mystic

• mystick (archaic)
• mystical (adjective)

From Old French mistique, from Latin mysticus, from Ancient Greek μυστικός (mustikós, “secret, mystic”), from μύστης (mústēs, “one who has been initiated”). Doublet of mystique.

• IPA^(key): /ˈmɪstɪk/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪstɪk

mystic (comparative more mystic, superlative most mystic)

1. Of, or relating to mystics, mysticism or occult mysteries; mystical.

   a mystic dance

2. Mysterious and strange; arcane, obscure or enigmatic.
   • 1847, R[alph] W[aldo] Emerson, “Threnody”, in Poems, Boston, Mass.: James Munroe and Company, →OCLC, page 245:

     Taught he not thee—the man of eld, / Whose eyes within his eyes beheld / Heaven's numerous hierarchy span / The mystic gulf from God to man?

   • 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto XXXVI”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 56:

     Tho’ truths in manhood darkly join,
     ⁠Deep-seated in our mystic frame,
     ⁠We yield all blessing to the name
     Of Him that made them current coin; […]

• semimystic

mystic (plural mystics)

1. Someone who practices mysticism.

• rainforest mystic

• “mystic”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• Douglas Harper (2001–2025) “mystic”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “mystic”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• “mystic”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.