zeitgeist
/ˈzaɪtˌɡaɪst/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
literary/ˈtsaɪtˌɡaɪst/
zeitgeist noun: the spirit of the age; the taste, outlook, and spirit characteristic of a period.
Noun (1)
zeitgeist (plural zeitgeists or zeitgeister or (rare) zeitgeisten)
- The spirit of the age; the taste, outlook, and spirit characteristic of a period.
- She was anchored to that seat by the accumulated indignities of days gone by and the boundless aspirations of generations yet unborn. She was a victim of both the forces of history and the forces of destiny. She had been tracked down by the Zeitgeist—the spirit of the time.1958, Martin Luther King Jr., “Rosa Parks' Arrest”, in Stride Toward Freedom
- After quickly summarizing the zeitgeisten of the Greek, Elizabethan, and early modern periods and their effects on the theatre, Rice turns to the contemporary world.1996, Michael Vanden Heuvel, Elmer Rice: A Research and Production Sourcebook, Greenwood Publishing Group, →ISBN
Noun (2) capitalized: Zeitgeist
Zeitgeist (plural Zeitgeists or Zeitgeister)
- Alternative letter-case form of zeitgeist.
zeitgeist meaning in Hindi, Marathi, Urdu and Sanskrit
zeitgeist in Hindi
- the spirit of the age
- युगात्मा yugātmā
zeitgeist in Marathi
- the spirit of the age
- युगात्मा yugātmā
zeitgeist in Urdu
- the spirit of the age
- رُوحِ دَورَاں rūh-i daurā̃, رُوحِ دَورَان rūh-i daurān
zeitgeist in Sanskrit
- the spirit of the age
- युगात्मा yugātmā
More languagesFewer languages
- zeitgeist in Nepali
- युगात्मा yugātmā
- zeitgeist in Arabic
- رُوحُ الْعَصْر rūḥu l-ʕaṣr
- zeitgeist in Thai
- ไซท์ไกสท์ sai-gai
Examples of zeitgeist in a sentence
- [Robert] Heinlein’s gift was to catch the zeitgeist.2007 December 9, Scott Timberg, quoting Annalee Newitz, “The descent of a sci-fi guru”, in Los Angeles Times:
- The vote also stoked fears that Swiss citizens were reflecting the zeitgeist across Europe, where right-wing populists increasingly are seizing the spotlight with an anti-immigration political agenda.2014 February 10, Anthony Faiola, “Swiss vote to limit foreign workers captures growing European fears about immigration”, in The...
Synonyms of zeitgeist
Forms of zeitgeist
| plural | zeitgeists |
|---|---|
| plural | zeitgeister |
| alternative form | Zeitgeist |
| plural | Zeitgeists |
| plural | Zeitgeister |
| plural (rare) | zeitgeisten |
Origin of zeitgeist
Unadapted borrowing from German Zeitgeist (literally “spirit of the age”).
Words formed from zeitgeist
Questions about zeitgeist
- What does zeitgeist mean?
- Zeitgeist means the spirit of the age; the taste, outlook, and spirit characteristic of a period.
- What is zeitgeist in Hindi?
- Zeitgeist in Hindi is युगात्मा (yugātmā). See Zeitgeist meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use zeitgeist in a sentence?
- [Robert] Heinlein’s gift was to catch the zeitgeist.
- What part of speech is zeitgeist?
- Zeitgeist is a noun.
- How do you pronounce zeitgeist?
- Zeitgeist is pronounced /ˈzaɪtˌɡaɪst/ (UK).
- What is the plural of zeitgeist?
- The plural of zeitgeist is zeitgeists.
Words near zeitgeist in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: zeitgeist (page history and authors); Zeitgeist (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-zeitgeist.ogg, En-uk-zeitgeist.ogg.
Cite this entry: “zeitgeist.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/zeitgeist. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.