Ecstasy Meaning
/ˈɛkstəsi/Definition, CEFR level B2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
nounIntense pleasure.
nounA state of emotion so intense that a person is carried beyond rational thought and self-control.
Sentence Examples
Stop using emoticons everywhere. It makes it look like you're on ecstasy...
Ecstasy is the upper system's drug.
Sami fell into a state of ecstasy during the dhikr.
Synonyms & Antonyms
Synonyms:
Antonyms:
None
CEFR Practice Quiz
Winning the championship brought him pure ____ and joyful tears.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
Stop using emoticons everywhere. It makes it look like you're on ____...
Word Origin & History
From Old French estaise (“ecstasy, rapture”), from Latin ecstasis, from Ancient Greek ἔκστασις (ékstasis), from ἐξίστημι (exístēmi, “to displace”), from ἐκ (ek, “out”) and ἵστημι (hístēmi, “to stand”).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"This is the very ecstasy of love, / Whose violent property fordoes itself / And leads the will to desperate undertakings / As oft as any passion under heaven / That does afflict our natures."
— c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:
"He loved me well, and oft would beg me sing; / Which when I did, he on the tender grass / Would sit, and hearken even to ecstasy,"
— 1634 October 9 (first performance; Gregorian calendar), [John Milton], edited by H[enry] Lawes, A Maske Presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634: […] [Comus], London: […] [Augustine Matthews] for Hvmphrey Robinson, […], published 1637, →OCLC; reprinted as Comus: […] (Dodd, Mead & Company’s Facsimile Reprints of Rare Books; Literature Series; no. I), New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1903, →OCLC, lines 623-5:
"In fact, Tarzan had never killed for “pleasure,” nor to him was there pleasure in killing. It was the joy of righteous battle that he loved—the ecstasy of victory."
— 1913, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Return of Tarzan, New York: Ballantine Books, published 1963, page 75:
"They were thrown into ecstasies of suspicion by finding that we possessed a French translation of Hitler's Mein Kampf."
— 1938 April, George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], chapter XIV, in Homage to Catalonia, London: Secker & Warburg, →OCLC:
"What! are you dreaming, Son! with Eyes cast upwards / Like a mad Prophet in an Ecstasy?"
— 1692, John Dryden, Cleomenes, the Spartan Hero, a Tragedy, act i, scene i:
Explore More B2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
Winning the championship brought him pure ____ and joyful tears.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
Stop using emoticons everywhere. It makes it look like you're on ____...