Hieratic

Quick meaning: Hieratic is an adjective meaning Of or pertaining to priests or other religious authorities, especially pharaonic priests of Ancient Egypt.

Meaning

Of or pertaining to priests or other religious authorities, especially pharaonic priests of Ancient Egypt.

More Meanings

1. Of or pertaining to the cursive writing system that developed alongside the hieroglyphic system as its ordinary handwritten counterpart.
2. (art) Extremely stylized, restrained or formal; adhering to fixed types or methods; severe in emotional import.
3. (historical) A writing system used in pharaonic Egypt that was developed alongside the hieroglyphic system, primarily written in ink with a reed brush on papyrus, allowing scribes to write quickly without resorting to the time consuming hieroglyphs.

Example Sentences

The papyrus was written in hieratic, a cursive form of hieroglyphics.

Some of the more hieratic sculptures leave the viewer curiously unmoved.

In sculpture and in the drama, in Aristophanic farce and in hieratic rituals, in pictorial art and in the stream of literature, the phallus is transcendent.

When Christ was being crucified, so ran the sea-borne, hieratic legend, the earth had opened all through this country, though the coincidence could hardly have impressed anyone then!

Word Forms

• hieratics

Synonyms for hieratic

Depending on context, synonyms include sacerdotal, priestly, nonrepresentational, hieratical.

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include sacerdotal, priestly, hieratical, nonrepresentational, ostracon, hierophantic.

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