Definitions

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  • noun Plural form of unity.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Just there, in that vivid single impression left on the mind when all is over, not in any mechanical limitation of time and place, is the secret of the "unities" -- the true imaginative unity -- of the drama.

    Appreciations, with an Essay on Style Walter Pater 1866

  • In other plays, Shakespeare could show a blithe disregard for the so-called unities: The Winter's Tale, for example, falls into two halves with a separation of sixteen years in the interim, and moves back and forth between the widely separated kingdoms of Sicilia and Bohemia.

    Shakespeare Bevington, David 2002

  • The important addition in Bahya is his distinction between God's unity and other unities, which is not found so strictly formulated in any of his predecessors, and goes back to Pseudo-Pythagorean sources in Arabian literature of Neo-Platonic origin.

    A History of Mediaeval Jewish Philosophy Isaac Husik 1907

  • Our Saviour also compares his grace to pearls, which as Pliny says are otherwise called unities, because each one of them is so singular in its qualities that two of them are never found perfectly alike; and as one star differeth from another in glory, [76] so shall men be different from one another in glory, an evident sign that they will have been so in grace.

    Treatise on the Love of God 1567-1622 1884

  • But although music plays a thematic role, the novel's real structure derives from the classical and neo-classical "unities": the entire book takes place in a single day, with each chapter covering a matter of minutes interspersed with the occasional flashback.

    Brief note: Midnight Fugue 2009

  • But although music plays a thematic role, the novel's real structure derives from the classical and neo-classical "unities": the entire book takes place in a single day, with each chapter covering a matter of minutes interspersed with the occasional flashback.

    The Little Professor: 2009

  • Although in the last stage of shabbiness, their clothes had all been once of fashionable texture and good material; but they entirely neglected the "unities" in their personal apparel.

    Kate Coventry An Autobiography G. J. Whyte-Melville

  • All the "unities" have been consistently outraged by a deliberate use of the English and metric systems side by side.

    On Laboratory Arts Richard Threlfall

  • Gothic art, mediæval sentiment, the ancient monarchy and the ancient creed, were blended in their programme with the abrogation of the "unities," and a greater license of poetical expression.

    The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 17, No. 102, April, 1866 Various

  • The classic drama, modeled upon Greek or Roman plays, was constructed according to the dramatic "unities," which

    Outlines of English and American Literature : an Introduction to the Chief Writers of England and America, to the Books They Wrote, and to the Times in Which They Lived William Joseph Long 1909

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