Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The spirit of the time; the taste and outlook characteristic of a period or generation: "It's easy to see how a student . . . in the 1940's could imbibe such notions. The Zeitgeist encouraged Philosopher-Kings” ( James Atlas).
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The spirit or genius of the time; that general drift of thought or feeling which particularly characterizes any period of time: a German word occasionally used in English.
Wiktionary
- n. Alternative capitalization of zeitgeist
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. The spirit of the time; the general intellectual and moral state or temper characteristic of any period of time.
WordNet 3.0
- n. the spirit of the time; the spirit characteristic of an age or generation
Etymologies
- German : Zeit, time (from Middle High German zīt, from Old High German; see dā- in Indo-European roots) + Geist, spirit; see poltergeist. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Pundits employ the term Zeitgeist to describe the temper of the times, the “feel” of a particular era.”
“Zeitgeist is a German word which means 'Time' 'Spirit'.”
“(TSEYT-geyst, ZEYT-geyst) The general moral, intellectual, and cultural climate of an era; Zeitgeist is German for time-spirit.”
“Along this scheme, though without employing the term Zeitgeist,”
“Zeitgeist is a German word meaning "spirit of the times.”
“I then got to thinking that if these heathen brutes could be introduced to the joys of producing actual musical notes from their hellish plastic pipes there might just be a shift in Zeitgeist amongst them and they might seek to actually make music.”
Global Voices in English » South Africa: To vuvuzela or not to vuvuzela?
“This goes so much against the Zeitgeist, is so politically incorrect and seems so outrageous to contemporary sensibilities that the Guardian, Daily Mail, Telegraph and Times all carried the story.”
“Zeitgeist is the general cultural, intellectual, ethical, spiritual, and/or political climate within a nation or even specific groups, along with the general ambience, morals, and sociocultural direction or mood of an era (similar to the English word mainstream or trend).”
“Zeitgeist is the wrong word ... they lack that 'something' that Enterprise had.”
“Of course Google 2002 Zeitgeist is also a useful monitor of what's been important in the news and culture in the past year, especially the fascinating timeline.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘Zeitgeist’.
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Words build meanings from origins( et...
These come from gamma meditation ,I think.
discursive, exogenous, machinations, purportedly, sumptuous, congruity, cantankerous, incongruous, festoon, hessian, ratiocinative, stratigraphic and 2046 more...
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Fancy Foreign Words
de facto, Zeitgeist, schadenfreude, apropos, per se, Auteur, tookus, de rigueur, xyst, arrivederci, sotto, troika and 15 more...
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Wordnik Vocabulary List
Inspired by some comments over on the Feedback profile.
bilby, feedback, Bonnie, Toonces, trebuchet, fufluns, cupcakes, umbrage, teapot, Wordie, wordie, wordnik and 54 more...
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Novel Words
Concise words to sprinkle in my prose.
apropos, perception, discombobulated, adumbrate, apogee, antinomy, sanguine, glyph, taciturn, aesthetic, truncate, coffee and 143 more...
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List.001
New word list
imperative, republic, subtle, Androgynous, licentious, auspices, avengeance, cabal, sibilant, Entropy, caduceus, ludicrous, and 170 more...
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Lingoooo
incantation, strident, vivacious, objective, fundamentalist, infallible, vicarious, tautology, solipsism, scanty, totalitarian, masochism and 46 more...
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epopticamarie's list
li mortacci tua, hebei, foucault, adramelech, demon, corpse candle, kist o' whistles, marred, aesir, asgard, choice, sley and 12 more...
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Words I had to look up
perennial, palatable, utility, hedonic, obfuscate, neologism, notion, capacious, anthropology, vogue, epidemic, hedonism and 64 more...
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Words
Zeitgeist, shibboleth, perfidy, sartorial, curmudgeon, ennui, modicum, harbinger, reification, syllogism, precognitive, bitch-slappery and 3 more...
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'Word Challenge' Words
My English teacher will give me extra credit if I find words he doesn't know.... I LOVE this website XD
vituperative, somniloquy, mordant, spurious, lambasted, Zeitgeist, iconoclasm, salmagundi, halcyon, irenic, simonize, redisseize and 4 more...
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German
doppelgänger, schadenfreude, hassenpfeffer, bildungsroman, blitzkrieg, schwarmerei, Weltanschauung, Sturm und Drang, wisenheimer, Sitzfleisch, ersatz, Zeitgeist and 29 more...
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Hidden World Words
This list showcases single words that capture complex, uncanny, and multi-layered emotions that otherwise can't easily be described.
