Word.ws English Dictionary

hierophany

Syllables: hi·e·ro·pha·ny/ˌhaɪ.əˈɹɒ.fə.ni/

hierophany noun: a physical manifestation of the holy or sacred, serving as a spiritual eidolon for emulation or worship.

hierophany: a physical manifestation of the holy or sacred, serving as a spiritual eidolon for emulation or...
Image: Josefa de Óbidos, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

hierophany (plural hierophanies)

  1. A physical manifestation of the holy or sacred, serving as a spiritual eidolon for emulation or worship.
    • Man becomes aware of the sacred, because it manifests itself, shows itself, as something wholly different from the profane. To designate the act of manifestation of the sacred, we have proposed the term hierophany. It is a fitting term, because it does not imply anything further; it expresses no...1959, Mircea Eliade, “Introduction”, in Willard R. Trask, transl., The Sacred and the Profane: The Nature of Religion (Harvest Book; HB 144), New York, N.Y.: Harcourt, Brace & World, →ISBN, page 11
    • The technical meaning of symbolism is more extensive than the mere assertion that a particular stone or a specific tree is a hierophany. […] Water symbolism involves the common element of water, but lacks a central hierophany such as unites lunar symbolism. […] But there is, for [Mircea] Eliade, an...1991, Robert D. Baird, Category Formation and the History of Religions: With a New Preface (Religion and Reason; 1), 2nd edition, Berlin; New York, N.Y.: Mouton de Gruyter, →ISBN, page 75

Examples of hierophany in a sentence

  • To designate the act of manifestation of the sacred, we have proposed the term hierophany.1959, Mircea Eliade, “Introduction”, in Willard R. Trask, transl., The Sacred and the Profane: The Nature of Religion (Harvest Book; HB...
  • Hierophany: We have now reached the culminating point of the rite.1992, Umar Marina Vesci, Heat and Sacrifice in the Vedas, 2nd rev. edition, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, →OCLC, page 256:

Forms of hierophany

pluralhierophanies

Origin of hierophany

Borrowed from French hiérophanie, as used by Romanian religious historian and philosopher Mircea Eliade (1907–1986) in his book The Sacred and the Profane (1959; translated into English from an unpublished French original), from Ancient Greek ἱερός (hierós, “sacred, holy sign”) + φαίνω (phaínō, “show, appear”).

Words formed from hierophany

Questions about hierophany

What does hierophany mean?
Hierophany means a physical manifestation of the holy or sacred, serving as a spiritual eidolon for emulation or worship.
How do you use hierophany in a sentence?
To designate the act of manifestation of the sacred, we have proposed the term hierophany.
What part of speech is hierophany?
Hierophany is a noun.
How do you pronounce hierophany?
Hierophany is pronounced /ˌhaɪ.əˈɹɒ.fə.ni/ (UK).
What is the plural of hierophany?
The plural of hierophany is hierophanies.

Words near hierophany in the dictionary

  1. hierophant
  2. hierophantes
  3. hierophantic
  4. hierophantically
  5. hierophants
  6. hierophany
  7. hierophobia
  8. hierophobic
  9. hieroscopy
  10. Hierosolyma
  11. Hierosolymitan

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hierophany (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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