Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Esoteric |
EsotericAdjective1. Confined to and understandable by only an enlightened inner circle; "a compilation of esoteric philosophical theories". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "esoteric" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1379. (references) |
| Domain | Definitions |
Satire | ESOTERIC, adj. Very particularly abstruse and consummately occult. The ancient philosophies were of two kinds, -- exoteric, those that the philosophers themselves could partly understand, and esoteric, those that nobody could understand. It is the latter that have most profoundly affected modern thought and found greatest acceptance in our time. Source: Devil's Dictionary. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Antonym: exoteric (adj). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Concealment | Irrevealable, inviolable; confidential; esoteric; not to be spoken of; unmentionable. |
Speciality | Adjective: special, particular, individual, specific, proper, personal, original, private, respective, definite, determinate, especial, certain, esoteric, endemic, partial, party, peculiar, appropriate, several, characteristic, diagnostic, exclusive; singular; (exceptional); idiomatic; idiotypical; typical. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Esoteric |
| English words defined with "esoteric": Acroamatical ♦ cabala, cabbala, cabbalah ♦ Esoterical, Esoterically, Esotericism, Exoterical ♦ Gnostic ♦ kabala, kabbala, kabbalah. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "esoteric": Boar's Flesh ♦ Esoteric ♦ first generation computer ♦ language lawyer ♦ pseudoprime. (references) |
| Non-English Usage: "Esoteric" is also a word in the following language with English translations in parentheses. Romanian (abstruse, mystic, recondite). |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | We have enjoyed preparing many of your esoteric dishes. (Galaxy Quest; writing credit: David Howard) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
Books |
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Periodicals |
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Music |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit |  | The Beacon : a magazine of esoteric philosophy, presenting the principles of the Ageless Wisdom as a contemporary way of life.Credit: Library of Congress. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Title | Author | Quote |
Scarlet Letter | Hawthorne, Nathaniel | The merchants valued him not less than we, his esoteric friends. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Civil Liberties | Lithuania | In 2000 the Government established a commission to coordinate the activities of governmental institutions in order to investigate whether the activities of religious, esoteric, or spiritual groups comply with the law. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Esoteric" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 99.54% of the time. "Esoteric" is used about 217 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Adjective (general or positive) | 99.54% | 216 | 20,583 |
| Noun (proper) | 0.46% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Total | 100.00% | 217 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "esoteric": Directed Esoteric Toning ♦ Esoteric clearing ♦ Esoteric healing. Additional references. | |
| Hypenated Usage | |
Ending with "esoteric": ascetic-esoteric. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Language | Translations for "esoteric"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Albanian | personal (individual, interior, nominal, nominative, one-man, personal, personalized, private, several), konfidencial (private, privy), i fshehtë (backdoor, clandestine, close, colorable, colourable, confidential, cryptic, dark, deep, deep-seated, elfish, elvish, furtive, hidden, hole-and-corner, insidious, internal, latent, occult, Perdue, private, privy, quiet, secret, secretive, sly, stealthy, subterranean, under the counter, under the table, under wraps, undercover, underhand, underhanded, unearthly, veiled), i brendshëm (domestic, immanent, indoor, inland, inlying, inner, inside, interior, internal, intestine, intimate, intramural, intrinsic, inward, Midland, seamy). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Arabic | مفهوم لفئة قليلة, مقصور على فئة معينة, معد لفئة قليلة, سرى (circulate). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bulgarian | тъмен (black, blackish, cimmerian, dark, darkling, darksome, deep, dense, dusk, dusky, fuscous, inky, low-browed, murky, neutral, obscure, opaque, overcast, sad, shady, somber, sombre, sooty, unlit), таен (arcane, backdoor, clandestine, confidential, cryptic, dark, darkling, hole-and-corner, hugger mugger, hush hush, inside, mystic, occult, private, privy, recondite, secret, sensitive, sneaking, snug, surreptitious, undercover, underground, underhand), мъчно разбираем, езотеричен (rarefied), поверителен (classified, confidential, hush hush, occult, private, privileged, privy, restricted, secret). