rapture

[rap-cher]

See more synonyms for rapture on Thesaurus.com

noun

ecstatic joy or delight; joyful ecstasy.
Often raptures. an utterance or expression of ecstatic delight.
the carrying of a person to another place or sphere of existence.

the Rapture, Theology. 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), rap·tured, rap·tur·ing.

to enrapture.

Origin of rapture

First recorded in 1590–1600; rapt + -ure

Related formsrap·ture·less, adjective

Can be confusedrapture rupture

Synonyms for rapture

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1. bliss, beatitude; transport, exaltation.

Synonym study

1. See ecstasy.

Antonyms for rapture

1. misery.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words for rapture

ecstasy, exaltation, euphoria, elation, exhilaration, contentment, communion, gladness, satisfaction, gaiety, well-being, buoyancy, transport, beatitude, delectation, enchantment, passion, paradise, bliss, inspiration

Examples from the Web for rapture

Contemporary Examples of rapture

The book was optioned to HBO in 2011, around the time evangelist Harold Camping claimed The Rapture would occur—on May 21, 2011.
From ‘Lost’ to The Rapture: Creators Damon Lindelof and Tom Perrotta on HBO’s ‘The Leftovers’
Marlow Stern
June 24, 2014
We can feel his sad cadences and the rapture of language in the Gettysburg Address.
Lincoln in Love
Jerome Charyn
February 14, 2014
There is a phrase for the foreigners' rapture: mal d'afrique.
Susan Minot on Africa, Joseph Kony, and the Limits of Writing About Love
Lea Carpenter
February 10, 2014
Most recently, Harold Camping went bust predicting that the Rapture would take place on May 21, 2011.
Sorry, Evangelicals, Syria Will Not Spur the Second Coming
Candida Moss
September 5, 2013
Rapture was self-transcending, which led to quiescence, tranquility, and catharsis.
Why Do We Cry?
Michael Trimble
January 10, 2013

Historical Examples of rapture

And the music seized us and swept us away with its rapture and its mystery.
The Bacillus of Beauty
Harriet Stark
Fanny uttered a low and suppressed cry of delight and rapture.
Night and Morning, Complete
Edward Bulwer-Lytton
Mr Pecksniff looked up to the ceiling, and clasped his hands in rapture.
Life And Adventures Of Martin Chuzzlewit
Charles Dickens
"Thank you, thank you with all my heart," Marie stammered amidst her rapture.
The Three Cities Trilogy, Complete
Emile Zola
Then, with dreamy eyes, he relapsed into a state of rapture.
The Three Cities Trilogy, Complete
Emile Zola

British Dictionary definitions for rapture

rapture

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

(tr) archaic, or literary to entrance; enrapture

Word Origin for rapture

C17: from Medieval Latin raptūra, from Latin raptus rapt 1

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

Word Origin and History for rapture

c.1600, "act of carrying off," from Middle French rapture, from Medieval Latin raptura "seizure, rape, kidnapping," from Latin raptus "a carrying off, abduction, snatching away; rape" (see rapt). Earliest attested use in English is of women and in 17c. it sometimes meant rape (v.), which word is a cognate of this. Sense of "spiritual ecstasy, state of mental transport" first recorded c.1600 (raptures).

1630s, from rapture (n.). Related: Raptured; rapturing.