Exotic

How to spell exotic

6 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce exotic

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does exotic mean?

1. adjectiveOriginating in or characteristic of a distant foreign country, or strikingly unusual and excitingly different.

Exotic in a sentence

• The market sold exotic fruits she had never tasted before.

• Their honeymoon took them to an exotic island in the Pacific.

Where does exotic come from?

Language of origin: Greek

This word goes back to the Greek exotikos, meaning 'from the outside' or 'foreign', which was built on the simple preposition exo, meaning 'outside'. The Romans adopted it as the Latin exoticus to describe goods, plants, and customs that came from distant lands, and from there it passed into French as exotique. English took it up in the late 1500s, at first in the literal sense of belonging to another country, especially something brought back from abroad. Over time the meaning warmed into the modern shade of 'strikingly unusual, colourful, or excitingly different', which is how we most often use it today. The spelling stays faithful to its Greek root: the central x carries the 'gz' sound, while the ending lands as the familiar -tic of so many adjectives.

How the word is built

• exo- (outside, foreign)
• -tic (adjective suffix)