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Gileadean

Gileadean adjective: of, related to, or characteristic of the fictional theocratic dystopian nation of Gilead in Margaret Atwood's 1985 novel The Handmaid's Tale.

Adjective

Gileadean (comparative more Gileadean, superlative most Gileadean)

  1. Of, related to, or characteristic of the fictional theocratic dystopian nation of Gilead in Margaret Atwood's 1985 novel The Handmaid's Tale.
    • Strictly speaking, it was not a manuscript at all when first discovered, and bore no title. The superscription “The Handmaid’s Tale” was appended to it by Professor Wade, partly in homage to the great Geoffrey Chaucer; but those of you who know Professor Wade informally, as I do, will understand...1985, Margaret Atwood, “Historical Notes”, in The Handmaid’s Tale, Toronto, Ont.: McClelland and Stewart, →ISBN, page 313
    • It is certainly no accident that Offred emphasizes the large collection of books she observes in her first secret unofficial visit to the Commander's study, thus linking books directly with this serious transgression of Gileadean law.1995, M. Keith Booker, A Practical Introduction to Literary Theory and Criticism, page 262

Noun

Gileadean (plural Gileadeans)

  1. An inhabitant of the fictional theocratic dystopian nation of Gilead in Margaret Atwood's 1985 novel The Handmaid's Tale.
    • If I may be permitted an editorial aside, allow me to say that in my opinion we must be cautious about passing moral judgement upon the Gileadeans.1985, Margaret Atwood, “Historical Notes”, in The Handmaid’s Tale, Toronto, Ont.: McClelland and Stewart, →ISBN, page 314
    • Not surprisingly, the Gileadeans immediately distanced themselves from this act by blaming the massacre on Islamic extremists.2010, J. Brooks Bouson, editor, Critical Insights: The Handmaid’s Tale, Salem Press, →ISBN, page 61

Examples of Gileadean in a sentence

  • To equate the Gileadean repression of Offred's voice with Pieixoto's reconstruction of it is to narrow the set of possible meanings too much.1998, John Whalen-Bridge, Political Fiction and the American Self, page 180:
  • The central preoccupation of the Gileadean society is human reproduction, because most members are sterile or infertile due to the build-up of toxic wastes and nuclear fallout.1999, Virginia Olessen, Revisioning Women, Health and Healing: Feminist, Cultural, and Technoscience Perspectives, page 234:

Forms of Gileadean

Adjective
comparativemore Gileadean
superlativemost Gileadean
Noun
pluralGileadeans

Origin of Gileadean

From Gilead + -ean.

Questions about Gileadean

What does Gileadean mean?
Gileadean means of, related to, or characteristic of the fictional theocratic dystopian nation of Gilead in Margaret Atwood's 1985 novel The Handmaid's Tale.
How do you use Gileadean in a sentence?
To equate the Gileadean repression of Offred's voice with Pieixoto's reconstruction of it is to narrow the set of possible meanings too much.
What part of speech is Gileadean?
Gileadean can be an adjective or a noun.

Words near Gileadean in the dictionary

  1. gilds
  2. gilds the lily
  3. gilds the pill
  4. Gile
  5. Gilead
  6. Gileadean
  7. Gileadeans
  8. Gileadite
  9. Gileadites
  10. Gileno
  11. Gilenos

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Gileadean (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: “Gileadean.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/gileadean. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.