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  1. glossolalia love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. Fabricated and nonmeaningful speech, especially such speech associated with a trance state or certain schizophrenic syndromes.
  2. n. See gift of tongues.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. The gift of tongues; the ability to speak foreign languages without having consciously learned them. This power is asserted to be sometimes present in somnambulistic persons.

Wiktionary

  1. n. Speaking in tongues; speaking a language one does not know, or speaking elaborate but apparently meaningless speech, while in a trance-like state (or, supposedly, under the influence of spirits).
  2. n. Xenoglossy.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. The gift of tongues. Farrar.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. repetitive nonmeaningful speech (especially that associated with a trance state or religious fervor)

Etymologies

  1. From glosso- + -lalia. (Wiktionary)
  2. New Latin : Greek glōssa, tongue + Greek lalein, to babble. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

  • “The term glossolalia, it shall be further argued below, refers specifically to the supernatural practice of speaking in a genuine language that one has not acquired by natural means.”

    SharperIron

  • “No, no, you've got it all wrong ... glossolalia is way too exciting.”

    no wonder i'm so alienated

  • “This is also known as glossolalia or “speaking in tongues.””

    Simon & Schuster: CREATE YOUR OWN FUTURE

  • “It is a religion where the Sacramental life is secondary in importance to signs of wonders and religious experiences of all kinds especially glossolalia, that is, speaking in tongues.”

    Spero News

  • “(collectively known as glossolalia) are described at length in I”

    The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 3: Brownson-Clairvaux

  • “Another area of interest is whether some religious phenomena such as glossolalia (speaking in tongues),prophecy, spiritual gifts of word of knowledge, and spiritual (or divine) healing may be explained by noetic science.”

    Archive 2010-03-01

  • “His brand of evangelicalism, known as pentecostalism, featured "glossolalia" (speaking in tongues), ecstatic worship and divine healing.”

    Randall Balmer: Oral Roberts' Death Leaves Legacy Of Televangelism

  • “Charismatic is an umbrella term used to describe those Christians who believe that the manifestations of the Holy Spirit seen in the first century Christian Church, such as glossolalia speaking in tongues, healing and miracles, are available to contemporary Christians and ought to be experienced and practiced today.”

    Archive 2004-09-01

  • “Pentecostalism are two similar movements founded in the twentieth century which prioritize an individual's experience of God through the Holy Spirit, including the reception of spiritual gifts such as glossolalia, spiritual healing, and prophecy.”

    Citizendium, the Citizens' Compendium - Recent changes [en]

  • “One of my finds was a 14-minute-long recording of a guy praying very fervently and emotionally, even lapsing into glossolalia.”

    Boing Boing

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equivalents (1)

Other words for ‘glossolalia’

  1. glossolaly

hypernyms (1)

Words that are more generic or abstract

  1. pathology

reverse dictionary (2)

Words that contain this word in their definition

  1. glossolaly
  1. gift of tongues

tags (2)

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  1. language
  1. linguistics

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Lists

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  • hernesheir A north-central Florida pastor who occasionally speaks in tongues was forced to resign from a Nazarene church last month. As is common in the South when a churchman is forced to leave, he took a number of his flock with him to start a new church. Aug 5, 2010

  • seanahan Who calls it "tongue-speaking"? I've only ever heard "speaking in tongues". Mar 30, 2009

  • chained_bear "Without question, the early Christians indulged in one very odd form of behavior, but whether it was truly ecstatic, or even communal, is not so clear. This was speaking in tongues, technically called glossolalia and colloquially, in our own time, tongue-speaking."
    —Barbara Ehrenreich, Dancing in the Streets: A History of Collective Joy (New York: Metropolitan Books, 2006), 67 Mar 13, 2009

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‘glossolalia’ has been looked up 3420 times, loved by 18 people, added to 111 lists, commented on 3 times, and has a Scrabble score of 12.