metempsychosis
Americannoun
noun
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the migration of a soul from one body to another
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the entering of a soul after death upon a new cycle of existence in a new body either of human or animal form
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of metempsychosis
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
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.
See Examples For:
After Darth Vader cut down Obi-Wan Kenobi in a lightsaber duel, the latter returned via metempsychosis as a Force Ghost.
From Fox News ● Mar. 23, 2019
As to how Maf came by his feeling for history or his fancy prose style, not to mention an impressive knowledge of the works of numerous philosophers, especially Plutarch, the answer, it seems, is metempsychosis.
From The Guardian ● May 7, 2010
Japanese approved, last week, certain pious rites ordered and paid for at Kyoto by one Yozo Fuyubayashi, a rich seller of flypaper, a gentleman, and a devout believer in metempsychosis or transmigration of souls.
From Time Magazine Archive
By some horrible law of metempsychosis had his old spirit passed into this too fashionable married flirt at his side?
From A Republic Without a President and Other Stories by Ward, Herbert D. (Herbert Dickinson)
The daemonology of Pythagoras, along with the doctrine of metempsychosis in its moral aspect, was adopted by Plato, whether as a serious theory or as a philosophic myth.
From Roman Society from Nero to Marcus Aurelius by Dill, Samuel
Descriptions were also given, answering to the growing sense of personal responsibility, of the abodes of Hades and of the fate of souls there, and of the metempsychoses through which the soul must pass.
From History of Religion A Sketch of Primitive Religious Beliefs and Practices, and of the Origin and Character of the Great Systems by Menzies, Allan
All the metempsychoses depend on the imagination of the family Gurus, who receive for their kind offices from one hundred to one hundred and fifty rupees a year.
From From the Caves and Jungles of Hindostan by Blavatsky, H. P. (Helena Petrovna)
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.
