| a. | 1. | Consecrated to sacred uses; sacerdotal; pertaining to priests.
It was a false notion of the Greeks that of the three kinds of writing used by the Egyptians, two - for that reason called hieroglyphic and hieratic - were employed only for sacred, while the third, the demotic, was employed for secular, purposes. No such distinction is discoverable on the more ancient Egyptian monuments; bur we retain the old names founded on misapprehension. | |||
| Noun | 1. | hieratic - a cursive form of Egyptian hieroglyphics; used especially by the priests Synonyms: hieratic script |
| Adj. | 1. | hieratic - associated with the priesthood or priests; "priestly (or sacerdotal) vestments"; "hieratic gestures" |
| 2. | hieratic - written or belonging to a cursive form of ancient Egyptian writing; "hieratic Egyptian script" | |
| 3. | hieratic - adhering to fixed types or methods; highly restrained and formal; "the more hieratic sculptures leave the viewer curiously unmoved" |