Word of the Day

: April 22, 2016

noetic

adjective noh-ET-ik

What It Means

: of, relating to, or based on the intellect

noetic in Context

In addition to her chemistry courses, Elena took electives in philosophy and the classics to satisfy her thirst for noetic stimulation.

"But the new emphasis on curiosity as a noetic virtue adds a note of transcendence to the portrait of the ideal thinker." — John J. Conley, America: The National Catholic Review, 1 Feb. 2016

Did You Know?

Noetic derives from the Greek adjective noētikos, meaning "intellectual," from the verb noein ("to think") and ultimately from the noun nous, meaning "mind." (Nous also gave English the word paranoia by joining with a prefix meaning "faulty" or "abnormal.") Noetic is related to noesis, a rare noun that turns up in the field of philosophy and refers to the action of perceiving or thinking. The most notable use of noetic might be in the name of the Institute of Noetic Sciences, a research organization based in California that is devoted to studies of consciousness and the mind.