Meaning & use
paragon
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Meaning
nouncountableapproving
Someone or something that is so good it is treated as the perfect example of a quality.
Grammar: Usually followed by of plus the quality: a paragon of patience.
Patterns
- a paragon of something
- the paragon of something
Her teacher was a paragon of patience, never raising her voice.
The new hospital is meant to be a paragon of modern design.
He held up the old captain as a paragon of fairness.
Word forms
| plural | paragons |
|---|
Common combinations
- a paragon of virtue
- He is hardly a paragon of virtue, but he tries.
- paragon of patience
- The nurse was a paragon of patience with the frightened child.
- paragon of efficiency
- The airport was a paragon of efficiency.
- hardly a paragon
- I'm hardly a paragon of neatness, as my desk shows.
- held up as a paragon
- The company was held up as a paragon of ethical business.
- paragon of excellence
- The school is a paragon of excellence in science teaching.
Synonyms and how they differ
- model
- Model is plainer and means an example worth copying, while paragon suggests near perfection.
- epitome
- Epitome means the most typical example of a quality, good or bad, but paragon is always praising.
- exemplar
- Exemplar is a formal word for a perfect example and fits ideas and behavior, much like paragon.
- ideal
- Ideal can describe the standard itself in the mind, while a paragon is a real person or thing that meets it.
Opposites
Commonly confused: paragon or paradigm? paragon or paragraph?
paragon vs paradigm
A paradigm is a typical pattern or framework of ideas, while a paragon is a perfect example of a quality.
paragon vs paragraph
A paragraph is a section of written text and has no link to perfection except in sound.
Practice
He is hardly a ___ of punctuality; he is late almost every day.
Choose one answer.
A paragon of punctuality would be a perfect example of being on time. The other nouns do not combine with 'of punctuality' in this sense.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “paragon”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.