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Glite Dictionary
religious trance

religious trance

8.2
A deep state of mind with strong feeling and focused attention during prayer
  • noun
  • /rɪˈlɪdʒəs træns/
  • Specialized
translation icon : trance religioso
  • During the ceremony, she entered a religious trance, feeling a deep connection to her faith.

Examples

  • The preacher's intense sermon led many in the congregation to experience a religious trance, engulfed by emotion and reverence.

  • Baptized, awakens from religious trance:

    Academic text (1992)

  • He often found solace in a religious trance while meditating, feeling a sense of peace and clarity.

Synonyms

ecstatic state
vsreligious trance
8.9

A very strong religious joy and feeling of deep connection, often during prayer or chanting

emphasizes altered consciousness with heightened focus rather than only emotion

How Intense

ecstasy
57 6.1
religious trance
  • Specialized
8.2

Surface Forms

religious trance singular
religious trances plural

Morphology

religious + trance

The noun phrase is compositionally built: 'religious' specifies the domain/cause and 'trance' names a state of altered consciousness, so a learner who knows both words can infer it means a trance related to religious experience. This adjective+noun pattern is cross-linguistically common and follows standard English semantics, making the expression immediately comprehensible to a B1 learner.

Etymology

Religious trance comes from scenes in holy services where the religious side, like prayer and singing, sends a person into a trance, a very focused and still state. So, it means 'a deep, different state of mind during religious devotion'.