trance
trance Lexical Profile
trance Game Scores & Validity
• noun
A half-conscious state characterized by an absence of response to external stimuli, typically as induced by hypnosis, meditation, or a spiritual medium.
"The hypnotherapist spoke in a soothing voice until the patient entered a deep trance."
A state of complete mental absorption, daydreaming, or rapture in which a person is oblivious to their immediate surroundings.
"She stared out the train window in a quiet trance, completely lost in thought."
A genre of electronic dance music that originated in the 1990s, characterized by a tempo typically between 125 and 150 beats per minute, repeating melodic phrases, and a musical form that builds up and breaks down tension.
"The festival featured an entire stage dedicated to progressive trance and ambient electronic music."
• verb
To put into a state of hypnotic stupor, spellbound wonder, or complete mental absorption.
"The rhythmic drumming and flickering firelight tranced the onlookers into breathless silence."
Word Nuance & Usage
As a verb, 'trance' is largely literary or archaic in modern English, having been mostly superseded by its derivative 'entrance' (pronounced with stress on the second syllable).
• Rhymes for trance
• Nearby Words
Word Origin & Etymology
Borrowed in Middle English from Old French 'transe' (meaning 'fear of coming evil' or 'passage from life to death'), which derives from the verb 'transir' ('to pass away' or 'be numbed'), ultimately from Latin 'transire' ('to go across').