Inat, Toska, Mamihlapinatapei, Litost, Ilunga, Cafuné, Schadenfreude, Torschlusspanik, Wabi-Sabi, Hyggelig, Ya’aburnee, Duende and 6 more...
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robertoarturo
new words
obfuscation, hubris, conundrum, recidivate, recidivism, tout, detritus, amorphous, Zeitgeist, epigone, fulmination
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Words That Are Awesomely Awesome
The title says it all.
Milqtoast, Baluga, Zeitgeist, Blubber, Shadenfreuda, Persnickity, Vecicles, Earwigs, Wino, Sludge, Gnu, Incubi and 9 more...
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Charming
For various reasons.
taghairm, noctuary, autumnal, zephyr, ouroboros, schadenfreude, Zeitgeist, necrosis, glasnost, rhotic, plethora, eunoia and 25 more...
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First List
Words I look up in wordnik.
Tweets
Looking for tweets for Zeitgeist.
reesetee Agreed! Good to welcome old Wordieniks back! Mar 17, 2011
pterodactyl Hi jennarenn and frindley! Wonderful to see you again! Mar 14, 2011
frindley Oh bummer, I left my community/Zeitgeist comment over on zeitgeist. Still haven't gotten used to this case-sensitive business. Mar 13, 2011
ruzuzu Navigating through this community shouldn't give you any problems, wonderful jennarenn--you wrote a lot of the map.
Isn't that right, Toonces? Wait--not your right, my right. Oh no! Toonces, look out! Mar 3, 2011
jennarenn The real question is, can I navigate through this "community" like the old Wordie? Mar 2, 2011
dontcry *snore* Mar 1, 2011
marky haha finally changed it eh? was one of my first suggestions .. doesn't matter, but its more clear to noobs. Mar 1, 2011
dontcry *cries* Feb 28, 2011
Prolagus
Feb 24, 2011gangerh . . . goodbye tart . . .
throws wobbler
throws cupcake
even throws fuflun? Feb 24, 2011
gangerh I was so in love with you Feb 24, 2011
gangerh sweet fairy tooth Feb 24, 2011
gangerh well hello community lieu Feb 24, 2011
gangerh dimmock? Feb 24, 2011
gangerh jean Feb 24, 2011
gangerh norma? Feb 24, 2011
gangerh Zeitgeist, goodbye Feb 24, 2011
reesetee Sionnach, that explains a lot about life here lately. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm being vacuumed back into my wordhole. Feb 21, 2011
ruzuzu If you want to see Joel McHale in action on The Soup, see sionnach's link on gold digger. Feb 20, 2011
sionnach Right now, on Sunday February 20th (or 21st if you live in bilbyland) 2011, you can find the following on a certain leather-eared marsupial's profile:
about 3 years ago bilby said
I'll be scarce on Wordie for the rest of January 2007 ... global crossings, unbroadbanded parents, temporal dislocation and all that kind of thing. Hope to be the careless match in your box of firecrackers again too soon!
*mwah*
Note the odd discrepancy in dates. What happened to that other year? Bilbo's use of the phrase "temporal dislocation" seems oddly prescient.
This is, of course, just a very extreme instance of a previously noted phenomenon. Those of us who suffer from an addiction to words and reading are indeed subject to bizarre temporal dislocations - the sudden inexplicable loss of a whole afternoon, in extreme cases, even a three-day weekend. The vanishing of an entire year confirms my suspicion that regular users of Wordie are at a considerable elevated risk for a more severe type of temporal anomaly. My working theory is that Wordie, in its function as a portal to the great wide world of words, tempts regular users - logonauts if you will - to venture farther and farther afield in the lexiverse. This exploration is not risk-free - sometimes an intrepid logonaut may stumble, or be lured, into a wordhole. Though the phenomenon is not fully understood, a wordhole may be thought of as a type of singularity, or tear, in the fabric of the chronolexiverse, sometimes known as a vanwinklerip*. Falling into a wordhole is not necessarily fatal, but the few cases documented in the literature suggest that it is a life-transforming experience -- in addition to the time distortion experienced by survivors, glossolalia is a common side effect, as well as a baffling tendency to identify with small burrowing animals, and a need to hibernate in cold weather. Instances of distorted perception of one's own body size have also been reported (e.g. Swift, Carroll), though care should be taken to distinguish between genuine travel across the chronolexiverse and mere hallucinations following the ingestion of psychoactive agents (Coleridge, Thompson, Castaneda).
Bilby is one of the lucky ones. Regular site users should be cognizant of the risks associated with extensive, unsupervised wandering in the chronolexiverse. Logonauts beware!
