dionysian
/daɪ̯əˈnɪʒən/
dionysian adjective: wild, irrational, undisciplined, orgiastic.
Adjective (1)
dionysian (comparative more dionysian, superlative most dionysian)
- Wild, irrational, undisciplined, orgiastic.
- He said he loved making movies like Luca Guadagnino’s “A Bigger Splash,” in which his charismatic, obstreperous character, Harry Hawkes, a music producer described by the Italian director as “a pagan fawn,” does a Dionysian dance to the Rolling Stones song “Emotional Rescue.”2022 October 22, Maureen Dowd, “Ralph Fiennes, Master of Monsters”, in The New York Times
- Synonyms:
- dionysiac
Adjective (2) capitalized: Dionysian
Dionysian (not comparable)
Noun capitalized: Dionysian
Dionysian (plural Dionysians)
- A follower of Dionysus.
- One who is dionysian.
Synonyms of dionysian
Antonyms
Forms of dionysian
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more dionysian |
| superlative | most dionysian |
| Noun | |
| plural | Dionysians |
Origin of dionysian
From German dionysisch (“Dionysian”). Coined by German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche.
Questions about dionysian
- What does dionysian mean?
- Dionysian means wild, irrational, undisciplined, orgiastic.
- What part of speech is dionysian?
- Dionysian can be an adjective or a noun.
- How do you pronounce dionysian?
- Dionysian is pronounced /daɪ̯əˈnɪʒən/ (UK).
Words near dionysian in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: dionysian (page history and authors); Dionysian (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-Dionysian.wav.
Cite this entry: “dionysian.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/dionysian. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.