1
as in mysterious
being beyond one's powers to know, understand, or explain
the occult ways in which the human mind works
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in ambiguous
having an often intentionally veiled or uncertain meaning
an occult reference in the text that has puzzled scholars ever since
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3
as in magic
having seemingly supernatural qualities or powers
Great Britain's Stonehenge is one of those occult places where people expect something of cosmic significance to happen
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as in to obscure
to keep secret or shut off from view
occulted their house from prying eyes by planting large trees around it the actor's private life had long been occulted by a contrived public persona
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of occult
Hank Shteamer,
SPIN,
24 Jan. 2023
It’s a determinedly non-jokey supernatural thriller in which a group of Adelaide teens get in way over their heads playing an occult party game.
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Dennis Harvey,
Variety,
22 Jan. 2023
Jamie Carter,
Forbes.com,
29 Jan. 2026
April 25: The moon will occult Regulus again at approximately 8:30 P.M. (depending on your location), though this time it will be best viewed from sites east of the Mississippi, where the pair will be higher in the sky.
—
Phil Plait,
Scientific American,
8 Jan. 2026
See All Example Sentences for occult
Adjective
Speaking of infernal-sounding, pay close attention around the 4:30 mark here, and witness the occult-metal mastery of Mercyful Fate riffsmith Hank Shermann, abetted by his trusty partner Michael Denner.
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Hank Shteamer,
SPIN,
24 Jan. 2023
It’s a determinedly non-jokey supernatural thriller in which a group of Adelaide teens get in way over their heads playing an occult party game.
—
Dennis Harvey,
Variety,
22 Jan. 2023
Verb
When To See The ‘snow Moon’ Occult Regulus Just a day after the full wolf supermoon, the near-full moon will occult Regulus for about an hour, as seen from the eastern half of North America.
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Jamie Carter,
Forbes.com,
29 Jan. 2026
April 25: The moon will occult Regulus again at approximately 8:30 P.M. (depending on your location), though this time it will be best viewed from sites east of the Mississippi, where the pair will be higher in the sky.
—
Phil Plait,
Scientific American,
8 Jan. 2026
See All Example Sentences for occult
Recent Examples of Synonyms for occult
Adjective
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Translation is a very mysterious thing because my goal is to create something that’s deeply equivalent but uses zero of the same words.
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That is until their husbands are killed under mysterious circumstances in the USSR, and the pair become CIA operatives.
Adjective
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Rubio met with Gulf Arab leaders in Bahrain on Thursday in an effort to assuage their concerns over certain terms of the MOU, including the ambiguous language around the management of the Strait of Hormuz.
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With one, everything the best-performing agent learns is written into a layer for the next—how to handle a difficult customer, which exception patterns resolved cleanly, what an ambiguous edge case meant for the business.
Adjective
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Volunteers organized the supplies — toothbrushes, baby wipes, instant soup and many other items — and loaded them into boxes, drawing hearts on the outside with magic marker.
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Skubal was last seen yelling profanities at magic wander Mike Vasil but would nevertheless fit in well in the Sox clubhouse and give Sox fans reason to believe this team can do something in October.
Verb
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The irony is a bit hard to ignore — the very environment being modified to protect or maintain beaches was simultaneously obscuring the ecological processes happening just offshore.
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And what’s a novelist but a fence, furnishing imaginary scenes with choice pieces of reality while obscuring their provenance?
Adjective
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His doctors speculated his infection might have been a rare case of cryptic transmission from sharing meals and bathrooms with his coworkers, one of whom apparently had a tapeworm infection.
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The Drama stirred debate on social media over its cryptic marketing campaign that did not directly divulge the main focus of the film.
Adjective
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The mystic chords that bind us together matter more than any policy.
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Operating within those parameters, the mystic outlands trend extends to some of the world’s most mesmerizing corners.
Adjective
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Dusty navy blue and shiny gold accents make this collection's decor feel even more magical.
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For over 40 years now, Canadian filmmaker Guy Maddin has made some of the strangest, most beautiful movies in existence, films that replicate the magical qualities of cinema in its infancy, both paying tribute to Maddin’s influences and wryly satirizing them.
Verb
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The defendants and their co-conspirators—which included tax, accounting and financial industry professionals, and law firms—worked to design, implement and defend the tax shelter transactions in ways intended to conceal the true facts and circumstances of the transactions from the IRS.
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One of the defendants, Daniel Sanchez Estrada, was convicted of corruptly concealing a document and conspiracy to conceal documents.
Cite this Entry
“Occult.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/occult. Accessed 29 Jun. 2026.
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