Hypnotic
//hɪpˈnɒ.tɪk// adj, noun
adj, noun ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A person who is, or can be, hypnotized.
- 2 a drug that induces sleep wordnet
- 3 A soporific substance.
""He's had a strong hypnotic administered to him," said the doctor. "He'll wake perfectly all right in the morning.[…]""
Adjective
- 1 Of or relating to hypnosis or hypnotism.
- 2 Capturing a person's attention to the exclusion of all else, as if placing them into a trance.
- 3 Inducing sleep; soporific.
- 4 Dormant. obsolete
"hypnotic seeds"
Adjective
- 1 attracting and holding interest as if by a spell wordnet
- 2 of or relating to hypnosis wordnet
Example
More examples"When people are being put into a hypnotic state for the first time I often, after placing them in a very light hypnotic state, wake them and ask them to compare their wakening state to that when hypnotised."
Etymology
From French hypnotique (“inclined to sleep, soporific”), from Late Latin hypnoticus, from Ancient Greek ὑπνωτικός (hupnōtikós, “inclined to sleep, putting to sleep, sleepy”), from ὑπνοῦν (hupnoûn, “to put to sleep”), from ὕπνος (húpnos, “sleep”).
Related phrases
More for "hypnotic"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.