforming to an established form and appealing to critical interest and developed musical taste
Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.
Definitions, synonyms and semantic relations for classical come from Princeton University’s WordNet. The pronunciation comes from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. Commonness is measured against a corpus of everyday English. Full sources and licences.