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Chinese | 神秘 (Arcane, Enigmatic, Enigmatical, Mystical). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Czech | esoterický, tajuplný (eerie, eery, otherworldly, uncanny, weird), dùvìrný (close, confidential, familiar, hail-fellow-well-met, home, hush hush, intimate, off the record, private, restricted, sensitive). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Farsi | محرمانه (Backside, Backstage, Private, Secret, Surreptitious), مشکوک (Doubtful, Dubious, Precarious, Questionable, Shady, Skeptic, Suspicious, Uncertain), مبهم (Ambiguous, Dim, Dusky, Enigmatic, Imprecise, Misty, Mysterious, Obscure, Opaque, Vague), سری (Crypt, Occult, Undercover), رمزی (Allegorical, Cryptic, Figurative, Occult, Runic, Symbolic, Undercover), داخلی (Indoor, Innate, Inner, Interior, Internal, Inward, Territorial), درونی (Indoor, Inmost, Innate, Inner, Innermost, Interior, Internal, Inward, Pectoral, Subjective). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
French | secret, privé, ésotérique. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
German | esoterisch. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Greek | μυστικόσ (clandestine, hidden, hugger mugger, mystical, private, privy, privy to, secret, suppressible, surreptitious, undercover, underground, undisclosed), εσωτερικόσ (domestic, indoor, inland, inner, inside, interior, internal, intestine, intrinsic, inward), απόκρυφοσ (cryptic, recondite), απόρρητοσ (confidential). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hebrew | מובן למעטים, אזוטרי. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hungarian | titokzatos (apocalyptic, cabalistic, cryptic, eerie, eery, enigmatic, enigmatical, hermetic, hieroglyphic, mysterious, mystic, secret), rejtett értelmû (abstruse, oracular). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Italian | esoterico. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Kanji | 奥伝 . (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Katakana | おくで". (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Korean | 비 . (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Manx | folliaghtagh (classified, confidential, mysterious, secret, secretive, stealthy). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | esotericay de aesop (aesopian). (various references) ezoteric (occult). (various references) тайный (arcane, backdoor, clandestine, cryptic, dark, furtive, hole-and-corner, hugger mugger, offscreen, private, privy, quiet, secret, sly, sneaking, stealthy, surreptitious, under the table, undercover, underground, underhand, underhanded). (various references) ezoteričan. (various references) esotérico. (various references) esoterisk, svårtillgänglig (arcane), förbehållen de invigda. (various references) เป็นความลับ, ซึ่งรู้กันเพียงไม่กี่คน, ซึ่งยากที่จะเข้าใจ (impalpable). (various references) ezoterik, gizli (arcane, back door, blind, camera, clandestine, classified, closet, concealed, confidential, covert, cryptic, cryptical, crypto-, disguised, furtive, hidden, hole-and-corner, hugger mugger, huggermugger, hush hush, inner, intimate, latent, masked, occult, perdu, Perdue, private, privy, quiet, restricted, sealed, secluded, secret, secretly, slinky, sneaking, sneakingly, sneaky, snug, stealthy, sub rosa, submerged, submersed, subterranean, subterraneous, surreptitious, ulterior, under cover, underarm, undercover, underground, underhand, underhanded, undisclosed, unsearchable, unseen), belli bir gruba hitap eden, özel (ad hoc, closet, distinctive, especial, exclusive, express, extraordinary, individual, intimate, particular, peculiar, personal, private, privy, proper, proprietary, self, sole, special, specific, state, very). (various references) та"мничий (cabbalistic, cryptic, eldritch, mysterious, mystical, occult, orphean, orphic, secretive, unearthly, weird), та"мний (arcane, back door, backstairs, clandestine, close, closet, colorable, colourable, covert, cryptic, hideaway, hole-and-corner, hugger mugger, hush hush, invisible, mystic, occult, occulted, offscreen, private, secret, sly, sneaking, stealthy, subterranean, surreptitious, undercover), особливий (different, extra, particular, peculiar, special, specific, unique). (various references) bí truyền; bí mật riêng tư (esoterical). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Greek | 700 BCE-300 CE | esoterikos. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "esoteric": esoterica, esoterically, esotericism, esotericisms. (additional references) | |
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"Esoteric" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: asoteric, azoturia, ecoteric, eisogetic, escoteric, esenteric, esiteric, esorteric, esosteric, esotaric, esoteria, esoterica, esoterico, esoteris, esoteriv, esoterix, esotevic, esotheric, esotoric, esotric, espteric, essoteric, esteric, Esteril, Esteris, Estorick, estoteric, isoteric, soteric. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "esoteric" (pronounced e'sute"rik or e'sōte"rik) |
