Archetype: meaning, example and synonyms

Archetypen. A perfect or original example of a type, serving as a model for later ones.

Example

Literary scholars often treat the wandering hero as an archetype, tracing how its basic pattern recurs across epics composed centuries and continents apart.

Part of speech: noun
Synonyms: prototype, model, paradigm, exemplar
Antonyms: anomaly, deviation, aberration, oddity
Memory tip: arche (first) + type: the original mold all copies follow.

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Check yourself: Archetype in context

Pick the word that best completes each text.

Question 1

The scholar argued that tricksters, clever figures who break rules to expose hypocrisy, are ______ appearing in the folktales of cultures that never had contact with one another.

Question 2

For later architects, the early domed temple served as the ______ of civic grandeur, the original model against which countless courthouses and halls were measured.

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