mysticism

American  

[mis-tuh-siz-uhm] / ˈmɪs təˌsɪz əm /

noun

• mysticisms
  plural

1. the beliefs, ideas, or mode of thought of mystics.

2. a doctrine of an immediate spiritual intuition of truths believed to transcend ordinary understanding, or of a direct, intimate union of the soul with God through contemplation or ecstasy.

3. obscure thought or speculation.

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mysticism British  

/ ˈmɪstɪˌsɪzəm /

noun

1. belief in or experience of a reality surpassing normal human understanding or experience, esp a reality perceived as essential to the nature of life

2. a system of contemplative prayer and spirituality aimed at achieving direct intuitive experience of the divine

3. obscure or confused belief or thought

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mysticism Cultural  

1. In religion, the attempt by an individual to achieve a personal union with God or with some other divine being or principle. Mystics generally practice daily meditation.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• antimysticism
  noun
• nonmysticism
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• mysticisms
  plural

Etymology

Origin of mysticism

First recorded in 1730–40; mystic + -ism

Explanation

Mysticism is a religion or religious belief based on union or communion with a deity, or divine being. Mysticism is what lets you transcend the physical to experience enlightenment — let's just say you'll recognize it when it happens. Mystical, mysterious, and filled with wonder, mysticism is easily associated with crystals, New Age theories, or the occult (the supernatural). The truth is that many faiths, including Hinduism, Judaism, and Christianity, have their own forms of mysticism, placing an emphasis on spiritual connection and union, and the mysteries of religion over dogma or rigid rules. Outside of religion, mysticism is applied to cryptic, obscure, or irrational thought — leaning toward mystery and wonder, rather than logic.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

mysticism mysticisms

The slim book explores American mysticism and a moral framework in ruins as his clan zigzags from Kansas to South Carolina, Illinois and elsewhere.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 28, 2026

Her work courses with an assured mysticism that makes her feel so emblematic of L.A. itself.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 7, 2026

Fortune telling and mysticism are common in Eastern Europe, she explains.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 4, 2026

Hegel was a metaphysician whose insistence that Geist, or spirit, pervades the historical process and moves it to some grand culmination is difficult to distinguish from New Age mysticism, and hence charlatanism.

From Salon ● Mar. 28, 2026

Indeed, much of Newton’s intellectual development can be attributed to this tension between rationalism and mysticism.

From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan

Her account of the matter was highly satisfactory, and I must have been made of stone, not to credit her and her mysticisms.

From Recollections of Europe by James Fenimore Cooper

They took refuge in the most sombre of mysticisms, or, at least, in dogmatism of the narrowest kind.

From The Renascence of Hebrew Literature (1743-1885) by Nahum Slouschz

I have forgotten, long ago, the subject of debate, but Alcott started out with one of his characteristic mysticisms, and, after allowing him to commit himself fully, I interrupted him with a question.

From The Autobiography of a Journalist, Volume I by William James Stillman

At all times and in all places, these two mysticisms have given each other the hand.

From Lectures on the true, the beautiful and the good by Victor Cousin

From these mysticisms and technicalities of Troubadour and all other poetic guilds Browning decisively detaches his poet.

From Robert Browning by C. H. (Charles Harold) Herford