Eisegesis
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 An interpretation, especially of Scripture, that reflects the personal ideas or viewpoint of the interpreter; reading something into a text that is not there. countable, uncountable
"For the benefit of readers who may have been influenced by certain eisegeses of MacCorquodale and Meehl (1948), let us here emphasize: Whether or not an interpretation of a test's properties or relations involves questions of construct validity is to be decided by examining the entire body of evidence offered, together with what is asserted about the test in the context of this evidence."
- 2 personal interpretation of a text (especially of the Bible) using your own ideas wordnet
Example
More examples"For the benefit of readers who may have been influenced by certain eisegeses of MacCorquodale and Meehl (1948), let us here emphasize: Whether or not an interpretation of a test's properties or relations involves questions of construct validity is to be decided by examining the entire body of evidence offered, together with what is asserted about the test in the context of this evidence."
Etymology
From Ancient Greek εἰς (eis, “into”) and English exegesis. Historically unrelated to the Ancient Greek εἰσήγησις (eisḗgēsis, “proposing, advising”).
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.