glossolalia
Syllables: glos·so·la·lia/ˌɡlɒsəˈleɪliə/US/ˌɡlɑsəˈleɪliə/
glossolalia noun: speaking a language one does not know, or speaking elaborate but apparently meaningless speech, while in a trance-like state (or, supposedly, under the influence of a deity or spirits); speaking in tongues.
Noun
glossolalia (plural glossolalias)
- Speaking a language one does not know, or speaking elaborate but apparently meaningless speech, while in a trance-like state (or, supposedly, under the influence of a deity or spirits); speaking in tongues.
- [Adolf Bernhard Christoph] Hilgenfeld, indeed, is mistaken in explaining the unintelligibility of the γλω̑σσαι, only by the transcendent nature of what they expressed to the merely human consciousness; but he observes with great truth, that that which is common to prophecy and to glossolalia...1869, Franz Delitzsch, translated by Robert Ernest Wallis, A System of Biblical Psychology. … Translated from the German, (Second Edition, Thoroughly Revised and Enlarged,) … (Clark’s Foreign...
- The occurrence in Acts ii. is therefore to be recognised, according to its historical import, as the phenomenon of the glossolalia, (not as a higher stage of it, in which the foreign languages supervened, Olshausen), which emerged for the first time in the Christian church, and that immediately on...1877, Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer, Paton J. Gloag, chapter II, in William P[urdie] Dickson, editor, Critical and Exegetical Handbook to the Acts of the Apostles. … Translated from the Fourth...
- Synonym of xenoglossy (“knowledge of a language one has never learned”).
- As he indicated in the subtitle of his study, [Olivier] Flournoy regarded [Hélène] Smith's Martian as a kind of "glossolalia." In this category, he also included her "Hindu," "Ultra-Martian," and the other extraterrestrial tongues that she would later speak.2000–2001 winter, Daniel Rosenberg, “Speaking Martian”, in Cabinet: A Quarterly Magazine of Art and Culture, number 1, Brooklyn, N.Y.: Immaterial Incorported, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original...
- Synonyms:
- xenoglossy
glossolalia meaning in Tamil and Arabic
glossolalia in Tamil
- தெரியாத மொழி
glossolalia in Arabic
- speaking in tongues
- لَثْلَثَة laṯlaṯa
Examples of glossolalia in a sentence
- As all ecstasy, so also glossolalia was perfected in this πνευ̑μα: it was a miraculous agency of the Spirit of God […]1869, Franz Delitzsch, translated by Robert Ernest Wallis, A System of Biblical Psychology. … Translated from the German, (Second Edition...
- Lorenzo is still kneeling at the box, once more Luisa wipes her eyes, Violeta is sobbing and rocking, her glossolalia now at the -sə-sə-sə-level of near exhaustion.1982, Felicitas D. Goodman, Jeannette H. Henney, Esther Pressel, “Chronology of Events”, in Trance, Healing, and Hallucination: Three Field...
- Everything was a labyrinthine amalgam of languages, a towering Babel of puns and glossolalia.2012, Andy Martin, “Text Messenger”, in Literary Review, London: The Literary Review & Quarto, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 404:
- This rather lets the air out of the theory that individuals engaged in glossolalia are actually speaking another language.2013 November 7, Rachael Tatman, “The Science of Speaking in Tongues”, in Making Noise & Hearing Things:
Synonyms of glossolalia
Forms of glossolalia
| plural | glossolalias |
|---|
Origin of glossolalia
From glosso- + -lalia, from Ancient Greek γλῶσσᾰ (glôssă, “tongue; language”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *glōgʰs) + λᾰλῐᾱ́ (lălĭā́, “talking; form of speech, dialect”) (from λᾰ́λος (lắlos, “talkative”) + -ῐ́ᾱ (-ĭ́ā, suffix forming feminine abstract nouns)).
Words formed from glossolalia
Words that rhyme with glossolalia
- regalia
- Australia
- echolalia
- Pharsalia
- femalia
- genitalia
- paraphernalia
- penetralia
- azalea
- dahlia
- Lincolnalia
- Lupercalia
3 more rhymesFewer rhymes
Questions about glossolalia
- What does glossolalia mean?
- Glossolalia means speaking a language one does not know, or speaking elaborate but apparently meaningless speech, while in a trance-like state (or, supposedly, under the influence of a deity or spirits); speaking in tongues.
- What is glossolalia in Tamil?
- Glossolalia in Tamil is தெரியாத மொழி. See Glossolalia meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use glossolalia in a sentence?
- As all ecstasy, so also glossolalia was perfected in this πνευ̑μα: it was a miraculous agency of the Spirit of God […]
- What part of speech is glossolalia?
- Glossolalia is a noun.
- How do you pronounce glossolalia?
- Glossolalia is pronounced /ˌɡlɒsəˈleɪliə/ (UK).
- What is the plural of glossolalia?
- The plural of glossolalia is glossolalias.
Words near glossolalia in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: glossolalia (page history and authors); glossolalia (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-glossolalia.wav.
Cite this entry: “glossolalia.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/glossolalia. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.