exoteric

The adjective is a learned borrowing from Late Latin exōtericus + English -ic (suffix forming adjectives with the sense ‘of or pertaining to’). Exōtericus is borrowed from Ancient Greek ἐξωτερῐκός (exōterikós, “exterior, external, outside”, adjective), from ἐξωτέρω (exōtérō, “more exterior”) (the comparative form of ἔξω (éxō, “external, outer”)^[1][2] (ultimately from ἐκ (ek, “beyond; outside”, preposition), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁eǵʰs (“out”)) + -τέρω (-térō) (an inflected form of -τερος (-teros, suffix forming comparative forms)) + -ῐκός (-ikós, suffix forming adjectives).

The noun is derived from the adjective.^[1]

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌɛksə(ʊ)ˈtɛɹɪk/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˌɛksəˈtɛɹɪk/

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛɹɪk
• Hyphenation: ex‧o‧ter‧ic

exoteric (comparative more exoteric, superlative most exoteric)

1. Of a doctrine, information, etc.: suitable to be imparted to the public without secrecy or other reservations.

   Synonym: exoterical

   Antonym: esoteric

   • 1823, Thomas De Quincey, “Letters to a Young Man whose Education has been Neglected. Letter V.”, in Letters to a Young Man whose Education has been Neglected; and Other Papers (De Quincey’s Works; XIV), London: James Hogg & Sons, published 1860, →OCLC, page 91:

     In one of his works he [Samuel Taylor Coleridge] has ascribed to Kant the foppery of an exoteric and an esoteric doctrine; and that upon grounds wholly untenable.

   • 2007, Reza Shah-Kazemi, “Frithjof Schuon and Prayer”, in Martin Lings, Clinton Minnaar, editors, The Underlying Religion: An Introduction to the Perennial Philosophy (The Library of Perennial Philosophy), Bloomington, Ind.: World Wisdom, →ISBN, part VII (Virtue and Prayer), page 301:

     Again, it is folly to belittle the significance of the canonical prayer—or exoteric rites in general—out of some presumptuous notion of esoterism. Schuon repeatedly stresses throughout his writings the indispensable nature of the exoteric framework of formal religion; without this framework, all "esoteric" exercises are doomed in advance to being nothing more than "psychological exploits."

   1. (by extension) Of a person: not part of an enlightened inner circle; not privy to esoteric knowledge.
      • 1738, William Warburton, “Section III”, in The Divine Legation of Moses , volume I, London: Fletcher Gyles, , →OCLC, book III, pages 350–351:

        But of all the Egyptian Inventions, and Pythagoric Practices, nothing pleaſed him [Plato] more than that of the double Doctrine, and the Diviſion of his Auditors into the Exoteric and Eſoteric Claſſes: He more profeſſedly than any other, avovving thoſe Principles, on vvhich that Diſtinction vvas founded, ſuch as,—that it is for the Benefit of Mankind, that they ſhould be often deceived—that there are ſome Truths it is not fit the People ſhould know—that the VVorld is not to be entruſted vvith the true Notion of God: […]

      • 1791, James Boswell, “”, in James Boswell, editor, The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. , volume I, London: Henry Baldwin, for Charles Dilly, , →OCLC, page 228:

        Dr. Goldſmith, being a privileged man, vvent vvith him this night, ſtrutting avvay, and calling to me vvith an air of ſuperiority, like that of an eſoterick over an exoterick diſciple of a ſage of antiquity, "I go to Miſs VVilliams."

2. Capable of being fully or readily comprehended by the public; accessible; also, having an obvious application.

   Synonyms: commonplace, exoterical, intelligible, ordinary, simple, straightforward, understandable; see also Thesaurus:comprehensible

   Antonyms: arcane, cerebral, esoteric, inscrutable, unintelligible; see also Thesaurus:incomprehensible

   • 1656, Tho Stanley, “[Aristotle.] Chapter VI. His School and Manner of Teaching.”, in The History of Philosophy, the Second Volume, volume II, London: Humphrey Moseley, and Thomas Dring: , →OCLC, 6th part (Containing the Peripatetick Philosophers), page 11:

     The diſcourſe and doctrine vvhich he delivered to his Diſciples vvas of tvvo kinds. One he called Exoterick, the other Acroatick. Exoterick vvere thoſe vvhich conduced to Rhetorick, meditation, nice diſputes, and the knovvledge of civill things. Acroatick thoſe in vvhich more remote and ſubtile Philoſophy vvas handled, and ſuch things as pertain to the contemplation of nature, and Dialectick Diſceptations.

