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American Dictionary of the English Language

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Ionic


ION'IC, adjective [from Ionia.] The ionic order, in architecture, is that species of column named from Ionia, in Greece. It is more slender than the Doric and Tuscan, but less slender and less ornamented than the Corinthian and Composite. It is simple, but majestic; its highth is 18 modules, and that of the entablature four and a half.

1. The ionic dialect of the Greek language, is the dialect used in Ionia.

2. The ionic sect of philosophers, was that founded by Thales of Miletus, in Ionia. Their distinguishing tenet was, that water is the principle of all natural things.

3. Denoting an airy kind of music. The ionic or Ionian mode was, reckoning from grave to acute, the second of the five middle modes.