Mysticism

How to spell mysticism

9 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce mysticism

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does mysticism mean?

1. nounBelief in or pursuit of direct, intuitive union with a divine or ultimate reality, beyond ordinary reason.

Mysticism in a sentence

• Her thesis compared Christian mysticism with the meditative traditions of the East.

• The lecture traced the rise of medieval mysticism among cloistered nuns.

Where does mysticism come from?

Language of origin: Greek

The word traces back to the ancient Greek mystikos, an adjective meaning 'relating to secret rites or mysteries', which described knowledge revealed only to those who had been initiated. That adjective grew from mystes, 'an initiate', and ultimately from the verb myein, which literally meant 'to close', as in closing the eyes or the lips, since participants in the Greek mystery cults were sworn to keep their experiences secret. Latin took the term in as mysticus, and it passed through French and into English, where 'mystic' appears by the late 1300s and the abstract noun 'mysticism' is recorded from the 1700s to name belief in direct, intuitive union with the divine. The same myein root sits behind the everyday word 'mystery', which is a useful memory hook, because both keep the y after the m and the s before the t. Spellers often stumble over the two i sounds in the middle and the doubled pattern of c followed by -ism, so picturing 'mystic' plus '-ism' keeps the letters in order.

How the word is built

• mystic- (from Greek mystikos: of secret rites, initiated)
• -ism (system of belief or practice)