rapture

[rap-cher]

noun

1. ecstatic joy or delight; joyful ecstasy.

   Synonyms: exaltation, transport, beatitude, bliss
   Antonyms: misery

2. Often raptures. an utterance or expression of ecstatic delight.

3. the carrying of a person to another place or sphere of existence.

4. Theology.,  the Rapture, the experience, anticipated by some fundamentalist Christians, of meeting Christ midway in the air upon his return to earth.

5. Archaic.,  the act of carrying off.

verb (used with object)

raptured, rapturing 

1. to enrapture.

rapture

/ ˈræptʃə /

noun

1. the state of mind resulting from feelings of high emotion; joyous ecstasy

2. (often plural) an expression of ecstatic joy

3. the act of transporting a person from one sphere of existence to another, esp from earth to heaven

verb

1. archaic,  (tr) to entrance; enrapture

Other Word Forms

• raptureless adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of rapture¹

First recorded in 1590–1600; rapt + -ure

Word History and Origins

Origin of rapture¹

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

Synonym Study

See ecstasy.

Example Sentences

Let’s replace Broadway with a bunch of rinks—and ask Stanley Cup hockey teams to send us all into the riveted rapture.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

She wrote, “I was completely inhabiting my body. It was an entirely unfamiliar freedom, bodily freedom, rapture.”

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

“God wants to rescue the Christians out of the world before what is coming comes,” Mhlakela said, adding that September’s rapture would be “the final one.”

Read more on Salon

Hearing that performance live left me in a state of rapture.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

His falsetto found new registers of rapture and longing.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• communion 
• contentment 
• ecstasy 
• elation 
• euphoria 
• exaltation 
• exhilaration