Word.ws English Dictionary

encaustic

encaustic adjective: prepared by means of heat; burned in.

Adjective

encaustic (not comparable)

  1. Prepared by means of heat; burned in.
    • After all, no sealant or finish is necessary in the encaustic medium, and shellac is stinky, caustic and messy.2019, Patricia Baldwin Seggebruch, Encaustic Workshop, Penguin, →ISBN, page 90

Noun

encaustic (countable and uncountable, plural encaustics)

  1. A wax-based paint that is fixed in place by heating.
    • It has become usual in discussions of Flags facture to use the terms, suggested by [Jasper] Johns himself, ‘encaustic', oil and collage on fabric’.1994, Fred Orton, Figuring Jasper Johns, Reaktion Books, →ISBN, page 114
    • I have worked in encaustic and I really love encaustic printmaking, but when it comes to painting, I love my acrylics.2015, Sandra Duran Wilson, Acrylic Painting for Encaustic Effects: 45 Wax Free Techniques, Penguin, →ISBN
  2. (countable, painting) A painting produced using this type of paint.

Forms of encaustic

Adjective
alternative form (obsolete)encaustick
Noun
pluralencaustics

Origin of encaustic

From Ancient Greek ἐγκαυστικός (enkaustikós, “burning in”), from καίω (kaíō, “to burn”).

Words formed from encaustic

Phrases with encaustic

Words that rhyme with encaustic

Questions about encaustic

What does encaustic mean?
Encaustic means prepared by means of heat; burned in.
What part of speech is encaustic?
Encaustic can be an adjective or a noun.

Words near encaustic in the dictionary

  1. encastles
  2. encastling
  3. encatchment
  4. encatchments
  5. encauma
  6. encaustic
  7. encaustic tile
  8. encaustic tiles
  9. encaustically
  10. encaustick
  11. encaustics

Source and license

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