cryptomnesia
Syllables: cryp·to·mnes·ia/ˌkɹɪp.tə(ʊ)mˈniː.zi.ə/US/ˌkɹɪp.təmˈni.ʒi.ə/
cryptomnesia noun: the phenomenon of the reappearance of a long-forgotten memory as if it were a new experience; (countable) an instance of this. Contrast cryptaesthesia.
Noun
cryptomnesia (countable and uncountable, plural cryptomnesias)
- The phenomenon of the reappearance of a long-forgotten memory as if it were a new experience; (countable) an instance of this. Contrast cryptaesthesia.
- All the witnesses of Mlle. [Hélène] Smith's Hindoo somnambulisms who are of the same opinion on that subject (several refrain from having any) unite in seeing in it a curious phenomenon of cryptomnesia, of reappearances of memories profoundly buried beneath the normal waking state, together with an...1900, Th[éodore] Flournoy, “The Hindoo Cycle”, in Daniel B. Vermilye, transl., From India to the Planet Mars: A Study of a Case of Somnambulism with Glossolalia, New York, N.Y.; London: Harper &...
- How much is cryptamnesia-confabulation, how much frontal-lobe indifference-equalisation, how much some strange schizophrenic disintegration and shattering-flattening?1981 (date written), Oliver Sacks, “Yes, Father-Sister”, in The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Row, published 1985 (1987 printing), →ISBN, part...
cryptomnesia meaning in Tamil, Arabic, Indonesian and Persian
cryptomnesia in Tamil
- விளங்க ஒண்ணா நினைவுக்கூரல்
cryptomnesia in Arabic
- phenomenon of the reappearance of long-forgotten memory as if it were a new experience; an instance of this
- استرجاع إبداعي
cryptomnesia in Indonesian
- phenomenon of the reappearance of long-forgotten memory as if it were a new experience; an instance of this
- kriptomnesia
cryptomnesia in Persian
- phenomenon of the reappearance of long-forgotten memory as if it were a new experience; an instance of this
- کریپتومنسیا
Examples of cryptomnesia in a sentence
- But by this name of cryptomnesia or resurrection of latent memories, two singularly different things are understood.1900, Th[éodore] Flournoy, “The Hindoo Cycle”, in Daniel B. Vermilye, transl., From India to the Planet Mars: A Study of a Case of...
- Apparently lacking the time or patience to reveal a comprehensive system of cryptomnesias in his medium, Fräulein SW, [Carl] Jung strenuously asserts the importance of this unconscious device […]1999, John R. Haule, “From Somnambulism to the Archetypes: The French Roots of Jung’s Split with [Sigmund] Freud”, in Paul Bishop, editor...
- This unconscious plagiarism is cryptomnesia[…].2021, Gabriel A. Radavansky, “Memory and Reality”, in Human Memory, 4th edition, New York, N.Y.; Abingdon, Oxfordshire: Routledge, →ISBN...
Forms of cryptomnesia
| plural | cryptomnesias |
|---|---|
| alternative form | cryptamnesia |
Origin of cryptomnesia
From crypto- (prefix meaning ‘hidden’) + (a)mnesia, modelled after French cryptomnésie, which was coined by Swiss psychologist and parapsychologist Théodore Flournoy (1854–1920) in his work Des Indes à la planète Mars (From India to the Planet Mars, 1899 or 1900). The English word was probably first used in the 1900 translation of Flournoy’s work: see the quotation.
Words formed from cryptomnesia
Words that rhyme with cryptomnesia
Questions about cryptomnesia
- What does cryptomnesia mean?
- Cryptomnesia means the phenomenon of the reappearance of a long-forgotten memory as if it were a new experience; (countable) an instance of this. Contrast cryptaesthesia.
- What is cryptomnesia in Tamil?
- Cryptomnesia in Tamil is விளங்க ஒண்ணா நினைவுக்கூரல். See Cryptomnesia meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use cryptomnesia in a sentence?
- But by this name of cryptomnesia or resurrection of latent memories, two singularly different things are understood.
- What part of speech is cryptomnesia?
- Cryptomnesia is a noun.
- How do you pronounce cryptomnesia?
- Cryptomnesia is pronounced /ˌkɹɪp.tə(ʊ)mˈniː.zi.ə/ (UK).
- What is the plural of cryptomnesia?
- The plural of cryptomnesia is cryptomnesias.
Words near cryptomnesia in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: cryptomnesia (page history and authors); cryptomnesia (Tamil Wiktionary) (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)-Vealhurl-cryptomnesia.wav.
Cite this entry: “cryptomnesia.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/cryptomnesia. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.