Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The soul or vital spirit.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. Breath; spirit; soul.
- n. A breathing, In early church music: A form of ligature at the end of certain plain-chant melodies, resembling the perielesis, but differing from it in being sung to an unmeaning syllable having no connection with the text. Its use can be traced with certainty to the fourth century, and it is still employed in the services of the Roman Catholic Church, especially at high mass
- n. In theology, the spirit; the highest in man and the seat of the divine indwelling, as distinguished from the soul, the seat of the natural human life.
Wiktionary
Etymologies
- From Ancient Greek πνεῦμα (pneuma, "wind, breath, spirit"), from πνέω (pneō, "I blow, breathe") (Wiktionary)
- Greek; see pneu- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“For only when the psychical pneuma is serene, lucid, and clear does it cross over to the posterior ventricle (Publicius, Art of Memory, 28).”
Architecture and Memory: The Renaissance Studioli of Federico da Montefeltro
“When we apply ourselves to seeking something with memory, this pineal gland is opened to provide access to the animate spirit psychical pneuma from the anterior to the posterior ventricle.”
Architecture and Memory: The Renaissance Studioli of Federico da Montefeltro
“Further, as Barfield rightly noted, the literal/figurative distinction is actually a breaking apart of what at least sometimes is an earlier holophrastic meaning -- that is, we have no reason to think that people took pneuma (=wind) as the anchor meaning and then extended the use to pneuma (=spirit); rather, they just used the word pneuma in both ways without bothering about literal and figurative senses.”
“And because, as we observed before, the word pneuma is variously used, Didymus, de Spiritu Sancto, lib. iii., supposeth that the prefixing of the article to doth distinguish the signification, and confine it to the Holy Ghost in the New Testament.”
“Because the word pneuma, without as well as with the article so generally refers to the Spirit in the New Testament.”
“The cosmos is pervaded by a continuous invisible substance which they called pneuma (Greek:”
“59 If the psychical pneuma is too cold, Publicius adds, it cannot cross over to the posterior ventricle, thus rendering the memory "dull and languid.”
Architecture and Memory: The Renaissance Studioli of Federico da Montefeltro
“Mk. 7: 25 hes eiche to thugatrion autes pneuma akatharton.”
“The Greek πνευμα ακαθαρτης or pneuma akathartis means literally "unclean spirit.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘pneuma’.
-
250 More Spelling Words
More words for intermediate and advanced spellers.
melisma, dioecious, jejunity, sialogogue, zingiber, zendik, dithyramb, pneuma, kachina, agiotage, baedeker, sabulous and 238 more...
-
RELI - words with Biblical connotations
Words in the Bible evoking biblical stories or with special spiritual meaning. Proper names have been reduced to the minimum.
ark, judgement, holy, saint, baptism, spirit, love, eternal, altar, balsam, covenant, flood and 1115 more...
-
RELI - words you immediately associat...
baptism, almighty, Balaam, altar, anoint, archangel, apostle, advent, writings, wonders, timbrel, thorns and 341 more...
-
Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
-
O So Zhinsky!
zarf, liripipe, theandric, tazza, bobeche, autotelic, gonfalon, refulgent, crepuscular, caduceus, knop, labarum and 46 more...
-
Hymnody
troparion, idiomelon, theotokion, kontakion, contakion, sticheron, isodicon, eisodicon, catabasia, katabasia, hymnology, canon and 24 more...
-
All Soul Words
phytopsyche, pneuma, psychagogic, psychorrhagia, frankalmoigne, psychostasia, psychomancy, psychopannychism, shotten-souled, soul-paper, soul-cake, soul-ale and 31 more...
-
epeolatrist's list
epeolatry, syzygy, sphallolalia, lucubration, lugubrious, cacology, mellifluous, tmesis, synecdoche, anathema, eschatological, razbliuto and 349 more...
-
artoparts's Words
illation, finite, edify, abide, abrade, vouch, amiss, vociferate, perusing, techantiquery, rigamarole, holon and 615 more...
-
today's word
copemate, quiddity, ere, maugre, argal, cultivar, exurb, spokesmodel, rollick, logy, cadastral, corpulent and 259 more...
-
lotic words of flow
fast flowing, rapid, confluent words
boustrophedon, boustrophedric, thixotrophic, ludic, hesychastic, blend, quaquaversal, phacoemulsification, mordant, glissando, vatic, tournure and 233 more...
-
Pneumatologia
Terms and phrases from John Owen's (1616-1683) theological writings, to some of which the collective title Pneumatologia has been posthumously applied. Some few of the terms listed herein are Septu...
superstruction, despond, Socinians, unbeholden, unwarrantable, ulcerous, posthume, Photinians, Pelagians, virulently, unavoidably, putid and 221 more...
-
sounds like magic
auric, inamorata, salmagundi, thenar, ignimbrite, pneuma, coruscate, petrichor, argentite, eurybia, ephemeron, terebinthine and 26 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for pneuma.

epeolatrist (n) spirit or soul Jan 12, 2009