esoteric

• POS: Adjective
• HYPHEN: es=o=ter=ic

CIDE DICTIONARY

esoteric, a. [Gr. 'eswteriko`s, fr. 'esw`teros inner, interior, comp. fr. 'e`sw in, within, fr. 'es, e'is, into, fr. 'en in. See In.].

•  Designed for, and understood by, the specially initiated alone; not communicated, or not intelligible, to the general body of followers; private; interior; acroamatic; -- said of discussions of technical topics and of the private and more recondite instructions and doctrines of philosophers. Opposed to exoteric.  [1913 Webster]

  "Enough if every age produce two or three critics of this esoteric class, with here and there a reader to understand them."  [1913 Webster]
•  Marked by secrecy or privacy; private; select; confidential; as, an esoteric purpose; an esoteric meeting.  [Webster 1913 Suppl.]

esoteric, n. 

 An esoteric doctrine or treatise; esoteric philosophy; esoterics.  [Webster 1913 Suppl.]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

esoteric, adj.
1 intelligible only to those with special knowledge.
2 (of a belief etc.) intended only for the initiated.

Derivative

esoterical adj. esoterically adv. esotericism n. esotericist n.

Etymology

Gk esoterikos f. esotero compar. of eso within

DEVIL DICTIONARY

esoteric

adj. Very particularly abstruse and consummately occult. The ancient philosophies were of two kinds, -- _exoteric_, those that the philosophers themselves could partly understand, and _esoteric_, those that nobody could understand. It is the latter that have most profoundly affected modern thought and found greatest acceptance in our time.

THESAURUS

esoteric

absolute, abstract, abstruse, anagogic, arcane, auricular, between the lines, between us, cabalic, cabalistic, censored, certain, classified, close, closed, concealed, concrete, confidential, covert, cryptic, dark, deep, deep-seated, defined, definite, delitescent, detailed, determinate, different, distinct, distinguished, dormant, eerie, enigmatic, especial, exceptional, express, extramundane, extraordinary, extraterrestrial, fey, fixed, heavy, hermetic, hibernating, hidden, hush-hush, hypernormal, hyperphysical, immanent, implanted, implicit, in petto, inalienable, individual, indwelling, infixed, ingrained, inherent, inner, inside, internal, intimate, intrinsic, inward, inwrought, irreducible, latent, lurking, metaphysic, minute, muffled, mysterious, mystic, not for publication, noteworthy, numinous, obfuscated, obscured, occult, off the record, otherworldly, particular, personal, possible, potential, precise, preterhuman, preternatural, preternormal, pretersensual, private, privileged, profound, psychic, recondite, resident, respective, restricted, sealed, secret, several, singular, sleeping, smothered, solipsistic, special, specific, spiritual, stifled, subjective, submerged, superhuman, supernatural, supernormal, superphysical, supersensible, supersensual, suppressed, supramundane, supranatural, theosophical, theosophist, top secret, transcendental, transmundane, ulterior, unalienable, unbreatheable, unchallengeable, under privilege, under security, under the surface, under wraps, underlying, undisclosable, undisclosed, undivulgable, undivulged, unearthly, unhuman, unmanifested, unpublishable, unquestionable, unrevealable, unrevealed, unspoken, untellable, untold, unutterable, unuttered, unwhisperable, unworldly, veiled, virtual

ROGET THESAURUS

esoteric

Speciality

N speciality, specialite, individuality, individuity, particularity, peculiarity, idiocrasy, personality, characteristic, mannerism, idiosyncrasy, specificness, singularity, reading, version, lection, state, trait, distinctive feature, technicality, differentia, particulars, details, items, counts, minutiae, I, self, I myself, myself, himself, herself, itself, special, particular, individual, specific, proper, personal, original, private, respective, definite, determinate, especial, certain, esoteric, endemic, partial, party, peculiar, appropriate, several, characteristic, diagnostic, exclusive, singular, idiomatic, idiotypical, typical, this, that, yon, yonder, specially, especially, particularly, in particular, in propria persona, ad hominem, for my part, each, apiece, one by one, one at a time, severally, respectively, each to each, seriatim, in detail, in great detail, in excruciating detail, in mind-numbing detail, bit by bit, pro hac vice, pro re nata, namely, that is to say, for example, id est, exemplia gratia, e, g, i, e, videlicet, viz, to wit, le style est l'homme meme.

Concealment

N concealment, hiding, occultation, mystification, seal of secrecy, screen, disguise, masquerade, masked battery, hiding place, cryptography, steganography, freemasonry, stealth, stealthiness, sneakiness, obreption, slyness, latitancy, latitation, seclusion, privacy, secrecy, secretness, incognita, reticence, reserve, mental reserve, reservation, arriere pensee, suppression, evasion, white lie, misprision, silence, suppression of truth, underhand dealing, closeness, secretiveness, mystery, latency, snake in the grass, secret, stowaway, concealed, hidden, secret, recondite, mystic, cabalistic, occult, dark, cryptic, cryptical, private, privy, in petto, auricular, clandestine, close, inviolate, tortuous, behind a screen, undercover, under an eclipse, in ambush, in hiding, in disguise, in a cloud, in a fog, in a mist, in a haze, in a dark corner, in the shade, in the dark, clouded, wrapped in clouds, wrapt in clouds, invisible, buried, underground, perdu, secluded, undisclosed &c, untold, covert, untraceable, mysterious, irrevealable, inviolable, confidential, esoteric, not to be spoken of, unmentionable, obreptitious, furtive, stealthy, feline, skulking, surreptitious, underhand, hole and corner, sly, secretive, evasive, reserved, reticent, uncommunicative, buttoned up, close, close as wax, taciturn, secretly, in secret, in private, in one's sleeve, in holes and corners, in the dark, januis clausis, with closed doors, a huis clos, hugger mugger, a la derobee, under the cloak of, under the rose, under the table, sub rosa, en tapinois, in the background, aside, on the sly, with bated breath, sotto voce, in a whisper, without beat of drum, a la sourdine, behind the veil, beyond mortal ken, beyond the grave, beyond the veil, hid from mortal vision, into the eternal secret, into the realms supersensible, into the supreme mystery, in confidence, in strict confidence, in strictest confidence, confidentially, between ourselves, between you and me, between you and me and the bedpost, entre nous, inter nos, under the seal of secrecy, a couvert, underhand, by stealth, like a thief in the night, stealthily, behind the scenes, behind the curtain, behind one's back, behind a screen, incognito, in camera, it must go no further, it will go no further, don't tell a soul, tell it not in Gath, nobody the wiser, alitur vitium vivitque tegendo, let it be tenable in your silence still, background information, deep background information, deep background, background session, backgrounder, not for attribution.