* as described, e.g. in Irving, W. (1819). Feb 20, 2011
dontcry Nightflight. Feb 20, 2011
fbharjo zeitgeist = 'uncommon virtual grind(ing)' vs. community = 'common ground' Feb 20, 2011
fbharjo *Rick O'Shea* Feb 20, 2011
dontcry *fires off a shot* Feb 20, 2011
fbharjo We are all Zeitge-ists in these parts. Zeitgeist may make a good "post mot-ern" zen Western. Pure feistiness! Feb 20, 2011
ruzuzu I dunno--I've only watched a couple episodes of the sitcom, but I wouldn't call it bland... besides I've always kind of liked Chevy Chase (and I still sometimes watch Joel McHale on The Soup). Feb 20, 2011
dontcry *adds a pinch of salt*
*tastes*
*spits it out* Feb 20, 2011
bilby This is another bland comment. Feb 20, 2011
yarb It is bland, I agree.
Edit: but not as bland as this comment. Feb 20, 2011
PossibleUnderscore But 'Community'? Really? Couldn't it be at least a little creative?
Will newcomers really find a page full of comments on different words easier to understand because it says 'community'? Feb 20, 2011
yarb "Community" is better for what is effectively "the comments page". "Zeitgeist" would be good for a comprehensive stats page like on Librarything. Feb 19, 2011
bilby community
American Heritage Dictionary (1)
1. Middle English communite, citizenry, from Old French, from Latin commūnitās, fellowship, from commūnis, common.
We're just common. Feb 19, 2011
Prolagus Ha! Feb 19, 2011
frogapplause Are we Commies now? Why does Wordnik hate freedom? Feb 19, 2011
reesetee Nice thought, ptero. I sure hope you're right, or we're out of here on our padded face holes. :-) Feb 19, 2011
fbharjo Rite-geist - Right-geist - Reit-geist????????????????
Where is the spirit?????????????????? Feb 19, 2011
Prolagus I still think that page should be called "Wordie". But "community" is quite nice and warm too. Feb 19, 2011
hernesheir Well-said, ptero. Feb 19, 2011
bilby See, it's the Community page now because we all got together as a community and decided to call it that.
Hang on, I mean it's because admin had the idea and tossed it out there and we all discussed it a bit and agreed, as a community, that it was swell.
Hang on, I mean it's because that name just evolved over time as the shiny babboon butt of choice and we had absolutely no attachment to any other names we go by nor the collective cranial candlepower to come up with any suggestions.
Hang on... Feb 19, 2011
pterodactyl I think the change is for the best. I loved "Watch your language" (such a delicious double meaning), but "Community" seems a more accurate description of what we're doing. It'll be easier for newcomers to understand.
Plus, I feel like by calling us a community, the Wordnik admins are giving their blessing to our tomfoolery and in-jokes. I must admit that at times I've worried about that. I mean, here Erin and John and the rest are trying to build a functional website, and we're hanging around tossing fufluns at people. Can you imagine Erin having to explain to a venture capitalist what a "fuflun" is?
So, I feel relieved when I see the admins call us a "Community". It's like they're telling us that we have free license to be silly. :-) Feb 19, 2011
dontcry Community?
*hork* Feb 19, 2011
hernesheir sleightgeist Feb 19, 2011
PossibleUnderscore 'Community' sounds sort of cold to me. The Zeitgeist heading was more Wordie/Wordnik-like. I didn't even know an imperative existed for changing the name. Feb 19, 2011
frogapplause I don't give a foutra anymore. Feb 19, 2011
reesetee Hernesheir, I noticed that too, and thought my monitor was broken. ;-) I'll also miss Watch Your Language, but as long as Wordnik is still around, I'll live with the change. Feb 19, 2011
bilby Bitegeist. Feb 19, 2011
fbharjo the richness of ritual (How rich Y'all!) is often only fully recognized when it is gone. Feb 19, 2011
ruzuzu *bites* Feb 19, 2011
ruzuzu *wonders why bilby's wearing an 'Eat Me' sign--isn't he endangered?* Feb 19, 2011
ruzuzu *sniffs* Feb 19, 2011
bilby *places food pellet in open view with 'Eat Me' sign attached* Feb 19, 2011
ruzuzu *wanders in expecting a food pellet*
*presses button*
*waits*
*presses button again*
*waits* Feb 19, 2011
hernesheir 2/19/2011: I miss the Wordnik Zeitgeist - Watch Your Language page link/heading that is suddenly today named "Community".
While I understand that "Community" is way more evident than "Zeitgeist" and sure to be far less cryptic and confusing to new users, I have grown very fond of the "Watch Your Language" subtitle for the (small "c") "community" page. I would hope that some hybrid of the names of the former Zeitgeist and newly named Community page could be found and displayed.... Feb 19, 2011