1. a doctorate usually based on at least 3 years graduate study and a dissertation; the highest degree awarded graduate study

2. original and of a kind not seen before

4. appropriate to literature rather than everyday speech or writing

7. a deliberately false or improbable account

8. assign a rank or rating to

10. a composition written in metrical feet forming rhythmical lines

3. a belief (or system of beliefs) accepted as authoritative by some group or school

5. a long narrative poem telling of a hero's deeds

6. improved or corrected by critical editing

9. estimated by comparison; not absolute or complete

11. a systematic means of communicating by the use of sounds or conventional symbols

12. using speech rather than writing