ecstatic means feeling or characterized by ecstasy.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, ecstatic ranks #2,737 of 14,445 for Most Beautiful Words, #6,607 of 14,340 for Most Vivid Words, #7,082 of 14,423 for Most Sublime Words, #7,102 of 14,448 for Funniest Words.
ecstatic is pronounced /ɛkˈstætɪk/.
Why “ecstatic” is a great word
Feeling or characterized by overwhelming joy or rapturous delight. From the Ancient Greek ἐκστατικός (ekstatikós, 'unstable, inclined to depart from oneself'), from ἔκστασις (ékstasis, 'standing outside oneself, trance'), first recorded in English in the 1590s. Unlike 'euphoric' (which suggests a potent but more diffuse well-being) or 'delighted' (which denotes a measured, polite pleasure), 'ecstatic' implies a joy so absolute it dislocates the self. It is the dancer spinning until the room dissolves, the pilgrim weeping at the shrine, the silent gasp that greets a sudden, perfect sunrise—a momentary exile from the mundane prison of the body, where the soul forgets its name and where the body ends.
Etymology
Borrowed from Ancient Greek ἐκστατικός (ekstatikós). By surface analysis, ecstasy + -tic.
adj
- Feeling or characterized by ecstasy.“[W]hilſt he heſitated there, the criſis of pleaſure overtook him, and the cloſe compreſſure of the vvarm ſurrounding fold, drevv from him the extatic guſh, even before mine vvas ready to meet it, kept up by the pain I had endur'd in the courſe of the engagement, from the unſufferable ſize of his vveapon, tho' it vvas not as yet in above half its length.”
- Extremely happy.“Bobbie was dancing round the room on the tips of her toes uttering animal cries, apparently ecstatic in their nature.”
- Relating to, or caused by, ecstasy or excessive emotion.“ecstatic gaze ecstatic trance”
noun
- Transports of delight; words or actions performed in a state of ecstasy.“I think that Dante's more abstruse ecstatics / Meant to personify the Mathematics.”
- A person in a state of ecstasy.“If there is anything that can be called protoscripture, it is surely the utterances of ecstatics, prophets and seers...”
Words closest in meaning
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