Word.ws English Dictionary

lethetic

lethetic adjective: failing to mirror reality, purely escapist or nonsensical.

Adjective

lethetic (comparative more lethetic, superlative most lethetic)

  1. Failing to mirror reality, purely escapist or nonsensical.
    • These lethetic fictions cut their ties to the real world, refusing to be mirrors of life.1984, Fantasy Review - Issues 64-74
    • If the structure of language is accepted as mirroring the world, the trope ceases to be a lethetic figure1985, the New Orleans Review - Volume 12

Synonyms of lethetic

Antonyms

Forms of lethetic

comparativemore lethetic
superlativemost lethetic

Origin of lethetic

Ultimately from Ancient Greek λήθω (lḗthō, “to forget”).

Questions about lethetic

What does lethetic mean?
Lethetic means failing to mirror reality, purely escapist or nonsensical.
What part of speech is lethetic?
Lethetic is an adjective.

Words near lethetic in the dictionary

  1. letheonizing
  2. lether
  3. lethera
  4. Letherby
  5. lethes
  6. lethetic
  7. lethiferous
  8. lething
  9. letholexia
  10. lethologica
  11. lethrinid

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: lethetic (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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