Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun An artificially induced altered state of consciousness, characterized by heightened suggestibility and receptivity to direction.
  • noun Hypnotism.
  • noun A sleeplike condition.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The production of sleep.
  • noun The hypnotic state; hypnotism.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Med.) Supervention of sleep.
  • noun The condition of being hypnotized or the process of hypnotizing a person; hypnotism{1}.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun a trancelike state, artificially induced, in which a person has a heightened suggestibility, and in which suppressed memories may be experienced
  • noun the art or skill of hypnotism

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a state that resembles sleep but that is induced by suggestion

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[New Latin hypnōsis, from Greek hupnoun, to put to sleep; see hypnotic.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Ancient Greek ὕπνος (hupnos, "sleep") + -osis.

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