dreamtime
dreamtime Lexical Profile
dreamtime Game Scores & Validity
• noun
Australian (Usually capitalized) In Australian Aboriginal mythology and spirituality, the sacred, timeless era in which ancestral spirits created the natural world, established moral laws, and remain eternally present.
"Traditional paintings often depict sacred stories from the Dreamtime that connect Indigenous communities to their ancestral lands."
A state of dreaming, reverie, or idealized fantasy detached from everyday reality.
"The novel's narrator frequently drifts into a nostalgic dreamtime of childhood memories."
Word Nuance & Usage
When referring to the sacred Australian Aboriginal cosmology, the term is typically capitalized as 'Dreamtime' (or 'the Dreaming'), though many Indigenous Australians prefer 'the Dreaming' because the spiritual order is timeless rather than confined to the past.
• Nearby Words
Word Origin & Etymology
Coined in 1896 by anthropologist Francis Gillen and popularized by Walter Baldwin Spencer as a loan translation of the Arrernte word 'altyerre', referring to the sacred spiritual framework of Australian Aboriginal peoples.