Advertisement

Advertisement

twice-born

[twahys-bawrn]

adjective

  1. Hinduism.,  of or relating to members of the Indian castes of Brahmins, Kshatriyas, and Vaisyas, who undergo a spiritual rebirth and initiation in adolescence.

  2. having undergone reincarnation.

  3. born-again.

  4. denoting any moral or religious experience that brings about a major reorientation of a person's character or personality.



Discover More

Word History and Origins

Origin of twice-born1

1400–50, 1785–95 twice-born for def. 1; late Middle English: an epithet of Bacchus
Discover More

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.

These timelines — artifacts of white supremacy — condensed a civilizational narrative: A divinely ordained course of empire moves westward from the Old World to the New, from Christian Rome to Reformation England to the twice-born U.S. republic, with its empire of liberty serving as the endpoint of progress, the final stage in historical time.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Mukhopadhyay, a philosopher in Varanasi, told me as I was researching my 2019 book “The Twice-Born: Life and Death on the Ganges.”

Read more on New York Times

In the process, “The Twice-Born” becomes a moving, if maundering, riff on what it means to be modern.

Read more on The New Yorker

“The Twice-Born,” a new memoir by Aatish Taseer, is troubled by a single plaintive question: Does a city steeped in tradition have a future in modern India?

Read more on The New Yorker

The “twice-born” in Aatish Taseer’s title are the Brahmins who are “reborn” when they undergo initiation as young men into India’s highest caste.

Read more on New York Times

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement


twicetwice exceptional