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 he’s left his car in."
About Eidetic
Though “eidetic” is based on the ancient Greek “εἰδητικός” (meaning “constituting an appearance”), the word was 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?
“Eidetic” is often used interchangeably with “photographic” to describe the capacity for incredibly detailed and precise memories. There is a 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, and even experiencing a feeling of the image still being present.
