Meaning & use
zeitgeist
The defining spirit, mood, or set of ideas characteristic of a particular period in history.
See it in a sentence
The film captured the anxious zeitgeist of the early pandemic years perfectly.
Critics said the novel perfectly reflected the zeitgeist of 1960s youth culture.
A note on using this word
Zeitgeist is a German loanword; English writers often keep the capital Z from German, though a lowercase z is also common.
Words with a similar meaning
spirit of the age
Choose a synonym to suit the sentence. Meanings can overlap without being identical.
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