What Does Esoteric Mean?

Esoteric is one of those words that can feel like a secret weapon. It’s a high-class word that can elevate your status simply by impressing people with your vocabulary. Having a wide-ranging and influential vocabulary can help you say what you want to as effectively as possible. Even more than that, it allows you to express intellectual ideas and essential concepts in a way that few people can.

Esoteric is one of the best words in the English dictionary to help express your understanding of specialized knowledge and interests. This is what it means, where the word comes from, and how to incorporate it into your own vocabulary today.

Esoteric is an adjective used to describe something that is meant to be understood or interesting to only a small inner circle of people with specialized interests. Esoteric is a term scholars use to describe things or related ideas that generally don’t appeal to many people. Some doctrines of philosophers or forms of pseudoscience are called esoteric matters because they don’t appeal to most people.

Often, something that is esoteric will have philosophical, spiritual, or religious connotations. Various forms of western philosophy and spirituality fall under these descriptions simply because they don’t fall into the typical American heritage or philosophy mindset.

People can take their philosophical doctrine and create an esoteric cult or group of the same mindset. While these aren’t innately bad, it is still a wise idea to be wary of them at first.

Where Does the Word Esoteric Come From?

Like many words in the English language, the word Esoteric comes from the Ancient Greek Language. It has extensive and deep roots, with its meaning coming from a wide range of different compounded Greek words. The primary word from which esoteric comes from is the Greek esōterikos (ἐσωτερικός belonging to an inner circle) or esōterō (ἐσωτέρω, further inside), which is the comparative of esō (ἔσω, within), which itself comes from eis, (εἰς, into) and es (ἐς).

The Indo-European roots of the word have given it a lot of recognition within the contexts of western mystery tradition and western esotericism. In general, if you make a compilation of esoteric philosophical theories, many of them would be based in the Indo-European part of the planet.

How to Use Esoteric In Everyday Conversation

Often, the word esoteric is used to describe things that are very far on the edge of things at large. For example, there are many different variations of Orthodox Judeo-Christian religion in the world.

Example Sentences That Use Esoteric

One of the best ways to learn how to use the word esoteric is by seeing it used in actual world sentences. This will help you see how to use it practically and effectively in your own vocabulary and lexicon!

Here are some great example sentences to get you started:

Their esoteric belief system was based on the secret teachings of Greek Philosophers from over 3,000 years ago!
The way they addressed the mosquito bites made the team gasp simply because it was so esoteric and unheard of.
Even though Princeton University is one of the most internationally recognized schools, some professors support some pretty esoteric ideas.
The esoteric guy in the back of the classroom talked to everyone he could about the gritty physics details of the cosmic microwave background — the oldest light in the Universe.
In this forum, we like to look at theoretical physics, even if it’s the kind that overlooks decades of research by better scientists than us — the esoteric quality of these ideas always excites us!
The way that Mr. Eiso dealt with litter with a flamethrower was probably the most esoteric part of my suburban neighborhood.
The random house down the street has some pretty esoteric designs on its lawn.
The esoteric Mr. Farrier was very proud of all the deadly work he had done on a helicopter back when he was in the military.
I tried talking to some people at the gym, but they all had some pretty esoteric ideas on what protein does to the human body.
I started to mention some more esoteric ideas in the midst of my family at Thanksgiving, but they shut them down pretty quickly.

Conclusion

While knowing the precise definitions in the English Language dictionary is essential, understanding how to use a word is even more critical. Hopefully, this guide has helped you better understand the meanings and origins of the word esoteric, so you can start using it today!

Sources:

Kevin Miller is a growth marketer with an extensive background in Search Engine Optimization, paid acquisition and email marketing. He is also an online editor and writer based out of Los Angeles, CA. He studied at Georgetown University, worked at Google and became infatuated with English Grammar and for years has been diving into the language, demystifying the do's and don'ts for all who share the same passion! He can be found online here.