D. J. Kevles
Did you know?
Sometime back in the 16th century, we borrowed the word psyche directly from Greek into English. In Greek mythology, Psyche was a beautiful princess who fell in love with Eros (Cupid), god of love, and went through terrible trials before being allowed to marry him. The story is often understood to be about the soul redeeming itself through love. (To the Greeks, psyche also meant "butterfly", which suggests how they imagined the soul.) In English, psyche often sounds less spiritual than soul, less intellectual than mind, and more private than personality.
Examples of psyche in a Sentence
Meghan Bartels, Scientific American, 14 May 2026
Long before Richard Gadd peeled back a layer of his psyche with Baby Reindeer, his Emmy-winning Netflix show, the story for his new limited series Half Man, now airing on HBO, lived in his head.
—Savannah Walsh, Vanity Fair, 14 May 2026
The responses via social media, which ranged from sheer laughter to expletive-laden barbs, ultimately showcased just how much damage Patullo did to the psyche of Eagles fans across the country.
—Miami Herald, 14 May 2026
This will enable the spacecraft to adjust its trajectory towards the 173-mile-wide (280 km) metal-rich asteroid 16 Psyche, (or just Psyche) which sits in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.
—Robert Lea, Space.com, 12 May 2026
See All Example Sentences for psyche
Cite this Entry
“Psyche.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/psyche. Accessed 20 May. 2026.
Copy CitationKids Definition
psyche
noun
Medical Definition
psyche
noun
