inspired

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɪn.ˈspaɪɹd/
• IPA^(key): /ɪn.ˈspaɪəd/
• Rhymes: -aɪə(ɹ)d

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Adjective

inspired (comparative more inspired, superlative most inspired)

1. Having excellence through inspiration.

   The actor's inspired performance of Hamlet's soliloquy left the audience dumbfounded.

   • 2011 October 23, Tom Fordyce, “2011 Rugby World Cup final: New Zealand 8-7 France”, in BBC Sport‎^[1]:

     New Zealand were crowned world champions for the first time in 24 years after squeezing past an inspired France team by a single point.

2. Filled with inspiration or motivated.

   The artist was inspired to paint a true masterpiece.

   He was inspired to learn to fly.

3. (religion) Infused with power or knowledge granted from a supernatural entity; possessing inspiration from the divine.

   Korean shamans are thought to be capable of inspired speech, in which they convey the words of the gods.

   • 1824, John Davidson, Discourses on Prophecy, in which are considered its structure, use, and inspiration: being the substance of twelve sermons preached in the chapel of Lincoln's Inn‎^[2], London: John Murray, Albermarle Street, page 502:

     The point which I wish to establish is this, that the whole prediction of the future establishment of the religion of the Gospel was an inspired prediction, a prediction answerable to the highest test of a supernatural prescience.

4. (of air) Drawn into the lungs; inhaled.
5. (obsolete) Inflated.

Hyponyms

• biologically-inspired
• Python-inspired

 

Verb

inspired

1. simple past and past participle of inspire.
   • 2006, Edwin Black, chapter 1, in Internal Combustion‎^[3]:

     But electric vehicles and the batteries that made them run became ensnared in corporate scandals, fraud, and monopolistic corruption that shook the confidence of the nation and inspired automotive upstarts.

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Middle English

Verb

inspired

1. simple past/past participle of inspiren