glossolalia

noun

glos·​so·​la·​lia ˌglä-sə-ˈlā-lē-ə 

ˌglȯ-

: tongue sense 3c

glossolalist

ˌglä-sə-ˈlā-list 

ˌglȯ-

noun

Examples of glossolalia in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

But over the past sixty-plus years, practices once associated with older Pentecostal churches—glossolalia, faith healing, and the casting out of demons—began seeping through denominational borders and flourished across the country, a trend that has grown only more pronounced. —Sam Kestenbaum, Harper's Magazine, 21 June 2024

The two bounced off each other in a glossolalia of gassing each other up. —Bethy Squires, Vulture, 11 Dec. 2021

It’s tent-revival glossolalia made up of advertising slogans, memes and media jargon. —Sam Sacks, WSJ, 16 Oct. 2020

In a small but effective artistic choice, characters talk in crackling, subtitled glossolalia, punctuated only by the occasional intelligible word. —Adi Robertson, The Verge, 29 Apr. 2018

These gifts include healing, prophecy and glossolalia. —The Economist, 4 Nov. 2017

Word History

Etymology

probably borrowed from German Glossolalie, Glossolalia, from glosso- glosso- + Greek laliá "talk, speech" (from laléō, laleîn "to talk, chat"—of onomatopoeic origin— + -ia -ia entry 1), after Greek laleîn glṓssais and variants in the New Testament (as Acts 2:4), conventionally translated "to speak in tongues"

First Known Use

1879, in the meaning defined above

Medical Definition

glossolalia

noun

glos·​so·​la·​lia ˌgläs-ə-ˈlā-lē-ə, ˌglȯs- 

: profuse and often emotionally charged speech that mimics coherent speech but is usually unintelligible to the listener and that is uttered in some states of religious ecstasy and in some schizophrenic states