| 5 | -t e" r i k | hysteric, mesenteric. |
| 4 | -e" r i k | alphanumeric, atmospheric, cleric, Derrick, generic, ionospheric, numeric. |
| 3 | -r i k | anthropocentric, Baldric, barbaric, barometric, boric, caloric, choric, citric, concentric, dissymmetric, eccentric, econometric, egocentric, electric, ethnocentric, euphoric, fabric, gastric, geocentric, geometric, geriatric, gravimetric, hemispheric, historic, hydroelectric, hyperbaric, lyric, mercuric, meteoric, metric, nitric, obstetric, optometric, parametric, pediatric, photoelectric, pinprick, prehistoric, psychiatric, pyrrhic, rubric, satiric, sophomoric, stearic, stratospheric, sulfuric, tantric, vampiric, vitric. |
| 5 | -t e" r i k | hysteric, mesenteric. |
| 4 | -e" r i k | alphanumeric, atmospheric, cleric, Derrick, generic, ionospheric, numeric. |
| 3 | -r i k | anthropocentric, Baldric, barbaric, barometric, boric, caloric, choric, citric, concentric, dissymmetric, eccentric, econometric, egocentric, electric, ethnocentric, euphoric, fabric, gastric, geocentric, geometric, geriatric, gravimetric, hemispheric, historic, hydroelectric, hyperbaric, lyric, mercuric, meteoric, metric, nitric, obstetric, optometric, parametric, pediatric, photoelectric, pinprick, prehistoric, psychiatric, pyrrhic, rubric, satiric, sophomoric, stearic, stratospheric, sulfuric, tantric, vampiric, vitric. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
Direct Anagrams: coteries. | |
| Words within the letters "c-e-e-i-o-r-s-t" | |
-1 letter: cerites, coesite, coterie, erotics, recites, tierces. | |
-2 letters: cerise, cerite, certes, cestoi, citers, corset, cosier, coster, erects, erotic, escort, recite, rectos, resect, resite, reties, scoter, secret, sector, soiree, sortie, stereo, steric, terces, tierce, tories, trices, triose. | |
-3 letters: ceres, ceros, cesti, cetes, cires, citer, cites, coirs, cores, corse, coset, cosie, cotes, crest, cries, erect, erose. | |
| Words containing the letters "c-e-e-i-o-r-s-t" | |
+1 letter: erections, esoterica, neoterics, rectories, resection, secretion. | |
+2 letters: botcheries, categories, categorise, centrioles, cloistered, coquetries, coresident, cornetcies, corsetiere, corsetries, courtesied, courtesies, eroticizes, escritoire, estrogenic, excoriates, excretions, ferocities, geometrics, iceboaters, ozocerites, receptions, refections, rejections, resections, rocketries, secretions, spirochete, ventricose, viscometer. | |
+3 letters: aeroelastic, auctioneers, baronetcies, categorised, categorises, categorizes, ceilometers, charioteers, cholesteric, clinometers, commiserate, computerise, concertizes, concretizes, considerate, copresident, cordierites, corequisite, coresidents, correctives, corsetieres, costumeries, couturieres, crematories, desecration, directories, egocentrics, egocentrism, elastomeric, electronics, escritoires, esotericism, excerptions, execrations, fictioneers, hectoliters, helicopters, heteroecism, insectivore, intercessor, intercourse, isoelectric, meteoritics, micrometers, neocortices, nonreceipts, overdirects, overexcites, perceptions, perfections, persecution, precocities, prelections, projectiles, prospective, recreations, reelections, refectories, reflections, sclerotized, spirochaete, spirochetes, stereotaxic, stereotypic, theocracies, tricolettes, viscometers, vociferates. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)45 73 6F 74 65 72 69 63 |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
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| American Sign Language (origins from 1620-1817 in Italy and, especially, France) (references)
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| Semaphore (1791, in France) (references)
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| Braille (1829, in France) (references)
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Morse Code (1836) (references). ... --- - . .-. .. -.-. |
| Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903) (references)
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Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)01000101 01110011 01101111 01110100 01100101 01110010 01101001 01100011 |
HTML Code (1990) (references)E s o t e r i c |
ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)0045 0073 006F 0074 0065 0072 0069 0063 |
| British Sign Language (Fingerspelling, BSL; 1992, British Deaf Association Dictionary of British Sign Language) (references)
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Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)3985818671847569 |
| 1. Definition 2. Crosswords 3. Usage: Modern 4. Usage: Commercial | 5. Images: Photo Album 6. Quotations: Fiction 7. Quotations: Non-fiction 8. Usage Frequency | 9. Expressions 10. Expressions: Internet 11. Translations: Modern 12. Translations: Ancient | 13. Derivations 14. Rhymes 15. Anagrams 16. Orthography | 17. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
