Joycean

//ˈd͡ʒɔɪsɪ.ən// adj, noun

adj, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A person who studies or admires the works of James Joyce.

    "But [Richard] Ellmann himself was a Joycean avant la lettre."

Adjective
  1. 1
    Of or pertaining to James Joyce (1882–1941) or his writings.

    "Even Muldoon's fans find some of the “difficulty” of this pyrotechnical erudition too playful, suspecting him of a Joycean desire to “keep the professors busy”."

  2. 2
    In a verbally inventive style similar to that of James Joyce.

    "Jimson is a total nonconformist and his god is William Blake, whom he quotes endlessly in his somewhat Joycean interior monologues."

Synonyms

All synonyms
nonce

Example

More examples

"Even Muldoon's fans find some of the “difficulty” of this pyrotechnical erudition too playful, suspecting him of a Joycean desire to “keep the professors busy”."

Etymology

From Joyce + -ean.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.