OCCULT

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does occult mean? 

• OCCULT (noun)
  The noun OCCULT has 2 senses:

1. supernatural forces and events and beings collectively

2. supernatural practices and techniques

  Familiarity information: OCCULT used as a noun is rare.

• OCCULT (adjective)
  The adjective OCCULT has 2 senses:

1. hidden and difficult to see

2. having an import not apparent to the senses nor obvious to the intelligence; beyond ordinary understanding

  Familiarity information: OCCULT used as an adjective is rare.

• OCCULT (verb)
  The verb OCCULT has 3 senses:

1. cause an eclipse of (a celestial body) by intervention

2. become concealed or hidden from view or have its light extinguished

3. hide from view

  Familiarity information: OCCULT used as a verb is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• OCCULT (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Supernatural forces and events and beings collectively

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

occult; supernatural

Context example:

She doesn't believe in the supernatural

Hypernyms ("occult" is a kind of...):

causal agency; causal agent; cause (any entity that produces an effect or is responsible for events or results)

Meronyms (parts of "occult"):

theurgy (the effect of supernatural or divine intervention in human affairs)

destiny; fate (the ultimate agency regarded as predetermining the course of events (often personified as a woman))

Meronyms (members of "occult"):

spiritual being; supernatural being (an incorporeal being believed to have powers to affect the course of human events)

Derivation:

occult (having an import not apparent to the senses nor obvious to the intelligence; beyond ordinary understanding)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Supernatural practices and techniques

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

occult; occult arts

Context example:

he is a student of the occult

Hypernyms ("occult" is a kind of...):

pattern; practice (a customary way of operation or behavior)

Derivation:

occult (having an import not apparent to the senses nor obvious to the intelligence; beyond ordinary understanding)

• OCCULT (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Hidden and difficult to see

Context example:

occult blood in the stool

Similar:

invisible; unseeable (impossible or nearly impossible to see; imperceptible by the eye)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Having an import not apparent to the senses nor obvious to the intelligence; beyond ordinary understanding

Synonyms:

mysterious; mystic; mystical; occult; orphic; secret

Context example:

the secret learning of the ancients

Similar:

esoteric (confined to and understandable by only an enlightened inner circle)

Derivation:

occult (supernatural practices and techniques)

occult (supernatural forces and events and beings collectively)

• OCCULT (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they occult    ... he / she / it occults   
Past simple: occulted   
Past participle: occulted   
-ing form: occulting   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Cause an eclipse of (a celestial body) by intervention

Classified under:

Verbs of seeing, hearing, feeling

Synonyms:

eclipse; occult

Context example:

Planets and stars often are occulted by other celestial bodies

Hypernyms (to "occult" is one way to...):

overshadow (cast a shadow upon)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s something

Sense 2

Meaning:

Become concealed or hidden from view or have its light extinguished

Classified under:

Verbs of seeing, hearing, feeling

Context example:

The beam of light occults every so often

Hypernyms (to "occult" is one way to...):

change (undergo a change; become different in essence; losing one's or its original nature)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

Sense 3

Meaning:

Hide from view

Classified under:

Verbs of seeing, hearing, feeling

Context example:

The lids were occulting her eyes

Hypernyms (to "occult" is one way to...):

conceal; hold back; hold in (hold back; keep from being perceived by others)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s something

 Context examples 

It may be the initial presentation of an occult neoplasm.

(Paraneoplastic Polyneuropathy, NCI Thesaurus)

Additionally, their manifestation may signal the presence of an occult neoplasm, potentially at an earlier stage of disease thereby leading to a better clinical outcome.

(Paraneoplastic syndrome, NCI Thesaurus)

With this one, all the forces of nature that are occult and deep and strong must have worked together in some wondrous way.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Most metastases from occult primary tumors are found in the head and neck.

(Metastatic Malignant Neoplasm of Unknown Primary Origin, NCI Dictionary)

Grossly, polypoid, ulcerated, plaque-like and occult lesions have been described.

(Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma, NCI Thesaurus)

From the man's distorted body and twisted mind, in occult ways, like mists rising from malarial marshes, came emanations of the unhealth within.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

An autosomal dominant vascular anomaly characterized by the presence of multiple small telangiectases of the skin, mucous membranes, gastrointestinal tract, and other organs, associated with recurrent episodes of bleeding from affected sites and gross or occult melena.

(Hereditary Hemorrhagic Telangiectasia, NLM, Medical Subject Headings)

After much debate, they concluded unanimously, that I was only relplum scalcath, which is interpreted literally lusus naturæ; a determination exactly agreeable to the modern philosophy of Europe, whose professors, disdaining the old evasion of occult causes, whereby the followers of Aristotle endeavoured in vain to disguise their ignorance, have invented this wonderful solution of all difficulties, to the unspeakable advancement of human knowledge.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

Doubtless, there is something magnetic or electric in some of these combinations of occult forces which work for physical life in strange way; and in himself were from the first some great qualities.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)