rapture
Americannoun
-
ecstatic joy or delight; joyful ecstasy.
- Synonyms:
- exaltation, transport, beatitude, bliss
- Antonyms:
- misery
-
Often raptures. an utterance or expression of ecstatic delight.
-
the carrying of a person to another place or sphere of existence.
-
Theology. the Rapture, the experience, anticipated by some fundamentalist Christians, of meeting Christ midway in the air upon his return to earth.
-
Archaic. the act of carrying off.
verb (used with object)
noun
-
the state of mind resulting from feelings of high emotion; joyous ecstasy
-
(often plural) an expression of ecstatic joy
-
the act of transporting a person from one sphere of existence to another, esp from earth to heaven
verb
Related Words
See ecstasy.
Other Word Forms
- raptureless adjective
Etymology
Origin of rapture
Explanation
Rapture is a feeling of emotional ecstasy so magical it's almost as if you've been transported to some other world. Coming to us from an old French word meaning "carried away," rapture certainly involves getting swept off to Shangri-La. It's happiness so extreme that you just about float to heaven, complete with big goofy grin plastered to your face. Traditionally reserved for those feeling spiritual ecstasy, rapture now extends to anyone feeling overwhelmed by emotion — sparked by everything from a passionate kiss to scoring an awesome dress on sale.
Vocabulary lists containing rapture
The Things They Carried
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"The Bells" by Edgar Allan Poe
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Beowulf vocabulary
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Hearing that performance live left me in a state of rapture.
From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 12, 2025
Wolf Alice delivered a crowd-pleasing cover of Fleetwood Mac's Dreams on The Other Stage, but it was their ode to friendship, Bros, that sent the audience into rapture.
From BBC • Jun. 29, 2025
Let’s replace Broadway with a bunch of rinks—and ask Stanley Cup hockey teams to send us all into the riveted rapture.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 13, 2025
The newly undead Mississippi folks dance along, but it’s different from Sammie’s juke joint rapture — unnatural and jerky, even as they keep the rhythm.
From Salon • May 2, 2025
As Jo waved her hands and gave a sigh of rapture, the family went off into a gale of merriment, and Mr. Laurence laughed till they thought he’d have an apoplectic fit.
From "Little Women" by Louisa May Alcott
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
