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Showing results for mystagogue. Search instead for mystagogues.

mystagogue

American  
[mis-tuh-gawg, -gog] / ˈmɪs təˌgɔg, -ˌgɒg /

noun

  1. someone who instructs others before initiation into religious mysteries or before participation in the sacraments.

  2. a person whose teachings are said to be founded on mystical revelations.


mystagogue British  
/ ˈmɪstəˌɡɒɡ /

noun

  1. (in Mediterranean mystery religions) a person who instructs those who are preparing for initiation into the mysteries

"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

Other Word Forms


Etymology

Origin of mystagogue

1540–50; < Latin mystagōgus < Greek mystagōgós, equivalent to mýst ( ēs ) ( see mystic) + ágōgos -agogue


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:

Dr. Alfred Rosenberg, who began life as a drawing teacher and is now chief mystagogue of National Socialism, spends much of his time in private sanatoria.

From Time Magazine Archive

Socrates, the mystagogue of amorous philosophy, is absent, as I have observed, from this discussion of the laws.

From A Problem in Greek Ethics Being an inquiry into the phenomenon of sexual inversion by John Addington Symonds

Thus, with Piero for mystagogue, we enter an inner shrine of deep religious revelation.

From Renaissance in Italy Volume 3 The Fine Arts by John Addington Symonds

He had none of the airs of mystagogue, but talked to men, as he did to beasts, in the speech which was habitual to them.

From Rest Harrow A Comedy of Resolution by Maurice Henry Hewlett

The arch mystagogue, Home, though by no means a clever man, was never detected in fraudulent productions of fetishistic phenomena.

From The Making of Religion by Andrew Lang

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