Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Intense joy or delight.
  • noun A state of emotion so intense that one is carried beyond rational thought and self-control.
  • noun The trance, frenzy, or rapture associated with mystic or prophetic exaltation.
  • noun Slang MDMA.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To fill with rapture or enthusiasm.
  • noun A state in which the mind is exalted or liberated as it were from the body; a state in which the functions of the senses are suspended by the contemplation of some extraordinary or supernatural object, or by absorption in some overpowering idea, most frequently of a religious nature; entrancing rapture or transport.
  • noun Overpowering emotion or exaltation, in which the mind is absorbed and the actions are controlled by the exciting subject; a sudden access of intense feeling.
  • noun Grievous, fearful, or painful emotion; extreme agitation; distraction: as, the very ecstasy of grief; an ecstasy of fear.
  • noun In medicine, a morbid state of the nervous system, allied to catalepsy and trance, in which the patient assumes the attitude and expression of rapture. Also ecstasis.
  • noun Insanity; madness.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The state of being beside one's self or rapt out of one's self; a state in which the mind is elevated above the reach of ordinary impressions, as when under the influence of overpowering emotion; an extraordinary elevation of the spirit, as when the soul, unconscious of sensible objects, is supposed to contemplate heavenly mysteries.
  • noun Excessive and overmastering joy or enthusiasm; rapture; enthusiastic delight.
  • noun obsolete Violent distraction of mind; violent emotion; excessive grief of anxiety; insanity; madness.
  • noun (Med.) A state which consists in total suspension of sensibility, of voluntary motion, and largely of mental power. The body is erect and inflexible; the pulsation and breathing are not affected.
  • transitive verb obsolete To fill ecstasy, or with rapture or enthusiasm.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Intense pleasure.
  • noun A state of emotion so intense that a person is carried beyond rational thought and self-control.
  • noun A trance, frenzy, or rapture associated with mystic or prophetic exaltation.
  • noun slang The drug MDMA, a synthetic entactogen of the phenethylamine family.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a state of being carried away by overwhelming emotion
  • noun a state of elated bliss
  • noun street names for methylenedioxymethamphetamine

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English extasie, from Old French, from Late Latin extasis, terror, from Greek ekstasis, astonishment, distraction, from existanai, to displace, derange : ek-, out of; see ecto– + histanai, to place; see stā- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Ancient Greek ἔκστασις (ekstasis), from ἐξίστημι (eksistēmi, "I displace"), from ἐκ (ek, "out") and ἵστημι (histēmi, "I stand").

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Examples

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  • What I feel when listening to Bach's BWV 1043 Allegro. Pure radiant bliss.

    December 16, 2006

  • You need not do anything.

    Remain sitting at your table and listen.

    You need not even listen, just wait.

    You need not even wait,

    just learn to be quiet, still and solitary.

    And the world will freely offer itself to you unmasked.

    It has no choice, it will roll in ecstasy at your feet.

    - Franz Kafka, 'Learn To Be Quiet'.

    February 3, 2009

  • You love me with a passionate grace

    Which gives me ecstasy

    And there within your warm embrace,

    My spirit wanders free.

    -Junior Kennedy

    August 2, 2009

  • Would you take ecstasy? Anna Wood.

    February 17, 2011