numinous
/ˈn(j)umənəs/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.00 in modern English
10
Scrabble Score
8
Letters
3
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Evoking a sense of the mystical, sublime, or transcendent; awe-inspiring.
Example Sentences
- "His interest in numinous objects led him on a quest for the Holy Grail."
- "The fetish of Huitzilopochtli, bundled up and screened from profane eyes, now preceded the wandering group, carried on the back of his oracle-priest or sorcerer who alone was holy enough to handle safely the numinous object."
- "He held his own body in numinous esteem."
- "The use of blood to instill numen into a thing is illustrated by the establishment and annual renewal of Terminus, the boundary marker […] The transfer of numinous power to persons has its example in the drinking of blood by seers in order to get oracular vision."
- "The Will of a King is very numinous; it hath a kind of vast universality in it, it is many times greater than the will of his whole Kingdom, stiffened with ill Counsel and ill Presidents: […]"
- "Behind the hieroglyphic streets there would either be a transcendent meaning, or only the earth. In the songs Miles, Dean, Serge and Leonard sang was either some fraction of the truth's numinous beauty (as Mucho now believed) or only a power spectrum."
Etymology
From Latin nūmen (“nod of the head; divine sway or will; divinity”) + -ous (suffix forming adjectives from nouns, denoting possession or presence of a quality). Nūmen is believed to derive either from Latin *nuō (“to nod”) or from Ancient Greek νοούμενον (nooúmenon, “influence perceptible by the mind but not the senses”) (ultimately from νόος (nóos, “mind; thought; purpose”)).
Origin
- Source language: Latin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈn(j)umənəs/
- British English: /ˈnjuːmɪnəs/
Subject
Wiktionary places this term in Religion.
Inflected Forms
more numinous (comparative)
most numinous (superlative)