paracosm
Syllables: para·cosmUK/ˈpæɹəˌkɒz(ə)m//ˈpæɹəˌkɑz(ə)m/
paracosm noun: a detailed imaginary world, especially one created by a child.
Noun
paracosm (plural paracosms)
- A detailed imaginary world, especially one created by a child.
- Imaginary playmates and paracosms may chiefly represent the vast creative potential of inherently talented people, but in less elaborated forms, they may also represent what childhood imagination can offer to the growing person. Humanity has already benefited from the paracosmic visions of Plato...1990, Dorothy G. Singer, Jerome L. Singer, “Imaginary Playmates and Imaginary Worlds”, in The House of Make-Believe: Children’s Play and the Developing Imagination, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard...
- Occasionally the fantasies of older childhood go well beyond the invention of a pretend friend. In fact, some children, typically at about 9 or 10 years of age, create "paracosms"—entire societies or worlds for the imaginary people to inhabit. [...] How common is it for children to create such...1999, Marjorie Taylor, “Do Older Children and Adults Create Imaginary Companions?”, in Imaginary Companions and the Children Who Create Them, New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 136
- Synonyms:
- conworld, paracosmos
paracosm meaning in Tamil
paracosm in Tamil
- கற்பனை உலகம்
Examples of paracosm in a sentence
- Humanity has already benefited from the paracosmic visions of Plato, Thomas More, Aldous Huxley, Thomas Hobbes, Arthur Tappan Wright^([sic – meaning Austin Tappan Wright]) (Islandia), and J.1990, Dorothy G. Singer, Jerome L. Singer, “Imaginary Playmates and Imaginary Worlds”, in The House of Make-Believe: Children’s Play and...
- As Emily [Brontë] turned in on herself for resources, she created a new paracosm, the Kingdom of Gondal, which she shared with Anne [Brontë].2005, Delmont C. Morrison, Shirley Linden Morrison, Memories of Loss and Dreams of Perfection: Unsuccessful Childhood Grieving and Adult...
- The children created these inner worlds for a number of reasons, though each paracosm tends to be a long-lasting, heavily structured, and internally consistent.2010, Sarah Lynne Bowman, “Role-playing as Alteration of Identity”, in The Functions of Role-playing Games: How Participants Create...
Synonyms of paracosm
Forms of paracosm
| plural | paracosms |
|---|
Origin of paracosm
From English para- (prefix meaning ‘alongside, beside’) (from Ancient Greek παρα- (para-, prefix meaning ‘beside’)) + English cosm(os) (“universe”) (from Ancient Greek κόσμος (kósmos, “the earth, world; universe”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ḱems-, *ḱens- (“to put in order”)).
Words formed from paracosm
Questions about paracosm
- What does paracosm mean?
- Paracosm means a detailed imaginary world, especially one created by a child.
- What is paracosm in Tamil?
- Paracosm in Tamil is கற்பனை உலகம். See Paracosm meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use paracosm in a sentence?
- Humanity has already benefited from the paracosmic visions of Plato, Thomas More, Aldous Huxley, Thomas Hobbes, Arthur Tappan Wright^([sic – meaning Austin Tappan Wright]) (Islandia), and J.
- What part of speech is paracosm?
- Paracosm is a noun.
- How do you pronounce paracosm?
- Paracosm is pronounced /ˈpæɹəˌkɒz(ə)m/ (UK).
- What is the plural of paracosm?
- The plural of paracosm is paracosms.
Words near paracosm in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: paracosm (page history and authors); paracosm (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: En-us-paracosm.ogg.
Cite this entry: “paracosm.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/paracosm. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.