Occult

How to spell occult

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce occult

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does occult mean?

1. adjectiveRelating to supernatural, mystical, or magical practices and hidden knowledge.
2. nounThe body of supernatural beliefs and practices regarded as secret or mystical.
3. adjectiveNot visible or detectable except by special testing, as of a concealed medical condition.

Occult in a sentence

• adjective

  The old bookshop kept a shelf of occult texts on astrology and alchemy.

• noun

  His lifelong fascination with the occult filled the house with tarot cards and pendulums.

• adjective

  The lab screened the sample for occult blood that the eye could not detect.

• adjective

  She wrote her thesis on occult symbols carved into medieval church doors.

• noun

  The museum exhibition traced public interest in the occult during the Victorian era.

• adjective

  An occult fracture may not appear on an initial x-ray.

Where does occult come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes from the Latin occultus, the past participle of the verb occulere, which meant 'to cover over' or 'to hide from view'. That verb was built from the prefix ob-, here carrying the sense of 'over', joined to celare, meaning 'to conceal' or 'to keep secret', a root also lurking behind the word 'cellar', a place where things are stored out of sight. English adopted occult in the sixteenth century, at first simply meaning 'hidden' or 'not understood', and scientists still use it that way when they speak of 'occult' bleeding that is not visible to the eye. Only later did it drift toward its familiar association with secret arts, magic, and supernatural knowledge available to the initiated few. The double c that trips up writers is a direct fossil of that assimilated Latin prefix, where ob- shifted to oc- before the following c.

How the word is built

• oc- (assimilated form of ob-: over)
• cult (from Latin occulere, celare: to hide, conceal)