rapture
Americannoun
-
raptures
plural
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ecstatic joy or delight; joyful ecstasy.
- Synonyms:
- exaltation, transport, beatitude, bliss
- Antonyms:
- misery
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Often raptures. an utterance or expression of ecstatic delight.
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the carrying of a person to another place or sphere of existence.
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Theology. the Rapture, the experience, anticipated by some fundamentalist Christians, of meeting Christ midway in the air upon his return to earth.
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Archaic. the act of carrying off.
verb (used with object)
noun
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the state of mind resulting from feelings of high emotion; joyous ecstasy
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(often plural) an expression of ecstatic joy
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the act of transporting a person from one sphere of existence to another, esp from earth to heaven
verb
Synonym Usage
See ecstasy.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of rapture
Explanation
Rapture is a feeling of emotional ecstasy so magical it's almost as if you've been transported to some other world. Coming to us from an old French word meaning "carried away," rapture certainly involves getting swept off to Shangri-La. It's happiness so extreme that you just about float to heaven, complete with big goofy grin plastered to your face. Traditionally reserved for those feeling spiritual ecstasy, rapture now extends to anyone feeling overwhelmed by emotion — sparked by everything from a passionate kiss to scoring an awesome dress on sale.
Vocabulary lists containing rapture
The Things They Carried
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"The Bells" by Edgar Allan Poe
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Beowulf vocabulary
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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:
That season of rapture and heartbreak is seared into the local brain, like Robin Yount’s No. 19.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 25, 2026
The other night he rolled into the second half of Argentina’s group-stage closer against Jordan and delivered a free kick zapper that sent the Jerrydome into rapture.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 29, 2026
Here beauty is celebrated with voluptuous rapture, setting the mood for “Oh, Yemanja,” a mythic, watery mother’s prayer from Tania León’s opera “Scourge of Hyacinths.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 19, 2026
His ideas were "received with rapture" by the prime minister's secretary PN Dhar.
From BBC ● Jun. 8, 2025
I can see the rapture taking him over.
From "I'll Give You the Sun" by Jandy Nelson
Kupcho repeated her heroics with another monster, winning the match and sending the whole US team into raptures around the green.
From Barron's ● Sep. 12, 2026
In keeping with a career full of memorable moments, Stokes took a wicket with the first he bowled after the announcement, sending Trent Bridge into raptures.
From BBC ● Jun. 28, 2026
For an opera steeped in raptures and reveries, in which fantasies of romantic bliss compete with premonitions of a pessimistic outcome, Sierra and Bernheim were a dream at the revival’s second performance on Sunday.
From New York Times ● Mar. 11, 2024
Atcho reversed his decision, awarding a spot-kick to Ivory Coast which Kessie duly despatched to Mendy's left, sending the Charles Konan Banny de Yamoussoukro Stadium into raptures.
From BBC ● Jan. 29, 2024
In the midst of Kepler’s mathematical raptures, and despite his sequestered life, the imperfections of the outside world must also have molded his character.
From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan
It was me who managed to spill a glass of water over the notes Mourinho waved to a raptured audience at his unveiling news conference.
From BBC ● Oct. 24, 2024
Because they’re so light, they defy proper waste management, floating off trash cans and sanitation trucks like they’re being raptured by a garbage god.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 24, 2023
The future of the web is at stake The end of those cookies is called the Cookiepocalypse, and it’s apocalyptic because nobody really knows what advertisers will do once those tracking methods are raptured.
From The Verge ● Apr. 16, 2021
Yet even CBS’s team carried themselves as if they just found out all of the babies, puppies and kittens in the world suddenly raptured.
From Salon ● Nov. 7, 2018
To judge from the pictures, Pickett didn’t seem to be missing so much as he seemed to have been raptured.
From "Turtles All the Way Down" by John Green
There also the birds warbled, with various voices, notes ravishing and rapturing the heart by the melodies of their musick.
From The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night — Volume 13 by Sir Richard Francis Burton
Nor ever again did her genius shine out in rapturing periods till she drew inspiration from the grand environment of the old homestead.
From Idle Hour Stories by Eugenia Dunlap Potts
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
