psyche
- 01 C1 Advanced
n.the human mind, including your deepest thoughts, feelings, and spirit.
n.the human mind as the central force in thought, emotion, and behaviour; the totality of the conscious and unconscious.
Simple“The trauma of the war left a deep scar on the nation's psyche.”
In context“Jungian analysts argue that the collective psyche contains archetypes that are shared across all human cultures.”
UsageOften used with 'the' to refer to a collective or individual mental state.
- 02 C2 Proficiency
n.a princess in Greek stories who represented the soul and married Cupid.
n.the personification of the soul in Greco-Roman mythology, typically depicted as a mortal princess who became the wife of Eros.
Simple“The story of Cupid and Psyche is a famous myth about love and the soul.”
In context“Renaissance painters often depicted Psyche with butterfly wings to symbolise the transformative nature of the human spirit.”
- 03 B2 Upper Intermediate
v.to get yourself or someone else mentally ready for something difficult.
v.to prepare oneself or another person mentally for a challenge or task; frequently used with 'up'.
Simple“She had to psyche herself up before the big presentation.”
In context“The coach spent the final minutes in the locker room trying to psyche the players up for the championship match.”
UsageCommonly appears as the phrasal verb 'psyche up'.
Antonymsdiscouragedaunt
“One, contemporary western novels had become “ever more radically centred on the individual psyche”.”
“But travelling the country, we found that High Streets still occupy a special place in our psyche.”
From Ancient Greek ψυχή (psukhḗ, literally “Soul, Spirit”).
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.