oneiric

adjective

onei·​ric ō-ˈnī-rik 

: of, relating to, or suggestive of dreams : dreamy

The frieze is the most arresting feature of the exterior, not only for its colors and the oneiric forms of the irises but for the way it encompasses the structure of the house.

—William Craft Brumfield

oneirically

ō-ˈnī-ri-k(ə-)lē 

adverb

Did you know?

The notion of using the Greek noun oneiros (meaning "dream") to form the English adjective oneiric wasn't dreamed up until the mid-19th century. But back in the late 1500s and early 1600s, linguistic dreamers came up with a few oneiros spin-offs, giving English oneirocriticism, oneirocritical, and oneirocritic (each having to do with dream interpreters or dream interpretation). The surge in oneiros derivatives at that time may have been fueled by the interest then among English-speaking scholars in Oneirocritica, a book about dream interpretation by 2nd-century Greek soothsayer Artemidorus Daldianus. In the 17th century, English speakers also melded Greek oneiros with the combining form ­-mancy ("divination") to create oneiromancy, meaning "divination by means of dreams."

Examples of oneiric in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Wary of having to make a film in multiple languages in order to sell to international distributors, Dreyer opted for minimal dialogue, which enhances the unsettling atmosphere evoked by cinematographer Rudolph Maté’s use of oneiric soft focus. —Wilson Chapman, IndieWire, 17 Sep. 2024

Its oneiric nature can’t be reduced to its unproduced TV pilot origins (complete with unexplored narrative threads restructured as suggestive visions), or to Mary Sweeney’s hazy dissolves and Peter Deming’s eerily soft photography, or to the myriad performances that literally feel offbeat. —Indiewire Staff, IndieWire, 12 Aug. 2024

There is an oneiric, almost haunting quality to Sarai’s writing that is bolstered by the book’s images. —Ana Karina Zatarain, The New Yorker, 24 Feb. 2024

So far, so literal, but there’s something slightly oneiric about this conjunction of slight odd events that places the action in the register of the uncanny. —Richard Brody, The New Yorker, 9 Jan. 2024

Word History

Etymology

Greek oneiros dream; akin to Armenian anurǰ dream

First Known Use

1859, in the meaning defined above

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Medical Definition

oneiric

adjective

onei·​ric ō-ˈnī-rik 

1

: of or relating to dreams

2

: of, relating to, or characterized by oneirism