hermetic
Americanadjective
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made airtight by fusion or sealing.
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not affected by outward influence or power; isolated.
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(sometimes initial capital letter) of, relating to, or characteristic of occult science, especially alchemy.
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(initial capital letter) of or relating to Hermes Trismegistus or the writings ascribed to him.
adjective
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of or relating to Hermes Trismegistus or the writings and teachings ascribed to him
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of or relating to ancient science, esp alchemy
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esoteric or recondite
adjective
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sealed so as to be airtight
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hidden or protected from the outside world
Other Word Forms
- hermetically adverb
- unhermetic adjective
Etymology
Origin of hermetic
1630–40; < Medieval Latin hermēticus of, pertaining to Hermes Trismegistus, equivalent to Latin Hermē ( s ) Hermes + -ticus -tic
Explanation
If you want to keep cookies crisp for a long time, store them in a jar with a hermetic, or airtight, seal. Hermetic means sealed so that no air can get in. The word can be used metaphorically as well. A child who is completely protected from the outside world might be said to come from a hermetic environment. The word comes from the name of the Greek god, Hermes Trismegistus, who was a magician and alchemist and was credited with creating the process for making a completely airtight glass tube, a god-like feat if there ever was one.
Vocabulary lists containing hermetic
100 SAT Words Beginning with "H"
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30 GRE Words Beginning with "G" and "H"
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"Maus II: And Here My Troubles Began" by Art Spiegelman
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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.
The country had enjoyed a decade-long democratic experiment after a history of hermetic military rule.
From Barron's • Dec. 21, 2025
MIT is an enclave even within the hermetic world of Cambridge academia—a place where complex, bleeding-edge ideas spawn from sterile labs and filthy dorm rooms.
From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 22, 2025
Previous generations didn’t have the chance to taste some version of the hermetic bliss millions of us were exposed to over the past five years.
From Salon • Mar. 26, 2025
Courogen, a journalist and visual content director based in New York, reached out countless times to May’s “people,” a small clutch of confidants that keep a tight lid on 92-year-old May’s hermetic world.
From Los Angeles Times • May 29, 2024
They spent the greater part of the day closeted in the bedroom in hermetic conferences and at dusk they asked for an escort and some accordion players and took over Catarino’s store.
From "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
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.
