oracular
- adjective
- /əˈrækjələr/
- Literature
- Her predictions were considered oracular because they often came true in unexpected ways.
- often oracular
Examples
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Cortázar sought what he was to describe in the "oracular" words: "not text but texture."
Academic text (1993) -
The mysterious message was so oracular that no one could agree on its meaning.
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But you, you said that this thesis was oracular, that it was ambiguous.
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The Delphic, the oracular, the mysterious, the secret.
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And you are on the other side, where the grid breaks into tiny oracular tiles, wafer thin, distorted.
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I tried to make my expression mirror hers, which was oracular, her skin flushed beneath her tan, bathed in the noon light, and her eyes not blue at all but darker than any I'd ever seen.
Fiction book (1999) -
A particularly effective and distinctive feature of these adoption stories is the prominence of remarks that turn out to be oracular, that is, highly significant, unexpected statements that require the parent-in-waiting to tune in to what is truly important or that even accomplish a ritual transformation.
Academic text (2017) -
The challenge lay in the other direction, to reassure those leery of a messianic figure with a hazy resume and an oracular verbal style that he nonetheless stood in the mainstream of American political history.
Academic text (2009) -
Since William Blake chose to preserve his integrity against the siren song of Hayley's patronage, he provides several insights in his idiosyncratic and often oracular verses.
Academic text (1993) -
The ancient scroll contained oracular writings that puzzled scholars for centuries.
Synonyms
Hard to understand and often seems mysterious
Hard to understand because it is mysterious and sounds like it predicts the future
Hard to understand, like a puzzle
Mysterious and hard to understand, like a prophecy
Mysterious and hard to understand, often about deep spiritual ideas
Antonyms
How Mysterious
Surface Forms
Morphology
Etymology
Oracular comes from the word oracle, which has the Latin root orare meaning 'to speak'. Oracles often gave short, mysterious answers that were hard to understand, so oracular can mean 'mysterious or difficult to interpret'.