Definitions

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

  • adjective Of, relating to, or suggestive of dreams.

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

  • adjective Of or pertaining to dreams.
  • adjective Resembling a dream; dreamlike.

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

  • adjective of or relating to or suggestive of dreams

Etymologies

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

[Greek oneiros, dream + –ic.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From oneir- + -ic.

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Examples

  • Wieseltier often employs bafflingly obscurantist, elliptical, oneiric swirls of thought meant to wow his readers with his putative Kant-like gifts.

    Matthew Yglesias » Wieseltier vs Sullivan 2010

  • At night I had vividly-colored dreams — my oneiric life was bright, well-sighted, visionary in the truest sense.

    The light that draws the flower James Greer 2011

  • Margaret Robertson on Halo's oneiric call to adventure: Halo is a place where I feel peaceful.

    Boing Boing 2009

  • Wieseltier often employs bafflingly obscurantist, elliptical, oneiric swirls of thought meant to wow his readers with his putative Kant-like gifts.

    Matthew Yglesias » Wieseltier vs Sullivan 2010

  • Spence's haze suggests an oneiric perception of reality...

    Peter Clothier: Gallery Rounds/Bergamot Station Peter Clothier 2011

  • Spence's haze suggests an oneiric perception of reality...

    Peter Clothier: Gallery Rounds/Bergamot Station Peter Clothier 2011

  • The Ghost's chassis stiffness — the source of its fantastic ride quality, dynamic competence and hushed, oneiric quiet — is all the more remarkable considering the four enormous holes in the body.

    Rolls-Royce Builds a Real Car Dan Neil 2010

  • The Ghost's chassis stiffness — the source of its fantastic ride quality, dynamic competence and hushed, oneiric quiet — is all the more remarkable considering the four enormous holes in the body.

    Rolls-Royce Builds a Real Car Dan Neil 2010

  • The Ghost's chassis stiffness — the source of its fantastic ride quality, dynamic competence and hushed, oneiric quiet — is all the more remarkable considering the four enormous holes in the body.

    Rolls-Royce Builds a Real Car20% Dan Neil 2010

  • The Ghost's chassis stiffness — the source of its fantastic ride quality, dynamic competence and hushed, oneiric quiet — is all the more remarkable considering the four enormous holes in the body.

    Rolls-Royce Builds a Real Car Dan Neil 2010

Comments

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  • oneiric a dream word

    January 13, 2007

  • purple and dark red word (yes, I think words have colors).

    September 28, 2007

  • an excellent word. It is interesting that English adjectives deriving from "dream" cannot really be used to talk about actual dreaming: "dreamy" and "dreamlike" both mean something quite different from "relating to dreaming". This is where "oneiric" comes in handy: oneiric images, oneiric symbols, the oneiric dimension, an oneiric situation. Sometimes using "dream" as an adjective works, but at other times that can be confusing.

    December 27, 2007

  • Cool word! Now how to fit this one into a conversation.. "I had the weirdest oneiric vision last night as I was speelping"

    June 20, 2009

  • "There were other cities and countries and continents in these dreams. Some were doubtless dreamlands born behind flickering eyelids. Others seemed references: oneiric nods to solid places, cities and towns and villages as real as New Crobuzon, with architecture and argots that Isaac had not seen or heard." From Perdido Street Station by China Mieville.

    December 6, 2011