exoteric

1. Of a doctrine, information, etc.: suitable to be imparted to the public without secrecy or other reservations.Examples: "Near-synonym: uninitiated"; "But of all the Egyptian Inventions, and Pythagoric Practices, nothing pleaſed him [Plato] more than that of the double Doctrine, and the Diviſion of his Auditors into the Exoteric and Eſoteric Claſſes: He more profeſſedly than any other, avovving thoſe Principles, on vvhich that Diſtinction vvas founded, ſuch as,—that it is for the Benefit of Mankind, that they ſhould be often deceived—that there are ſome Truths it is not fit the People ſhould know—that the VVorld is not to be entruſted vvith the true Notion of God: […]"; "Dr. Goldſmith, being a privileged man, vvent vvith him this night, ſtrutting avvay, and calling to me vvith an air of ſuperiority, like that of an eſoterick over an exoterick diſciple of a ſage of antiquity, "I go to Miſs VVilliams.""Synonyms: exotericalAntonyms: esotericbroadly

2. (archaic)Examples: "[M]y Deſign […] is not to Theologize in Philoſophy, but to dravv an Exoterick Fence or exteriour Fortification about Theologie; […]"; "Novv ſo it happens, that vvhenever St. Paul's compliance vvith the Jevviſh lavv is mentioned in the hiſtory, it is mentioned in connection vvith circumſtances vvhich point out the motive from vvhich it proceeded; and this motive appears to have been alvvays exoteric, namely, a love of order and tranquillity, or an unvvillingneſs to give unneceſſary offence."; "In later times Mercury at Athens was, according to [Karl Otfried] Müller, a Secondary also to Apollo, charged with the exoteric and material parts of several among his functions."archaic

3. (archaic)Examples: "[T]he courtiers, who played at divers games in public, had a way of exciting the admiration and amazement of the commoner sort of spectators, by producing heaps of golden counters, and seeming to stake immense sums, when all the time they had previously agreed among one another, that each guinea shoud stand for a shilling, or each hundred guineas for one.—So that in fact, two modes of calculation were used for the initiated and uninitiated, and this isoteric and exoteric practice goes on continually to this hour, among literary performers in the intellectual, as well as among courtiers in the fashionable world.— […]"; "Such, from sad personal experience and credited prevailing rumor, is the exoteric public conviction about these sublime establishments in Downing Street and the neighborhood,—the esoteric mysteries of which are indeed still held sacred by the initiated, but believed by the world to be mere Dalai-Lama pills, manufactured let not refined lips hint how, and quite unsalvatory to mankind."Synonyms: common, prevailingarchaicrare