Word.ws English Dictionary

mythologem

mythologem noun: a basic core element, motif or theme of a myth.

Noun

mythologem (plural mythologems)

  1. A basic core element, motif or theme of a myth.
    • [W]e have long been in possession of mythologems which express the dynamics of certain subliminal processes, though these processes were only given names in very recent times.1963, Richard and Clara Winston, translating Carl Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections, Random House 1974, p. 342

Forms of mythologem

pluralmythologems
alternative formmythologeme

Origin of mythologem

From Ancient Greek μυθολογέω (muthologéō, “to tell mythical tales”), from μυθολόγος (muthológos, “myth-teller”), from μῦθος (mûthos, “mythical narrative”) + -λόγος (-lógos). The -em could be interpreted as an analogue of -eme.

Questions about mythologem

What does mythologem mean?
Mythologem means a basic core element, motif or theme of a myth.
What part of speech is mythologem?
Mythologem is a noun.
What is the plural of mythologem?
The plural of mythologem is mythologems.

Words near mythologem in the dictionary

  1. mythohistory
  2. mythoi
  3. mythol.
  4. Mytholmes
  5. Mytholmroyd
  6. mythologem
  7. mythologeme
  8. mythologemes
  9. mythologems
  10. mythologer
  11. mythologers

Source and license

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