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''ectoplasm'' ▫ᴱᴺ Entries

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

ectoplasm - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Noun

ectoplasm (countable and uncountable, plural ectoplasms)

  • (parapsychology) A visible substance believed to emanate from the body of a spiritualistic medium during communication with the dead.
    • ✤ He saw again clearly enough […] the doctor’s consulting room in the Avenida de la Revolución, visited for some drunken reason in the early hours of the morning, macabre with its pictures of ancient Spanish surgeons, their goat faces rising queerly from ruffs resembling ectoplasm, roaring with laughter as they performed inquisitorial operations; […]1
    • ✤ Watching as the woman lifted her skirts and flung out ectoplasm, expelled it into a bowl, then brandished it around at her audience wildly.2
  • (parapsychology) An immaterial or ethereal substance, especially the transparent corporeal presence of a spirit or ghost.
    • ✤ Then came some hollow groanings from inside the cabinet. The Spiritualists sat up expectantly. “That’s ectoplasm,” said Ogilvy. “It always causes pain on emission.”3
  • (cytology) The outer granule -free layer of cytoplasm.

Etymology

From ecto- (“outside”) +‎ plasm or -plasm, referring to the fact that ectoplasm is believed to emanate from and materialize outside of the medium’s body.

Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ˈɛktəˌplæzəm/
  • Audio: 🔊

Printed 2026-06-28.

(echo:: @ ⌗)

Footnotes

  1. 1947, Malcolm Lowry, Under the Volcano, New York: Reynal & Hitchcock, page 137: ↩

  2. 2021, Jenni Fagan, Luckenbooth, William Heinemann, page 131: ↩

  3. 1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019: ↩

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