hylic

H4Y4L1I1C3
US/ˈhaɪlɪk/US/ˈhʌɪlɪk/

adjective

Synonym of physical, material, or base.

Similar
First used 1820sScrabble 13

Meanings

adjectivehylic (not comparable)
  1. not comparableGnosticismSynonym of physical, material, or base.First known use 1820s

    ...a part of mankind were by original constitution altogether hylic or material...

    1828, The New Jerusalem Magazine and Theological Inspector, page 155
    2 more examples

    The Enthymesis or Achamoth, which was born of the Sophia, the last of the æones, and had fallen from the Pleroma, animated all matter, and produced three orders of beings,—the spiritual, the physical [sic, intending psychical], and hylic natures. The natural Demiurgos formed, in imperfect representations of the Pleroma, a new world, of which he is the ruler, while Satan, the king of the hylic natures, governs here upon earth.

    1840, Johann Joseph Ignaz von Döllinger, translated by Edward Cox, A History of the Church, volume 1, page 133

    There was in man... a visible body..believed to be composed, according to many of the Gnostics, of a subtle element... which they named the hylic body, and a sheath of gross earthly matter which they called the choical body.

    1914, Rufus Matthew Jones, Spiritual Reformers in the 16th and 17th Centuries, page xiii

    Synonyms: physical, material, or base

nounhylic (plural hylics)

plural hylics

  1. GnosticismA base man, a person of merely physical concerns without mindfulness of either intellectual or spiritual matters.

Synonyms & antonyms

adjectiveSynonym of physical, material, or base.

Similar

Origin

  1. Ancient Greekὑλικός“wooden, material”
  2. Medieval Latinhylicus
  3. Englishhylic

From Medieval Latin hylicus, from Ancient Greek ὑλικός (hulikós, “wooden, material”), from ῡ̔́λη (hū́lē, “wood, matter”) + -ικός (-ikós, “-ic, forming adjectives”). As a noun, a clipped calque of homo hylicus (“hylic man”).

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Bulgarian материален
  • материален (materialen)person focused on material reality
Czech hyletik, hmotař
  • hyletikperson focused on material reality
  • hmotařperson focused on material reality
  • chlebařperson focused on material reality
  • materialistaperson focused on material reality
Norwegian hyletiker
  • hyletikerperson focused on material reality

Rhymes & wordplay

Rhymes with hylic

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Cite this entry
APA

hylic. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/hylic

MLA

“hylic.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/hylic. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “hylic,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/hylic.

Source: hylic on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.