hermeneutic
adjective · noun
Simple meaning
That explains, interprets, illustrates or elucidates texts.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
hermehnyootikSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
hɚˈmɛnˈjutɪk
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
adjective
humanitiestheology
Having to do with hermeneutics; that explains, interprets, illustrates or elucidates texts, especially holy texts.
noun
humanitiestheology
A particular theory of hermeneutics; a particular method of interpretation of text, especially holy texts.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C2 · Proficient (estimated)
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: (humanities, theology) Having to do with hermeneutics; that explains, interprets, illustrates or elucidates texts, especially holy texts.
Used this way, hermeneutic is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a religious use: it carries the weight of tradition and ceremony.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Where it naturally appears
- Religion/spirituality
- Historical writing
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Particular
Other combinations
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Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
The branch of theology that deals with principles of exegesis.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.