|helə|nistik, -tēk adjective
Usage: usually capitalized
1. : of, relating to, or characteristic of the cosmopolitan culture that developed after the conquests of Alexander the Great and passed into Roman culture in about the 2d century A.D., blended Greek and eastern elements (as in art, literature, and philosophy), and used Koine Greek as a common language
the Hellenistic belief in the unity of mankind
2. : of, relating to, or being the empires of Alexander the Great, the Antigonids, the Seleucids, and the Ptolemies representing an expansion of Greek power and influence eastward as far as India and southward to Egypt during the three centuries between the conquests of Alexander and the eastern conquests of Rome
the Hellenistic period
Hellenistic Athens
the Hellenistic monarchies
— compare greek 1
3. : conforming to or essentially influenced by Hellenistic culture
the Scriptures in Greek for Hellenistic Jews
the conflicting viewpoints of Jewish and Hellenistic Christianity
• hel·le·nis·ti·cal·ly -tə̇k(ə)lē, -tēk-, -li adverb , often capitalized