Hypnotic

How to spell hypnotic

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce hypnotic

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does hypnotic mean?

1. adjectiveTending to induce sleep, a trance, or a state of fixed fascination.
2. nounA drug or substance that induces sleep.

Hypnotic in a sentence

• adjective

  The steady hypnotic rhythm of the train soon made her drowsy.

• noun

  The doctor warned that the hypnotic should not be mixed with alcohol.

• adjective

  The dancer moved with a slow, hypnotic grace that held the whole room.

• noun

  Older patients are prescribed a milder hypnotic to avoid grogginess.

Where does hypnotic come from?

Language of origin: Greek

This word traces back to the Greek hypnos, which simply meant 'sleep' and was also the name of the Greek god of sleep, the gentle brother of Thanatos (death). From that root the Greeks formed hypnotikos, an adjective meaning 'inclined to sleep' or 'putting to sleep'. The term passed into Latin as hypnoticus and reached English through French in the early 1600s, first as a medical label for drugs that induced drowsiness. The modern, broader sense of 'fascinating or trance-inducing' grew through the 1800s alongside the new science of hypnotism, which the surgeon James Braid named from the very same Greek root. The silent, unexpected 'y' and the 'p' that hides before the 'n' are both inherited straight from Greek, and remembering hypnos helps lock that opening 'hyp-' into place.

How the word is built

• hypno- (from Greek hypnos: sleep)
• -tic (adjective/noun suffix forming 'relating to')