new-age
Word family
- New AgephraseC1
Synonym discussion
Sense: adjective/1
New-age, spiritual, holistic, mystical, and alternative can all appear around healing or belief, but they do different jobs. New-age is tied to the late twentieth-century culture of crystals, astrology, energy work, and self-growth. Spiritual is much broader and may describe mainstream religion, private faith, or a reflective mood. Holistic is especially common in health talk and stresses treating the whole person, not only symptoms. Mystical points more strongly to hidden forces, visions, or supernatural experience. Alternative is the widest label and often just means outside the mainstream. A new-age shop may sell tarot cards, while a holistic clinic may focus on diet and stress, and a mystical novel may describe dreams or sacred signs.
Common collocations
Etymology
The expression grew in English from the noun phrase New Age, first used for a hoped-for era of higher spiritual awareness. In the 1970s and 1980s it became the label for a loose movement around alternative healing, self-development, and occult or Eastern-inspired beliefs. The hyphenated adjective new-age then spread from that movement sense to labels such as new-age music and, more loosely, to things presented as modern or unconventional.