esoteric

adjective

es·​o·​ter·​ic ˌe-sə-ˈter-ik 

-ˈte-rik

1

a

: designed for or understood by the specially initiated alone

… a body of esoteric legal doctrine …

—Benjamin N. Cardozo

b

: requiring or exhibiting knowledge that is restricted to a small group

esoteric terminology

The titles of some concert tours can be a bit esoteric.

—Matt Wake

Some of the film's winking references are more esoteric than others, and a lot of wordplay and in-jokes are potentially lost on a non-Japanese audience: some of them are … basically untranslatable.

—Kambole Campbell

broadly : difficult to understand

esoteric subjects

2

a

: limited to a small circle

engaging in esoteric pursuits

b

: private, confidential

an esoteric purpose

3

: of special, rare, or unusual interest

esoteric building materials

esoterically

ˌe-sə-ˈter-i-k(ə-)lē 

-ˈte-ri-

adverb

Did you know?

What is the opposite of esoteric?

The opposite of esoteric is exoteric, which means "suitable to be imparted to the public." According to one account, those who were deemed worthy to attend the Greek philosopher Aristotle's learned discussions were known as his "esoterics," his confidants, while those who merely attended his popular evening lectures were called his "exoterics." Since material that is geared toward a target audience is often not as easily comprehensible to outside observers, esoteric acquired an extended meaning of "difficult to understand." Both esoteric and exoteric started appearing in English in the 17th century; esoteric traces back to ancient Greek by way of the Late Latin esotericus. The Greek esōterikos is based on the comparative form of esō, which means "within."

Synonyms of esoteric

• profound
• scholarly

Examples of esoteric in a Sentence

A kahuna is a master of Hawaiian esoteric practices. Recently, Mariko Gordon and Hugh Cosman engaged a kahuna to bless their house.  … —Alec Wilkinson, New Yorker, 7 Oct. 2002

… he listens to a group of Malaysians playing reedy, plangent music on some esoteric kind of wind instrument. —Penelope Lively, City of the Mind, 1991

There was a new mall, an excellent bookstore with esoteric literary and policy journals, some restaurants with cosmopolitan menus, and engaging real estate advertisements. —Robert D. Kaplan, An Empire Wilderness, 1988

metaphysics is such an esoteric subject that most people are content to leave it to the philosophers

must have had some esoteric motive for leaving his art collection to a museum halfway around the globe

Recent Examples on the Web

Even though Truell was then chasing an esoteric idea around AI for CAD, Tisch and the partners at BoxGroup listened. — Allie Garfinkle, Fortune, 26 Aug. 2026

Baseball is a sport that thrives on statistics, no matter how esoteric, but there appears to be no record of a professional baseball player previously wearing a mechanical watch during a game. — Anthony Demarco, Forbes.com, 22 Aug. 2026

The rereleased games are fascinatingly esoteric, too, including the GBC versions of Croc, Croc 2, Earthworm Jim, and the Japan-only GB shmup, Chikyu Kaiho Gun Zas. — Will Greenwald, PC Magazine, 22 Aug. 2026

But Watts, who is well-versed in gnosticism — an esoteric, religious philosophy that places emphasis on the spiritual realm and obtaining wisdom about oneself — seemed to have had a profound impact on McCollough’s worldview. — Cheyenne Roundtree, Rolling Stone, 20 Aug. 2026

Word History

Etymology

Late Latin esotericus, from Greek esōterikos, from esōterō, comparative of eisō, esō within, from eis into; akin to Greek en in — more at in

First Known Use

circa 1660, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Rhymes for esoteric

• allosteric
• amphoteric
• anomeric
• atmospheric
• chromospheric
• climacteric
• congeneric
• dysenteric
• exoteric
• isomeric
• lithospheric
• mesenteric

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Kids Definition

esoteric

adjective

es·​o·​ter·​ic ˌes-ə-ˈter-ik 

1

: taught to or understood by members of a special group

esoteric knowledge

2

: hard to understand

esoteric subjects

3

: of special or unusual interest

esoteric colors

esoterically

-ˈter-i-k(ə-)lē 

adverb