See protean in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
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"text": "An amoeba is a protean animalcule.",
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"ref": "1954 February 15, Henry E. Michelson, “The Syndrome of Lupus Erythematosus”, in Modern Medicine, volume 22, number 4, Minneapolis, Minn.: Modern Medicine Publications, Inc., page 96:",
"text": "Virus infection of the blood and bone marrow is probably responsible for all forms of the disease. The viral theory of origin accounts for the protean manifestations of the condition.",
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"ref": "1980, Gershon Legman, The New Limerick:",
"text": "[…] the word's protean expressiveness has been observed in a xeroxlore item printed in Robert Anton Wilson's Playboy's Book of Forbidden Words […]",
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"ref": "1984, “Recording of Special Merit”, in Hi Fi/stereo Review, volume 49, Ziff-Davis Publishing Company, page 80:",
"text": "Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson, that protean creative duo, have worn many faces and played many roles over the years.",
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"ref": "1987, William A. Henry III, Time Magazine, volume 129:",
"text": "He loved to show off his protean talent.",
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"ref": "2020 October 27, Daphne Merkin, “Shifting the Focus From Sylvia Plath’s Tragic Death to Her Brilliant Life”, in The New York Times Book Review, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC:",
"text": "In the intervening decades she has become a protean figure, an emblem of different things to different people, depending upon their viewpoint — a visionary, a victim, a martyr, a feminist icon, a schizophrenic, a virago, a prisoner of gender — or, perhaps, a genius, as both Plath and Hughes maintained during her lifetime.",
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"ref": "2025 January 3, The Christian Science Monitor's Editorial Board, “The art of Poland’s diplomacy”, in The Christian Science Monitor:",
"text": "In recent years, Europe has struggled to find the right balance between freedom of expression and the protean security concerns it faces.",
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"word": "chameleon"
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"word": "многолик"
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"sense": "exceedingly variable",
"word": "proteic"
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"code": "cs",
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"sense": "exceedingly variable",
"word": "protéovský"
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{
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{
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"code": "nl",
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"word": "wisselvallig"
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"word": "veelvormig"
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"word": "muuntautumiskykyinen"
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"code": "fi",
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"sense": "exceedingly variable",
"word": "kameleonttimainen"
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"word": "variable"
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"code": "fr",
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"sense": "exceedingly variable",
"word": "instable"
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"word": "protéiforme"
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"word": "vielgestaltig"
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}
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[
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[
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[
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[
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],
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],
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"natural-sciences",
"physical-sciences"
]
}
],
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},
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},
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"ref": "1954 February 15, Henry E. Michelson, “The Syndrome of Lupus Erythematosus”, in Modern Medicine, volume 22, number 4, Minneapolis, Minn.: Modern Medicine Publications, Inc., page 96:",
"text": "Virus infection of the blood and bone marrow is probably responsible for all forms of the disease. The viral theory of origin accounts for the protean manifestations of the condition.",
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"ref": "1984, “Recording of Special Merit”, in Hi Fi/stereo Review, volume 49, Ziff-Davis Publishing Company, page 80:",
"text": "Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson, that protean creative duo, have worn many faces and played many roles over the years.",
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},
{
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51
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"ref": "2020 October 27, Daphne Merkin, “Shifting the Focus From Sylvia Plath’s Tragic Death to Her Brilliant Life”, in The New York Times Book Review, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC:",
"text": "In the intervening decades she has become a protean figure, an emblem of different things to different people, depending upon their viewpoint — a visionary, a victim, a martyr, a feminist icon, a schizophrenic, a virago, a prisoner of gender — or, perhaps, a genius, as both Plath and Hughes maintained during her lifetime.",
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{
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{
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{
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{
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{
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{
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{
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"lang_code": "ca",
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{
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},
{
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},
{
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},
{
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"lang_code": "fr",
"sense": "exceedingly variable",
"word": "variable"
},
{
"code": "fr",
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"lang_code": "fr",
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"word": "changeant"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"lang_code": "fr",
"sense": "exceedingly variable",
"word": "instable"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"lang_code": "fr",
"sense": "exceedingly variable",
"word": "protéiforme"
},
{
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"word": "vielgestaltig"
},
{
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"lang_code": "de",
"sense": "exceedingly variable",
"word": "proteisch"
},
{
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"word": "protejski"
},
{
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"lang": "Serbo-Croatian",
"lang_code": "sh",
"sense": "exceedingly variable",
"word": "nestalan"
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"lang_code": "es",
"sense": "exceedingly variable",
"word": "proteico"
},
{
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"lang_code": "bg",
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"sense": "of or relating to Proteus",
"word": "протейски"
},
{
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"lang": "Dutch",
"lang_code": "nl",
"sense": "of or relating to Proteus",
"word": "proteïsch"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"lang_code": "fr",
"sense": "of or relating to Proteus",
"word": "protéique"
},
{
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"lang": "German",
"lang_code": "de",
"sense": "of or relating to Proteus",
"word": "proteusartig"
},
{
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"lang_code": "pt",
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"word": "proteico"
},
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"Pages with 1 entry",
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"Terms with Czech translations",
"Terms with Dutch translations",
"Terms with Finnish translations",
"Terms with French translations",
"Terms with German translations",
"Terms with Polish translations",
"Terms with Portuguese translations",
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"Terms with Spanish translations"
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],
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{
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]
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"tags": [
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}
],
"word": "protean"
}
Download raw JSONL data for protean meaning in English (16.4kB)
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-06-21 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-06-01 using wiktextract (ade7ec3 and 7f4db16). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.