Numinous

WORD OF THE DAY

numinous / adjective / NOO-muh-nus

What It Means
1: supernatural, mysterious
2a: filled with a sense of the presence of divinity
2b: holy
3a: appealing to the higher emotions or to the aesthetic sense
3b: spiritual

Examples
The book has less to do with heroic resistance than with something harder to put your finger on: the numinous, world-renewing potential that some Apache feel in Oak Flat.
— Max Norman, The New Yorker, 23 July 2021

Set in the fairy tale-like beauty of the Pacific Northwest, the film captures a numinous world that shimmers between the visionary and natural.
— BostonGlobe.com, 5 May 2021

Did You Know?
Numinous is from the Latin word numen, meaning "nod of the head" or "divine will" (the latter sense suggesting a figurative nod, of assent or of command, of the divine head).
English speakers have been using numen for centuries with the meaning "a spiritual force or influence."
The meanings of the adjective include "supernatural" or "mysterious" (as in "possessed of a numinous energy force"), "holy" ("the numinous atmosphere of the catacombs"), and "appealing to the aesthetic sense" ("the numinous nuances of her art").
There are also the nouns numinousness and numinosity, although these are rare.