metempsychosis

[ muh-tem-suh-koh-sis, -temp-, met-uhm-sahy- ]
See synonyms for metempsychosis on Thesaurus.com
noun,plural me·tem·psy·cho·ses [muh-tem-suh-koh-seez, -temp-, met-uhm-sahy-]. /məˌtɛm səˈkoʊ siz, -ˌtɛmp-, ˌmɛt əm saɪ-/.
  1. the transmigration of the soul, especially the passage of the soul after death from a human or animal to some other human or animal body.

Origin of metempsychosis

1
1580–90; <Late Latin <Greek, equivalent to metempsȳchō-, variant stem of metempsȳchoûsthai to pass from one body into another (see met-, em-2, psycho-) + -sis-sis

Other words from metempsychosis

  • met·em·psy·chic [met-uhm-sahy-kik], /ˌmɛt əmˈsaɪ kɪk/, me·tem·psy·cho·sic, me·tem·psy·cho·si·cal, adjective

Words Nearby metempsychosis

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use metempsychosis in a sentence

  • Youth as it opens out discloses The sinister metempsychosis Of lilies dead and turned to roses Red as an angry dawn.

    The Burning Wheel | Aldous Huxley
  • This connects Buddhism with the doctrine of metempsychosis; a doctrine which the incarnations of Brahminism also suggest.

  • Before leaving the problem of the soul Ibn Daud devotes a word to showing that metempsychosis is impossible.

  • For nine years the late Patarah Prabhu existed under this new shape, carrying out the laws of metempsychosis.

    From the Caves and Jungles of Hindostan | Helena Pretrovna Blavatsky
  • Does Plato take metempsychosis seriously, as one would be tempted to believe after reading the Republic?

    Reincarnation | Th. Pascal

British Dictionary definitions for metempsychosis

metempsychosis

/ (ˌmɛtəmsaɪˈkəʊsɪs) /


nounplural -ses (-siːz)
  1. the migration of a soul from one body to another

  2. the entering of a soul after death upon a new cycle of existence in a new body either of human or animal form

Origin of metempsychosis

1
C16: via Late Latin from Greek, from metempsukhousthai, from meta- + -em- in + psukhē soul

Derived forms of metempsychosis

  • metempsychosist, noun

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012