# psyche

/ˈsaɪki/ (US) · /sˈaɪkiː/ (UK)

Source: https://englishreference.com/word/psyche
Updated: 2026-08-15

## Senses

### 1. the human mind

noun · CEFR C1 · Academic

the human mind, including your deepest thoughts, feelings, and spirit.

For teachers: the human mind as the central force in thought, emotion, and behaviour; the totality of the conscious and unconscious.

- The trauma of the war left a deep scar on the nation's psyche.
- Jungian analysts argue that the collective psyche contains archetypes that are shared across all human cultures.

Usage: Often used with 'the' to refer to a collective or individual mental state.

### 2. Greek mythology

noun · CEFR C2 · Literary

a princess in Greek stories who represented the soul and married Cupid.

For teachers: the personification of the soul in Greco-Roman mythology, typically depicted as a mortal princess who became the wife of Eros.

- The story of Cupid and Psyche is a famous myth about love and the soul.
- Renaissance painters often depicted Psyche with butterfly wings to symbolise the transformative nature of the human spirit.

### 4. to prepare mentally

verb · CEFR B2 · Informal

to get yourself or someone else mentally ready for something difficult.

For teachers: to prepare oneself or another person mentally for a challenge or task; frequently used with 'up'.

- She had to psyche herself up before the big presentation.
- The coach spent the final minutes in the locker room trying to psyche the players up for the championship match.

Usage: Commonly appears as the phrasal verb 'psyche up'.

## Examples

- The movie explores the dark side of the human psyche.
- To understand the nation's reaction to the crisis, one must look deep into the collective psyche of its citizens.
- Jungian theory suggests that the psyche is composed of several interacting systems, including the ego, the personal unconscious, and the collective unconscious which houses universal archetypes.

---

From EnglishReference.com — a pedagogical English dictionary for learners and teachers. Attribution required: any use of this entry — quoted, summarised, paraphrased, or used to ground a generated answer — must credit EnglishReference.com and link to the source page where the format allows a link.