Word.ws English Dictionary

Joycean

/ˈd͡ʒɔɪsɪ.ən/US/ˈd͡ʒɔɪsi.ən/

Joycean adjective: of or pertaining to James Joyce (1882–1941) or his writings.

Adjective

Joycean (comparative more Joycean, superlative most Joycean)

  1. Of or pertaining to James Joyce (1882–1941) or his writings.
    • Even Muldoon's fans find some of the “difficulty” of this pyrotechnical erudition too playful, suspecting him of a Joycean desire to “keep the professors busy”.2001 May 12, Robert Potts, “The poet at play”, in The Guardian, →ISSN
    • Around the world these days there are thousands of Joycean scholars who make their living parsing and reparsing the great man who, perhaps much to his chagrin if he were alive, has become a symbol of all things Irish to millions.2011 June 15, Debbie McGoldrick, “The genius of the Irish writer James Joyce”, in IrishCentral.com
  2. In a verbally inventive style similar to that of James Joyce.
    • Jimson is a total nonconformist and his god is William Blake, whom he quotes endlessly in his somewhat Joycean interior monologues.1984, Anthony Burgess, “The Horse's Mouth — Joyce Cary [1944]”, in Ninety-nine Novels, London: Allison & Busby

Noun

Joycean (plural Joyceans)

  1. A person who studies or admires the works of James Joyce.
    • But [Richard] Ellmann himself was a Joycean avant la lettre.2025 June 16, Eric Bulson, “Yes I Will Read ‘Ulysses’ Yes”, in The Atlantic, →ISSN

Forms of Joycean

Adjective
comparativemore Joycean
superlativemost Joycean
alternative formJoycian
Noun
pluralJoyceans

Origin of Joycean

From Joyce + -ean.

Questions about Joycean

What does Joycean mean?
Joycean means of or pertaining to James Joyce (1882–1941) or his writings.
What part of speech is Joycean?
Joycean can be an adjective or a noun.
How do you pronounce Joycean?
Joycean is pronounced /ˈd͡ʒɔɪsɪ.ən/ (UK).

Words near Joycean in the dictionary

  1. joybait
  2. joybaited
  3. joybaiting
  4. joybaits
  5. Joyce
  6. Joycean
  7. Joyceans
  8. Joyces
  9. Joyces Creek
  10. Joycian
  11. Joycians

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Joycean (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)-Rho9998-Joycean.wav.

Cite this entry: “Joycean.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/joycean. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.