Epictetus

American  

[ep-ik-tee-tuhs] / ˌɛp ɪkˈti təs /

noun

1. a.d. c60–c120, Greek Stoic philosopher and teacher, mainly in Rome.

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Epictetus British  

/ ˌɛpɪkˈtiːtəs /

noun

1. ?50–?120 _ad , Greek Stoic philosopher, who stressed self-renunciation and the brotherhood of man

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Other Word Forms

• Epictetian adjective

Example Sentences

She studies it daily, reading the texts of thinkers such as Seneca, Epictetus and other men better known as marble busts.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 30, 2026

Democracy thrives when citizens remember what the Stoic philosopher Epictetus said more than two thousand years ago: “We have two ears and one mouth, so we can listen twice as much as we speak.”

From Slate • Jan. 2, 2026

Throughout the novel, Rhys references Kant, De Beauvoir, Sartre, Virginia Woolf and Epictetus, among others, using knowledge as a balm and escape hatch.

From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 6, 2025

Epictetus is fairly punk in his own right.

From Salon • Jan. 30, 2024

We can go and see Epictetus too.—Then you go away and say; Oh!

From The Conflict of Religions in the Early Roman Empire by Glover, T. R. (Terrot Reaveley)