ecstasy
/ˈɛkstəsi/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 3.48 in modern English
12
Scrabble Score
7
Letters
3
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A state of emotion so intense that a person is carried beyond rational thought and self-control.
Countable; Uncountable
noun
A trance, frenzy, or rapture associated with mystic or prophetic exaltation.
Countable; Uncountable
noun
Violent emotion or distraction of mind; excessive grief from anxiety; insanity; madness.
Countable; Obsolete; Uncountable
noun
The drug MDMA, a synthetic entactogen of the methylenedioxyphenethylamine family, especially in a tablet form.
Countable; Slang; Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "This is the very ecstasy of love, / Whose violent property fordoes itself / And leads the will to desperate undertakings / As oft as any passion under heaven / That does afflict our natures."
- "He loved me well, and oft would beg me sing; / Which when I did, he on the tender grass / Would sit, and hearken even to ecstasy,"
- "In fact, Tarzan had never killed for “pleasure,” nor to him was there pleasure in killing. It was the joy of righteous battle that he loved—the ecstasy of victory."
- "an ecstasy of remorse"
- "They were thrown into ecstasies of suspicion by finding that we possessed a French translation of Hitler's Mein Kampf."
- "What! are you dreaming, Son! with Eyes cast upwards / Like a mad Prophet in an Ecstasy?"
Etymology
From Old French estaise (“ecstasy, rapture”), from Latin ecstasis, from Ancient Greek ἔκστασις (ékstasis), from ἐξίστημι (exístēmi, “to displace”), from ἐκ (ek, “out”) and ἵστημι (hístēmi, “to stand”).
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈɛkstəsi/
- British English: /ˈɛkstəsi/