metempsychosis
Americannoun
plural
metempsychosesnoun
-
the migration of a soul from one body to another
-
the entering of a soul after death upon a new cycle of existence in a new body either of human or animal form
Other Word Forms
- metempsychic adjective
- metempsychosic adjective
- metempsychosical adjective
- metempsychosist noun
Etymology
Origin of metempsychosis
1580–90; < Late Latin < Greek, equivalent to metempsȳchō-, variant stem of metempsȳchoûsthai to pass from one body into another ( met-, em- 2, psycho- ) + -sis -sis
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.
After Darth Vader cut down Obi-Wan Kenobi in a lightsaber duel, the latter returned via metempsychosis as a Force Ghost.
From Fox News • Mar. 23, 2019
As to how Maf came by his feeling for history or his fancy prose style, not to mention an impressive knowledge of the works of numerous philosophers, especially Plutarch, the answer, it seems, is metempsychosis.
From The Guardian • May 7, 2010
Japanese approved, last week, certain pious rites ordered and paid for at Kyoto by one Yozo Fuyubayashi, a rich seller of flypaper, a gentleman, and a devout believer in metempsychosis or transmigration of souls.
From Time Magazine Archive
Animals are humanized—i. e., the kinship between animal and human life is still strongly felt, and this reminds us of those early animistic interpretations of nature, which subsequently led to doctrines of metempsychosis.
From The Moral Instruction of Children by Adler, Felix
This last doctrine takes with them, as with the Hindoos, the form of metempsychosis.
From The Student's Mythology A Compendium of Greek, Roman, Egyptian, Assyrian, Persian, Hindoo, Chinese, Thibetian, Scandinavian, Celtic, Aztec, and Peruvian Mythologies by White, Catherine Ann
Definitions 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.
