Definition of esoteric in English:

adjective

• Intended for or likely to be understood by only a small number of people with a specialized knowledge or interest.

  ‘esoteric philosophical debates’

  More example sentences

  • ‘The poems show his erudition to be wide, his historical knowledge sometimes esoteric.’
  • ‘Every illicit drug now has its own subculture, with its own esoteric knowledge, its own rituals and its own argot.’
  • ‘Well in fact that esoteric knowledge is quite an important theme in conspiracy theories.’
  • ‘Now all such esoteric knowledge is regarded as suspect, as somehow unjust.’
  • ‘His adored father was a more or less failed Swiss pastor, a melancholic man of esoteric interests.’
  • ‘This has led him to an interest in the esoteric world of art restoration.’
  • ‘When so few people have been encouraged to learn trades, the special skills involved in them become esoteric.’
  • ‘He is fond of pointing out how esoteric this debate is to the wider public.’
  • ‘Deep, hidden or esoteric meanings of the text are rejected in favour of its plain meaning.’
  • ‘Although the text is more accessible, it also loses its mysterious and esoteric qualities.’
  • ‘He taught mathematics not as some esoteric mystery, but as practical common sense.’
  • ‘Smell, our seemingly most primitive sense, is often linked to spiritual or esoteric ideas.’
  • ‘The trivia enthusiast in me thrilled to discover oodles of esoteric tidbits on every page - and not just about salt.’
  • ‘Butler's report will be full of esoteric recommendations about working practices inside government.’
  • ‘Gibson's comments on the use of non-standard or esoteric English are particularly wise.’
  • ‘It means that you live in one place, but exist in another esoteric, imaginary plane, unshackled by fact or memory.’
  • ‘Why did what was formerly seen as an esoteric cultural theory go from the margins of academia to the mainstream of public debate?’
  • ‘While much of the text would be too esoteric for all but the art-history scholar, it does raise broader questions.’
  • ‘The Left makes incredibly esoteric distinctions based on the motives of the social planners doing the killing.’
  • ‘According to the esoteric tradition humanity is not the pinnacle of evolution on this planet.’

  Synonyms

  abstruse, obscure, arcane, recherché, rarefied, recondite, abstract, difficult, hard, puzzling, perplexing, enigmatic, inscrutable, cryptic, Delphic

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