Rapture

How to spell rapture

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce rapture

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does rapture mean?

1. nounA feeling of intense joy, delight, or overwhelming emotion.

Rapture in a sentence

• The audience listened in rapture as the orchestra reached its climax.

• She gazed at the newborn with pure rapture on her face.

Where does rapture come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb rapere, which literally meant 'to seize, snatch, or carry off by force', the same root that gives us 'rape', 'rapt', and 'ravish'. Its past participle raptus produced a Medieval Latin noun raptura, describing the act of seizing or being seized. English took up 'rapture' around the year 1600, at first carrying the sense of being physically or violently carried away, and very soon afterwards the figurative idea of being carried away by overwhelming emotion. From there it settled into its modern meaning of intense joy or ecstasy, the feeling of being so transported that you lose yourself in delight. The 'rapt' that sits at its core is the very same word we still use for someone listening with rapt attention, which is a handy reminder that the spelling keeps the 'p' before the 't', not a hidden 'tch' sound; the soft -ture ending is where the trap really lies.

How the word is built

• rapt- (from Latin raptus: seized, carried off)
• -ure (noun-forming suffix)