trance 1[trans, trahns] ExamplesWord Origin See more synonyms for trance on Thesaurus.com noun
- a half-conscious state, seemingly between sleeping and waking, in which ability to function voluntarily may be suspended.
- a dazed or bewildered condition.
- a state of complete mental absorption or deep musing.
- an unconscious, cataleptic, or hypnotic condition.
- Spiritualism. a temporary state in which a medium, with suspension of personal consciousness, is controlled by an intelligence from without and used as a means of communication, as from the dead.
verb (used with object), tranced, tranc·ing.
- to put in a trance; stupefy.
- to entrance; enrapture.
Origin of trance 1 1300–50; Middle English traunce state of extreme dread, swoon, dazed state Middle French transe literally, passage (from life to death), derivative of transir to go across, pass over Latin trānsīre, equivalent to trāns- trans- + īre to goRelated formstranced·ly [transt-lee, tran-sid-lee] /ˈtrænst li, ˈtræn sɪd li/, adverbtrance·like, adjective trance 2or transe [trahns]Scot. noun
- a passageway, as a hallway, alley, or the like.
verb (used without object), tranced, tranc·ing.
- to move or walk rapidly or briskly.
Origin of trance 2 1325–75; Middle English (v.); origin uncertain Related Words for trance coma, rapture, reverie, stupor, unconsciousness, insensibility, abstraction, study, spell, glaze, muse, ecstasy, daze, dream, petrifaction, catatonia, catalepsy, transfixion Examples from the Web for trance Contemporary Examples of trance
“I was in a trance and I couldn’t see anything else,” LaRose said at her sentencing.
James Poulos
November 21, 2014
The simultaneously upbeat and sentimental ode to friendship is equal parts funk, trance, pop, and R&B.
The Swedish Queen of Soulful Pop: Mapei Won’t Wait for You to Listen
Caitlin Dickson
October 16, 2014
Ed described himself as a demonologist, while Lorraine, who is 87, calls herself a trance medium.
Beware: Connecticut’s Museum of the Occult May Kill You
Nina Strochlic
July 3, 2014
Twenty people surround Grace, all of them intently studying her trance state.
Hallucinating Away a Heroin Addiction
Abby Haglage
May 4, 2014
“Death is not the end,” as some characters recite, in something like a trance, to which I can only say, rats!
‘True Detective,’ Obsessive-Compulsive Noir, and ‘Twin Peaks’
Jimmy So
March 14, 2014
Historical Examples of trance
It was Daisy’s voice which awakened me from this species of trance.
Harold Frederic
There’s sort of a look in your eyes as if you’d got in a trance and couldn’t get out.
Booth Tarkington
Had she been, indeed, as her mother said she looked, “in a trance?”
Booth Tarkington
Indeed, he did not awake from this kind of trance until the geese and turkeys were unspitted.
Emile Zola
As in a trance, he saw more than the dam; he saw what it symbolized.
Desmond Winter Hall
British Dictionary definitions for trance trance noun
- a hypnotic state resembling sleep
- any mental state in which a person is unaware or apparently unaware of the environment, characterized by loss of voluntary movement, rigidity, and lack of sensitivity to external stimuli
- a dazed or stunned state
- a state of ecstasy or mystic absorption so intense as to cause a temporary loss of consciousness at the earthly level
- spiritualism a state in which a medium, having temporarily lost consciousness, can supposedly be controlled by an intelligence from without as a means of communication with the dead
- a type of electronic dance music with repetitive rhythms, aiming at a hypnotic effect
verb
- (tr) to put into or as into a trance
Derived Formstrancelike, adjectiveWord Origin for trance C14: from Old French transe, from transir to faint, pass away, from Latin trānsīre to go over, from trans- + īre to go Word Origin and History for trance n.
late 14c., “state of extreme dread or suspense,” also “a dazed, half-conscious or insensible condition,” from Old French transe “fear of coming evil,” originally “passage from life to death” (12c.), from transir “be numb with fear,” originally “die, pass on,” from Latin transire “cross over” (see transient). French trance in its modern sense has been reborrowed from English.
trance in Medicine trance [trăns] n.
- An altered state of consciousness as in hypnosis, catalepsy, or ecstasy.