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Syllable division derived from spelling — this word is not in the pronouncing dictionary, so no phonetic transcription is shown rather than a guessed one.
asceticism is a noun meaning "the doctrine that through renunciation of worldly pleasures it is possible to achieve a high spiritual or intellectual state". It carries 3 recorded senses.
the doctrine that through renunciation of worldly pleasures it is possible to achieve a high spiritual or intellectual state
the trait of great self-denial (especially refraining from worldly pleasures)
rigorous self-denial and active self-restraint
Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.
Definitions, synonyms and semantic relations for asceticism come from Princeton University’s WordNet. Commonness is measured against a corpus of everyday English. Full sources and licences.