Definitions

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

  • adjective Promoting peace; conciliatory.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Promoting or fitted to promote peace; peaceful; pacific: chiefly used in theology. See irenicon and irenics.

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

  • adjective Fitted or designed to promote peace; pacific; conciliatory; peaceful.

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

  • adjective Promoting or fitted to promote peace; conciliatory, non-confrontational; peaceful.

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

  • adjective conducive to peace

Etymologies

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

[Greek eirēnikos, from eirēnē, peace.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Ancient Greek είρηνικος, from εἰρήνη ("peace").

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Examples

  • During one episode of "Firing Line," Buckley used the word "irenic," provoking his seething guest to demand why he didn't just say "peaceful."

    Michael Gerson on William F. Buckley 2008

  • To call the BioLogos Foundation "irenic" is far too charitable.

    homunculus 2009

  • I will say one thing in passing, however, by way of addressing several specific points (your use of the term "irenic", etc.): you frequently complain that I have either misrepresented what you have written or have drawn the wrong implications from it.

    homunculus 2009

  • Most have taken that as a reference to the false illusion of an irenic future that Disney offers.

    Is Don Draper right? Ezra Klein 2010

  • The NASFiC, named “ReConStruction” (very irenic for a Southern con), will be held August 5 – 8, 2010, early enough to make it feasible to attend both it and the Worldcon in Australia.

    Science Fiction 2010

  • There are indeed divisions in political life that need to be confronted and fully discussed, just as there are genuine differences among Christians over the nature of the sacraments or the role of the Church in social struggles or the authority of scripture – difference that cannot be eliminated simply by irenic rhetoric.

    2008 Election 2009

  • Of course, we should not be overly irenic about the relationship between sharia and Western law.

    Sherman A. Jackson: Sharia And Day To Day Existence Sherman A. Jackson 2011

  • As celebrations of non-denominational and undifferentiated spirituality, they were irenic, life-affirming, even moving.

    William Astore: In Place of Mental Health Care, Are Some Troops Being Evangelized? 2010

  • There are indeed divisions in political life that need to be confronted and fully discussed, just as there are genuine differences among Christians over the nature of the sacraments or the role of the Church in social struggles or the authority of scripture – difference that cannot be eliminated simply by irenic rhetoric.

    U.S. Hurt By McCain’s Campaign Of Division 2008

  • There are indeed divisions in political life that need to be confronted and fully discussed, just as there are genuine differences among Christians over the nature of the sacraments or the role of the Church in social struggles or the authority of scripture – difference that cannot be eliminated simply by irenic rhetoric.

    U.S. Hurt By McCain’s Campaign Of Division 2008

Comments

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  • Kearney's critical temperament is non-combative, indeed resolutely irenic, seeking and finding felicities.

    July 7, 2007

  • This is a good word, I'll have to work this into conversation to confuse people.

    July 8, 2007

  • conciliatory

    July 25, 2007

  • With the word, ire, in it, I would think it might mean conducive towards war or strife.

    August 20, 2008

  • Ironic, isn't it? ;-)

    August 20, 2008

  • Much beloved of Irene the Peeved Peacenik.

    August 20, 2008

  • Sometimes I think Reesetee uses ironic just to annoy me.

    Anyway, irenic is from Greek, and ire is from Latin, so the two words have no connection in meaning.

    Whenever I see this word can't help but think of the Rambaldi message relate to it.

    August 21, 2008

  • "Today, I blame myself for my irenicism: I should never have allowed the issue of Les Temps modernes on the Arab–Israeli conflict to open with Rodinson's article, 'Israel, a Colonial Reality?', for I do not believe that this is, or has ever been, the case: in my films and in my writings, I have striven tirelessly to reveal the complex reality of Israel."

    The Patagonian Hare by Claude Lanzmann, translated by Frank Wynne, p 399-400 of the Farrar, Straus and Giroux hardcover edition

    April 19, 2013

  • When Adam and Eve were edenic

    They needed no crude calisthenic

    They rightly believed

    Perfection achieved

    In salubrious groves and irenic.

    February 26, 2018