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''arcane'' ▫ᴱᴺ Entries

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''arcane'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260125204041-00-⌔

arcane - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Adjective

arcane (comparative more arcane, superlative most arcane)

  • Understood by only a few.
    • ✤ Synonym: esoteric
    • ✤ Antonym: mundane
    • ✤ * arcane rituals*
    • ✤ * arcane knowledge*
    • ✤ The professor’s lecture was full of arcane references.
    • ✤ The manuscript contained arcane symbols no one could decipher.
    • ✤ He had an arcane knowledge of ancient rituals.
  • (by extension) Obscure, mysterious.
    • ✤ Synonyms: enigmatic, esoteric, recondite, clandestine
    • ✤ * arcane origins*
    • ✤ * arcane details*
  • Requiring secret or mysterious knowledge to understand.
    • ✤ A “signature” was placed on all things by God to indicate their affinities — but it was hidden, hence the search for arcane knowledge. Knowing was guessing and interpreting, not observing or demonstrating.1
  • Extremely old (e.g. interpretation or knowledge), and possibly irrelevant.
    • ✤ an arcane law

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin arcānus (“hidden, secret”), from arceō (“to shut up, enclose”); cognate with Latin arca (“a chest”).

Pronunciation

  • (General American) IPA: /ɑɹˈkeɪn/
  • Audio (US): 🔊
  • Rhymes: -eɪn

Printed 2026-06-28.

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Footnotes

  1. 1997: Chris Horrocks, Introducing Foucault, page 67, The Renaissance Episteme (Totem Books, Icon Books; →ISBN ↩

Link to original

Secondary

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