occult
/əˈkʌlt/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.29 in modern English
10
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Secret; hidden from general knowledge; undetected.
adj
not visible, but chemically detectable.
adj
Related to the occult; pertaining to mysticism, magic, or astrology.
adj
Example Sentences
- "The Earth occults the Moon during a lunar eclipse."
- "[…]to do so would occult rather than illuminate the utterly unexpected and surprising character of his coming and of his reign."
- "occult blood loss; occult cancer"
- "This counter-influence is so much more conclusive[…] because it is of an occult kind, and is so insensible in its advances as to escape observation."
- "One of our dogs with PHPTH [primary hyperparathyroidism] had lucent lesions in the long bones, but this is extremely uncommon. Concurrent hyperproteinemia is supportive of myeloma. Solid tumors with metastasis to bone are more likely if lytic bone lesions and normoproteinemia (especially a normal serum globulin concentration) are present. A core biopsy of a lytic lesion may be necessary to establish a definitive diagnosis of neoplasia, especially in a dog with occult neoplasia."
- "occult blood in the urine"
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₁ep-der. Proto-Indo-European *h₁épsder. Proto-Indo-European *h₁óp(i) Proto-Italic *op Latin ob Latin ob- Proto-Indo-European *ḱel- Proto-Indo-European *ḱéletider. Latin *celo Latin occulō Latin occultusbor. English occult Borrowed from Latin occultus (“hidden, secret”).
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /əˈkʌlt/
- British English: /ˈɒk.ʌlt/
Usage
Inflected Forms
occults (present, singular)
occulting (participle, present)
occulted (participle, past)
occulted (past)
more occult (comparative)
most occult (superlative)