Meanings
comparative more acroamatic · superlative most acroamatic · alternative obsolete acroamatick
- archaicrareOf or pertaining to hearing.
Prate they not cataracts of insensible noise, / That with obstreperous cadence cracks the organs / Acroamatick, till the deaf auditor / Admires the words he heares not?
1632, Thomas Randolph, The Jealous Lovers, Cambridge, page 592 more examples
I should prefer, therefore, to call the former acroamatic, or audible (discursive) proofs, because they can be carried out by words only (the object in thought), rather than demonstrations, which, as the very term implies, depend on the intuition of the object.
1922, F. Max Müller, transl., Critique of Pure Reason, translation of Kritik der reinen Vernunft by Immanuel Kant, page 590The idea that the first thought, as an internal event, is always also dialogical, that is, possesses a communicative quality in itself, is connected to its acroamatic origin.
2009, Jürgen Trabant, “Herder and Language”, in Hans Adler, Wulf Köpke, editors, A Companion to the Works of Johann Gottfried Herder, Camden House, →ISBN, page 129 - Esoteric, abstruse; (in particular) taught orally to select students and not disseminated.
How to begin such warfare against sovereign religion in times ruled by the very zealots against whom one must fight? How else but covertly, enigmatically, in the acroamatic manner practiced so beautifully in Holy War?
1993, Laurence Lampert, Nietzsche and Modern Times: A Study of Bacon, Descartes, and Nietzsche, →ISBN, page 681 more example
Repeatedly in the Gospels Jesus takes his disciples aside to offer them acroamatic teachings not intended for the mass of listeners or to explain a secret meaning to some parable with which he has entertained the larger crowd.
1995, Philip L. Culbertson, A Word Fitly Spoken: Context, Transmission, and Adoption of the Parables of Jesus, →ISBN, page 38 - educationBased on lectures or exposition by monologue.
Coordinate term: erotematic
2 more examples
Up to that time the “acroamatic” method had been used in which the catechist gave a lecture, and the children were only listeners (ἀκροᾶσθαι).
1959, Josef Andreas Jungmann, Handing on the Faith: A Manual of Catechetics, page 28[Questions’] employment here does not mark a shift from the acroamatic (lecture-based) to the erotematic (interrogatory) method, for the answers are not known.
2015, Nils F. Schott, "A Mother to All" in Love and Forgiveness for a More Just World, p. 108, n. 45
Synonyms & antonyms
Origin
- Ancient Greekἀκροαματικός“for hearing only; esoteric”
- Latinacroamaticus
- Englishacroamatic
Borrowed from Latin acroamaticus, acroaticus (“esoteric”), at first chiefly in reference to the “esoteric” and originally oral teachings of Aristotle, from Ancient Greek ἀκροαματικός (akroamatikós, “for hearing only; esoteric”), from ἀκροάομαι (akroáomai, “to listen”).
More words from Latin, Ancient Greek
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Polish akroamatyczny
- akroamatycznybased on lectures
Spanish lectivo
- lectivobased on lectures
Cite this entry
acroamatic. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/acroamatic
“acroamatic.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/acroamatic. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “acroamatic,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/acroamatic.
Source: acroamatic on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.