Word.ws English Dictionary

anagnorisis

/ˌænəɡˈnɒrɪsɪs/

anagnorisis noun: the moment in the plot of a drama in which the hero makes a discovery that explains previously unexplained events or situations; a denouement.

Noun

anagnorisis (countable and uncountable, plural anagnorises)

  1. The moment in the plot of a drama in which the hero makes a discovery that explains previously unexplained events or situations; a denouement.
    • His heroines never have a true anagnorisis because the moral fault is never in themselves, only in outside conspirators.1990, Camille Paglia, Sexual Personae

Forms of anagnorisis

pluralanagnorises

Origin of anagnorisis

Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek ἀναγνώρισις (anagnṓrisis), from ἀναγνωρίζειν (anagnōrízein, “to recognise, discover”).

Questions about anagnorisis

What does anagnorisis mean?
Anagnorisis means the moment in the plot of a drama in which the hero makes a discovery that explains previously unexplained events or situations; a denouement.
What part of speech is anagnorisis?
Anagnorisis is a noun.
How do you pronounce anagnorisis?
Anagnorisis is pronounced /ˌænəɡˈnɒrɪsɪs/.
What is the plural of anagnorisis?
The plural of anagnorisis is anagnorises.

Words near anagnorisis in the dictionary

  1. anaglyptics
  2. anaglyptograph
  3. anaglyptographic
  4. anaglyptography
  5. anagnorises
  6. anagnorisis
  7. anagnoristic
  8. anagnosasthenia
  9. anagnosasthenias
  10. anagnost
  11. Anagnostopoulos

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: anagnorisis (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Sapaa-anagnorisis.wav.

Cite this entry: “anagnorisis.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/anagnorisis. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.