Zeitgeist

//ˈzaɪtˌɡaɪst// noun

noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Alternative letter-case form of zeitgeist. alt-of
  2. 2
    The spirit of the age; the taste, outlook, and spirit characteristic of a period.

    "She was anchored to that seat by the accumulated indignities of days gone by and the boundless aspirations of generations yet unborn. She was a victim of both the forces of history and the forces of destiny. She had been tracked down by the Zeitgeist—the spirit of the time."

  3. 3
    the spirit of the time; the spirit characteristic of an age or generation wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
bearingcodecoursecurrentdecaloguedirection

Example

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"English has no word for "Zeitgeist"."

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from German Zeitgeist (literally “spirit of the age”).

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