How to Use occult in a Sentence

occult

1 of 2 adjective
Definition of occultnext
Synonyms for occultnext
  • He began to believe he had occult powers.
  • In episode five, Pat goes to see a Wiccan, who's an expert on all things occult.
    — Lauren Huff, EW.com, 27 Mar. 2022
  • Swedish metal back Ghost makes occult rock ’n’ roll like it’s 1983.
    — Ryan Faughnder, Los Angeles Times, 22 Mar. 2022
  • The problem is knowing where, in all that occult neural shrubbery, to put them.
    — Adam Rogers, Wired, 24 Nov. 2021
  • Twice in recent months, I’ve been gripped by the almost occult power of early Glass.
    — Elizabeth Kolbert, The New Yorker, 9 Aug. 2021
  • While occult themes are common in genres such as hard rock and metal, the indie rock world at the time was far less open-minded.
    — Washington Post, 26 Feb. 2021
  • The shop offers a broad range of medicinal herbs, oils, teas and incenses, as well as occult and sacred items.
    — John MacCormack, ExpressNews.com, 7 Aug. 2020
  • This is how exoticism functions: Flip a coin and our food can be occult poison or a magic cure.
    — Whizy Kim, refinery29.com, 26 May 2020
  • It’s Romancing the Stone-style action, occult weirdness, and first love, with gorgeous Matt Smith art!
    — Josh Weiss, Forbes, 18 July 2022
  • For $500, that bought a month’s worth of mentoring on various crafts and occult practice.
    — Eileen Kelley, sun-sentinel.com, 27 Aug. 2020
  • It's been a while since Titans last explored its occult side, or the demonic heritage of Raven (Teagan Croft).
    — Christian Holub, EW.com, 19 Oct. 2022
  • At just over 300 pages, the book is a lean and macabre page-turner, as del Toro and Hogan spare no bloody details in describing heinous murders and occult rituals.
    — Patrick Ryan, USA TODAY, 4 Aug. 2020
  • Misael recalled that prayer sessions with Flordelis were tinged with occult practices.
    — Jon Lee Anderson, The New Yorker, 7 June 2021
  • When doctors prove useless, Reverend Gwyon invokes occult powers to save his son.
    — Christopher Beha, Harper's Magazine, 27 Oct. 2020
  • Mexico City is home to multiple markets, but Mercado de Sonara is one of the few that sells occult products alongside pinatas, home goods, and fresh cactus.
    — Megan Wood, Travel + Leisure, 9 Jan. 2022
  • The setting of her new novel, Lapvona—a vaguely occult feudal village besieged by bandits and famine—allows Moshfegh to dial her gore levels up to 11.
    — Jess Bergman, The New Republic, 22 June 2022
  • From the early Middle Ages through the eighteenth century, thinkers recorded their sense that profound, perhaps even occult, teachings were lurking there.
    — The New Yorker, 22 Nov. 2021
  • The rest of the movie settles into something more like a slice-of-life docudrama, with occasional occult elements.
    — Noel Murray, Los Angeles Times, 5 Mar. 2021
  • Little is known about the latest installment, but the series’s appeal — Pokémon but for adults, steeped in occult themes — makes every entry impossible to put down.
    — Joshua Rivera, Vulture, 15 Jan. 2021
  • In this story, an occult Satanic cabal has corrupted the world, and only a strong Christian leader can take back the kingdom of heaven by any means necessary.
    — Steven Monacelli, Rolling Stone, 1 Dec. 2021
  • The discovery of a document detailing the occult activities of an old abbess suddenly launches us on a grail quest.
    — Merve Emre, The New Yorker, 21 Dec. 2020
  • But Bravin balanced the occult imagery with Facebook and Instagram posts assuring fans that the club’s sense of freedom was rigorously guarded.
    — Los Angeles Times, 21 Mar. 2021
  • Whether or not Fox was really serious about the occult celebration, people have thoughts.
    — Macaela MacKenzie, SELF, 13 Jan. 2022
  • While the previous video shows a hooded Welch kidnapping a man from the room and later snapping his neck in an occult ritual, the new video shows the 35-year-old musician twirling, stomping and chanting with her group of female disciples.
    — Hannah Dailey, Billboard, 7 Mar. 2022
  • His latest, Undine, is an occult love story, drawing on a classic of German Romanticism.
    — J. Hoberman, The New York Review of Books, 30 May 2021
  • But that doesn’t mean Tobias Forge, the creative mastermind behind the occult-rock band Ghost, can’t appreciate the religion’s artistic and cultural beauty.
    — Joseph Hudak, Rolling Stone, 8 Mar. 2022
  • Driving through West Texas oil country at night felt like stumbling into some dark occult ritual uninvited.
    — Emily Pennington, Outside Online, 26 Apr. 2020
  • Screens and machines have since been banished, making way for a kind of old-world mysticism of sparkling dust, psychedelic lights and occult symbols — like a third eye, superimposed over the pubic triangle of the most enlightened.
    — Peter Debruge, Variety, 3 June 2022
  • Knowledge of these symbols, whose original meanings were lost, gave the incantations an occult quality that tapped into a powerful sense of the ancient, mysterious and unknown.
    — John Last, Smithsonian Magazine, 31 Oct. 2022
  • When creatures like these hapless horses fell ill, medieval peasants and nobles alike relied on the occult powers of animal healers, forerunners to today’s veterinarians.
    — John Last, Smithsonian Magazine, 31 Oct. 2022
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occult

