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Eidetic

[i-DED-ik]

Part of speech: Adjective

Origin: Greek, 1920s

1.

Relating to or denoting mental images having unusual vividness and detail, as if actually visible.

Examples of Eidetic in a sentence

"The artist recalled things she’d seen with eidetic clarity and painted from those crisp images."

"Thanks to his eidetic memory, Terry never forgets which section of the parking lot where he’s left his car."

About Eidetic

Though “eidetic” is based on the Ancient Greek “εἰδητικός” (meaning “constituting an appearance”) the word was only coined in the early 1900s. German psychologist Erich Rudolf Jaensch coined the term “eidetisch” based on the Greek to describe the particular precision of mental images that were different from and far clearer than regular memories.

Did you Know?

Many people are familiar with the idea of “eidetic memory,” even if they haven’t heard that term. “Eidetic” is often used interchangeably with “photographic” to describe the capacity for incredibly detailed and precise memories. There is a minor difference between the two terms, however; photographic memory usually describes the ability to recall detailed information (including texts and numbers), while “eidetic memory” describes an ability to maintain a vivid picture of something after it is gone, even experiencing a feeling of the image still being present.

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