relic
English · Thesaurus
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relic
- /ˈɹɛlɪk/
Where it comes from
From Middle English relik et al., from Old French relique, from Latin reliquiae (“remains, relics”), from relinquō (“to leave behind, abandon, relinquish”), from re- + linquō (“to leave, quit, forsake, depart from”). Doublet of relict, derelict, and relinquish.
noun relics · relick · relique
-
That which remains; that which is left after loss or decay; a remaining portion.
[…] let him not ask our pardon;
The nature of his great offence is dead,
And deeper than oblivion we do bury
The incensing relics of it […]
Similar: remnant, remainder, residue, lave, leavings, leftover, ort, relic, remains, remanent, residuum, rest
- Something old and outdated, possibly kept for sentimental reasons. […] the imperfect light entering by their narrow casements showed bedsteads of a hundred years old; chests in oak or walnut, looking, with their strange carvings of palm branches and cherubs’ heads, like types of the Hebrew ark; rows of venerable chairs, high-backed and narrow; stools still more ant
-
A part of the body of a saint, or an ancient religious object, kept for veneration.
Why ſhould onely I,
Of all the other Princes of the World,
Be caſ’d-vp, like a holy Relique?
Similar: halidom
- A particle or entity that has existed since the Big Bang. One of the primary targets of current and especially future cosmological observations are light thermal relics of the hot big bang.
verb relics · relicing · relicking · reliced · relicked
- To cause (an object) to appear old or worn, to distress. Age has become a fetish in the world of guitars where large amounts of money are paid for a specially “reliced” guitar. As one company, Relic Guitars, which offers this service claims, “The idea behind relicing a guitar is to artificially replicate the natural wear that occurs over many years […]”
adjective relick · relique
- Pertaining to the Big Bang. A more realistic model must include the presence of perturbations whose extra energy can produce distortions of the relic radiation spectrum.
Thesaurus
Closest in meaning: souvenir, keepsake, token, remnant, survivorship, survival, effect, curio, relique, ancient, loser, trace, piece, memento, tacky, has-been
Translations
Every language
noun that which remains
| Español | reliquia, vestigio |
|---|---|
| 한국어 | 유물 yumul, 유적 yujeok |
| 日本語 | 遺物 ibutsu, 遺跡 iseki |
| 中文 | 遺跡 /遗迹 yíjì, 遺物 /遗物 yíwù |
| Français | reliquat |
| Ελληνικά | απομεινάρι apomeinári |
| Русский | оста́нки ostánki |
| Tiếng Việt | di tích |
| العربية | أَثَر ʔaṯar |
| עברית | שָׂרִיד saríd |
Talk about this word "relic." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/relic. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. relic. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/relic "relic." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/relic.Cite this
@misc{relic_2026,
title = {relic},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/relic},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