2 of 2 noun
  • By the mid-1930s, any mention of the occult was banned in Nazi Germany.
    — Mike Postalakis, SPIN, 1 Mar. 2022
  • But these ancient tools of the occult are so much more than that.
    — Lizz Schumer, Good Housekeeping, 4 Oct. 2022
  • The mask is fashioned from the one made famous by the Swedish occult rock band Ghost.
    — Domenica Bongiovanni, Indianapolis Star, 9 Sep. 2017
  • Thanks to Ambrose's compass, which is able to find occult items, the two were able to find the crown in a tree in the Riverdale woods.
    — Tamara Fuentes, Seventeen, 24 Jan. 2020
  • When the killer rises from his grave, Watson and Holmes are thrown into the world of the occult.
    — Chaise Sanders, Country Living, 2 Aug. 2022
  • The setting also lends itself to the sinister, with hints of the occult and ghosts roaming the halls at nights.
    — Amy MacKelden, ELLE, 7 Oct. 2022
  • But the town was filled with rumors about Satanism, devil worship, and the occult.
    — Felix Gillette, Fortune, 7 Nov. 2022
  • Steadman had no interest in drugs or the occult, as such.
    — Peter Richardson, The New Republic, 28 Jan. 2022
  • He’s been referenced in classic occult texts, like the The Lesser Key of Solomon, for hundreds of years.
    — Yohana Desta, HWD, 8 June 2018
  • They could be mistaken for the participants in a séance — but the occult forces are not all on their side.
    — Deborah Young, The Hollywood Reporter, 30 Sep. 2019
  • Jazz-age eccentrics like Aleister Crowley took it as a direct line to the occult.
    — The Economist, 28 June 2019
  • As Kurlander makes clear, the Nazis’ racial and occult obsessions did not come out of nowhere.
    — Andrew Stuttaford, National Review, 23 Sep. 2017
  • Maybe there was a murmur about an underground occult-rock thing going on at the time.
    — Matt Wake | [email protected], al, 1 Sep. 2022
  • But Reagan’s embrace of the Religious Right made up for his dalliances with the occult.
    — Jared Yates Sexton, The New Republic, 25 Mar. 2020
  • This may be true, and there’s a simple reason for it: Ultimately there isn’t a lot to say about Lincoln and the occult.
    — John J. Miller, WSJ, 30 Oct. 2022
  • Aunt Hilda and Aunt Zelda What’s a witch in training without her teachers in the occult?
    — Halie Lesavage, Glamour, 25 Oct. 2018
  • This is very much in the spirit of comics — both DC and Marvel — where Hitler’s interest in the occult has been a big storytelling boon.
    — James Grebey, Vulture, 18 Mar. 2021
  • The story of the scientists who unleash the atom on the world harks back to the trope of the wizard, witch, or shaman, who meddles with the occult to become more powerful.
    — Rebecca Onion, Slate Magazine, 20 July 2017
  • Over the next 900 years, these warrior monks would become associated with the Holy Grail, the Freemasons and the occult.
    — Patrick Masters, Quartz, 30 Dec. 2019
  • We’re brought to the mansion of the fictional character Esther Phillips as fellow fans of the occult.
    — Los Angeles Times, 12 Oct. 2021
  • The Mountain Goats’ frontman on keeping the faith, loving the occult, and sad songwriting.
    — Craig Jenkins, Vulture, 19 Aug. 2022
  • Below are 10 fantastic tracks about the occult and/or The Devil.
    — Matt Wake | [email protected], al, 29 Oct. 2020
  • Detective and occult or thriller themes in movies and books are engrossing.
    — BostonGlobe.com, 19 May 2020
  • The show will be a coming-of-age story that has tons of horror, the occult and, and plenty of witchcraft (obviously).
    — Noelle Devoe, Seventeen, 19 Mar. 2018
  • Manuel, a Catholic man from Ecuador, is dating Ashley, an American witch who left the church for an occult lifestyle.
    — Anna Tingley, Variety, 9 Oct. 2023
  • The cards have a lovely touch of the occult about them, as if a fortune-teller were pointing up secret connections.
    — Alex Ross, The New Yorker, 10 Nov. 2020
  • The Magickal Childe name is their homage to the famous occult shop that once occupied the space where Vinyl Steakhouse is today.
    — Aly Walansky, Forbes, 7 June 2022
  • Opened by two former fashion designers, the vibe is avant-garde occult.
    — Monica Corcoran Harel, Travel + Leisure, 16 Oct. 2023
  • The Devil Rides Out is a supremely creepy occult thriller that treats its subjects with documentary-like precision.
    — Declan Gallagher, EW.com, 16 Oct. 2023
  • At the same time, the infinity of available emoji has freighted other pictures with occult significance.
    — Ian Bogost, The Atlantic, 18 Jan. 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'occult.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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