Zeitgeist

Zeitgeist  is originally a German expression that means "the spirit of the age", literally translated as "time (Zeit) spirit (Geist)". It describes the intellectual and cultural climate of an era. The German pronunciation of the word is (IPA). In German, the word has more layers of meaning than the English translation, including the fact that Zeitgeist can only be observed for past events.

Zeitgeist has achieved a unique status among German loanwords in other tongues, having found an entrance into English, Spanish, Dutch and Japanese.