kaleidoscopic

English

WOTD – 11 May 2007

Alternative forms

• caleidoscopic

Etymology

From kaleidoscope +‎ -ic.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /kəˌlaɪdəˈskɒpɪk/
• (US) IPA^(key): /kəˌlaɪdəˈskɑːpɪk/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Adjective

kaleidoscopic (comparative more kaleidoscopic, superlative most kaleidoscopic)

1. Of, relating to, or produced by a kaleidoscope.
2. (figuratively) Brightly coloured and continuously changing in pattern, as if in a kaleidoscope.
   • 2020 December 8, David Barnett, “How John Lennon was made into a myth”, in BBC Online‎^[1]:

     Like scholars picking over the childhood of Buddha, we want to understand how Lennon became the man he did, but there’s also a purity to this portrayal because it presents Lennon before the prism of fame split him into his kaleidoscopic multitude of facets that allowed artists to imprint their own ideas of what John Lennon was or should have been.

Translations

relating to a kaleidoscope

• Esperanto: kalejdoskopa
• Swedish: kaleidoskopisk
• Turkmen: kaleýdoskopik

brightly coloured, changing in pattern

• Swedish: kaleidoskopisk, skimrande (sv), brokig (sv)
• Volapük: laidacenöl