telestic
Syllables: te·les·tic/tɛˈlɛstɪk/
telestic adjective: of or pertaining to religious mysteries. Also the alternative form of telestich.
Adjective
telestic (comparative more telestic, superlative most telestic)
- Of or pertaining to religious mysteries.
- Orithya was the daughter of Erectheus, and the prieſteſs of Boreas; for each of the winds has a preſiding deity, which the teleſtic art, or the art pertaining to ſacred myſteries, religiouſly cultivates.1804, Plato, “The Phædrus”, in Floyer Sydenham, Thomas Taylor, transl., The Works of Plato, viz. His Fifty-five Dialogues, and Twelve Epistles, Translated from the Greek; Nine of the Dialogues by the...
- He paused, and took a drink. ‘Do you remember last fall, in Julian’s class, when we studied what Plato calls telestic madness? Bakcheia? Dionysiac frenzy?’1992, Donna Tartt, The Secret History, New York, N.Y.: Alfred A. Knopf, →ISBN
- Of or pertaining to a hierophant.
- Mystical.
Also used as
telestic is also the alternative form of telestich.
Forms of telestic
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more telestic |
| superlative | most telestic |
| Noun | |
| plural | telestics |
Origin of telestic
From Ancient Greek τελεστικός (telestikós), from τέλος (télos, “mystery religion”).
Questions about telestic
- What does telestic mean?
- Telestic means of or pertaining to religious mysteries.
- What part of speech is telestic?
- Telestic is an adjective.
- How do you pronounce telestic?
- Telestic is pronounced /tɛˈlɛstɪk/.
Words near telestic in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: telestic (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:
Cite this entry: “telestic.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/telestic. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.