metanoia means A fundamental change of mind. It carries an Arena rating of 1932, earned across 14 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, metanoia ranks #9 of 42,752 for Qualifying, #681 of 17,104 for Most Storied Words, #945 of 17,138 for Most Incisive Words, #1,070 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words.
metanoia is pronounced /ˌmɛtəˈnɔɪə/.
Why “metanoia” is a great word
A profound change of mind, often signifying a spiritual conversion or fundamental transformation of personality. From Ancient Greek μετάνοια (metánoia, 'repentance, change of mind'), from μετά (metá, 'after, with') and νοέω (noéō, 'to perceive, to think'). Unlike 'repentance' (which lingers on regret and sorrow for past sin) or 'epiphany' (a sudden illuminating flash that may fade), metanoia is the slower, structural shift of one's entire being. It is the former zealot who finds himself weeping at a stranger's grief, the addict who wakes unable to remember the taste of the thing that owned him, or the skeptic who discovers, with vertigo, that the world she dismissed now pulses with an unnameable intelligence—a turning forward, as if the self were a ship that had been silently tacking all along toward an unseen shore.
Etymology
From Ancient Greek μετάνοια (metánoia, “repentance”, literally “afterthought”), a compound of μετά (metá, “after, with”) and νοέω (noéō, “to perceive, to think”).
noun
- A fundamental change of mind.
- A spiritual or religious conversion.e.g.“There is therefore enthusiasm no less than resignation in an enlightened metanoia. You give up everything in the form of claims; you receive everything back in the form of a divine presence.” — 1948 December, George Santayana, “A Change of Heart”, in The Atlantic:
- A fundamental change in the human personality.
- A device used to retract a statement just made, and then state it in a better way.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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