   • a. 1755 (date written), Henry Fielding, “A Fragment of a Comment on L Bolingbroke’s Essays”, in The Journal of a Voyage to Lisbon, , London: A Millar, , published 1755, →OCLC, pages 228–229:

     e vvill alvvays aſſiſt a careful and accurate examiner in reſcuing the eſoteric purity of his doctrines from that leſs amiable appearance in vvhich their exoteric garb repreſents them.

   • 1977 October, Gaynor G. Jones, Jay Rahn, “Definitions of Popular Music: Recycled”, in Journal of Aesthetic Education, volume 11, number 4, page 81; republished as Gregory Battcock, editor, Breaking the Sound Barrier: A Critical Anthology of the New Music, New York, N.Y.: E P Dutton, 1981, →ISBN, page 41:

     olk and elite music are closer to each other than they are to popular music. […] he grouping together of folk and elite might be termed relatively esoteric, in contrast to the more exoteric popular forms.

3. (archaic)
   1. External.
      • 1662, Henry More, “The Preface General”, in A Collection of Several Philosophical Writings of Dr Henry More , London: James Flesher for William Morden, , →OCLC, , paragraph 4, page vi:

        y Deſign […] is not to Theologize in Philoſophy, but to dravv an Exoterick Fence or exteriour Fortification about Theologie; […]

      • 1790, William Paley, “The Epistle to the Galatians”, in Horæ Paulinæ, or The Truth of the Scripture History of St. Paul Evinced, , London: J. Davis, for R. Faulder, , →OCLC, section VII, page 188:

        Novv ſo it happens, that vvhenever St. Paul's compliance vvith the Jevviſh lavv is mentioned in the hiſtory, it is mentioned in connection vvith circumſtances vvhich point out the motive from vvhich it proceeded; and this motive appears to have been alvvays exoteric, namely, a love of order and tranquillity, or an unvvillingneſs to give unneceſſary offence.

      • 1858, W E Gladstone, “Sect. II. The Traditive Element of the Homeric Theo-mythology.”, in Studies on Homer and the Homeric Age. , volume II (Olympus: Or, The Religion of the Homeric Age), Oxford, Oxfordshire: University Press, →OCLC, part, page 60:

        In later times Mercury at Athens was, according to [Karl Otfried] Müller, a Secondary also to Apollo, charged with the exoteric and material parts of several among his functions.

   2. (rare) Having wide currency; popular, prevalent.

      Synonyms: common, prevailing

      • 1814, Maria Edgeworth, chapter XXXVI, in Patronage. , volume IV, London: for J Johnson and Co., , →OCLC, pages 75–76:

        he courtiers, who played at divers games in public, had a way of exciting the admiration and amazement of the commoner sort of spectators, by producing heaps of golden counters, and seeming to stake immense sums, when all the time they had previously agreed among one another, that each guinea shoud stand for a shilling, or each hundred guineas for one.—So that in fact, two modes of calculation were used for the initiated and uninitiated, and this isoteric and exoteric practice goes on continually to this hour, among literary performers in the intellectual, as well as among courtiers in the fashionable world.— […]

      • 1850 April 1, Thomas Carlyle, “No. III. Downing Street.”, in Latter-Day Pamphlets, London: Chapman and Hall, , →OCLC, page 78:

        Such, from sad personal experience and credited prevailing rumor, is the exoteric public conviction about these sublime establishments in Downing Street and the neighborhood,—the esoteric mysteries of which are indeed still held sacred by the initiated, but believed by the world to be mere Dalai-Lama pills, manufactured let not refined lips hint how, and quite unsalvatory to mankind.

• exoterical
• exoterically
• exotericism
• exoterics (plural noun)

exoteric (plural exoterics)

1. A person who is not part of an enlightened inner circle, and not privy to esoteric knowledge; an outsider, an uninitiate.
   • 1824 April, [Thomas Babington] Macaulay, “[Contributions to Knight’s Quarterly Magazine.] Criticisms on the Principal Italian Writers. No. II. Petrarch.”, in T F E, editor, The Miscellaneous Writings and Speeches of Lord Macaulay, new edition, London: Longman, Green, Reader, & Dyer, published 1871, →OCLC, page 51:

     I am an exoteric—utterly unable to explain the mysteries of this new poetical faith. I only know that it is a faith, which except a man do keep pure and undefiled, without doubt he shall be called a blockhead.

Borrowed from French exotérique.

exoteric m or n (feminine singular exoterică, masculine plural exoterici, feminine and neuter plural exoterice)

1. exoteric