esoteric

adjective

ˌe-sə-ˈter-ik How to pronounce esoteric (audio)
Definition of esotericnext
1
as in profound
difficult for one of ordinary knowledge or intelligence to understand metaphysics is such an esoteric subject that most people are content to leave it to the philosophers

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in confidential
not known or meant to be known by the general populace must have had some esoteric motive for leaving his art collection to a museum halfway around the globe

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of esoteric But then Mehmet is let go from his job teaching esoteric music practices to university students and the household’s sole steady source of income is gone. — Jessica Kiang, Variety, 30 Sep. 2026 Their job is to reduce the world to a series of numbers that can be punched into increasingly complex statistical equations and published in esoteric journals with high barriers to entry and minuscule readerships. — Literary Hub, 22 Sep. 2026 Another challenge is that though the Langlands program is sweeping and unifying, the mathematical correspondences themselves are excruciatingly specific and esoteric. — Quanta Magazine, 9 Sep. 2026 Both are craftsmen, interested in immediate emotional response over esoteric scholarly unpacking. — Los Angeles Times, 2 Sep. 2026 See All Example Sentences for esoteric
Recent Examples of Synonyms for esoteric
  1. profound
  2. confidential
  3. scholarly
  4. private
  5. secret
  6. undisclosed
Adjective
  • Because something profound is happening at work right now, and most leaders have not put it on a dashboard yet.
    — Jordan Dunin, Forbes.com, 16 Oct. 2026
  • The Soviet Union’s 1957 launch of the Sputnik satellite posed a profound dilemma for NATO.
    — Ivo H. Daalder, Foreign Affairs, 16 Oct. 2026
Definition of profound
Adjective
  • And a later district filing to the state acknowledged that more than 500 people who worked for district contractors likely had Social Security numbers and other confidential information exposed.
    — Howard Blume, Los Angeles Times, 17 Oct. 2026
  • Ziccarelli said that Cochran claimed the charges were withdrawn because the defendant was working as a confidential informant.
    — Mike Darnay, CBS News, 16 Oct. 2026
Definition of confidential
Adjective
  • If the source is a scholarly journal article, the article’s title appears in a larger font above the additional bibliographic information.
    — The Editors, JSTOR Daily, 9 Oct. 2026
  • Generating scholarly tomes at a rate of more than one a year involves obsessive amounts of research.
    — Sean Timberlake, Sacbee.com, 7 Oct. 2026
Definition of scholarly
Adjective
  • Debt acts as a ceiling on private investment, further stifling growth.
    — Masood Ahmed, Fortune, 17 Oct. 2026
  • The spending was channelled through private contractor Chemonics.
    — Arkansas Online, Arkansas Online, 17 Oct. 2026
Definition of private
Adjective
  • The two go on to develop a secret, unsettling friendship, then something more.
    — E. Tammy Kim, New Yorker, 12 Oct. 2026
  • The story picks up when 14-year-old Maeve and her older sister, Reg, start a secret phone romance with a boy from the local boat club who promises a way into the upper echelons of Cape Cod society.
    — Jack Dunn, Variety, 12 Oct. 2026
Definition of secret
Adjective
  • Its top three customers (the third is undisclosed) generate 72% of its revenue in Q2, the company said.
    — Jim Edwards, Fortune, 16 Oct. 2026
  • The work covers system development, demonstration, and integration efforts for an F-35 variant configured for an undisclosed Foreign Military Sales (FMS) customer.
    — Kaif Shaikh, Interesting Engineering, 16 Oct. 2026
Definition of undisclosed

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esculent
esoteric
esotericism
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Cite this Entry

“Esoteric.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/esoteric. Accessed 19 Oct. 2026.

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