English
god
Pronunciation
  • (British) IPA: /ɡɒd/, /ɡɔːd/
  • (Scotland) IPA: /ɡɔd/
  • (Canada, Wales) IPA: /ɡɒːd/
  • (New Zealand, Australia) IPA: /ɡɔd/, /ɡɔːd/
  • (America, Ireland) IPA: /ɡɑd/
Noun

god (plural gods)

  1. A deity or supreme being; a supernatural, typically immortal, being with superior powers, to which personhood is attributed.
    The most frequently used name for the Islamic god is Allah.
  2. Alternative letter-case form of God#English|God.
  3. An idol.
    1. A representation of a deity, especially a statue or statuette.
    2. Something or someone particularly revered, worshipped, idealized, admired and/or followed.
      • Bible, Philippians 3:19
        whose god is their belly
  4. (metaphor) A person in a high position of authority, importance or influence.
  5. (metaphor) A powerful ruler or tyrant.
  6. (colloquial) An exceedingly handsome man.
    Lounging on the beach were several Greek gods.
    • , Disabled (poem)
      Someone had said he'd look a god in kilts.
  7. (Internet, RPG) The person who owns and runs a multi-user dungeon.
Synonyms Proper noun
  1. (very, rare) Alternative form of God
    • 1530, William Tyndall, An aunſwere vnto Syr Thomas Mores Dialogue in The whole workes of W. Tyndall, Iohn Frith, and Doct. Barnes, three worthy Martyrs, and principall teachers of this Churche of England, collected and compiled in one Tome togither, beyng before ſcattered, & now in Print here exhibited to the Church (1573), page 271/2 ↗:
      And ſuch is to beare yͤ names of god with croſſes betwene ech name about them.
    • 1900, Gilbert Keith Chesterton, "The Happy Man" in The Wild Knight and Other Poems:
      Golgotha's ghastly trinity—
      Three persons and one god.
Verb

god (gods, present participle godding; past and past participle godded)

  1. (transitive) To idolize.
    • a. 1866, Edward Bulwer Lytton, "Death and Sisyphus".
      To men the first necessity is gods; / And if the gods were not, / " Man would invent them, tho' they godded stones.
    • 2001, Conrad C. Fink, Sportswriting: The Lively Game, page 78
      "Godded him up" ... It's the fear of discerning journalists: Does coverage of athletic stars, on field and off, approach beatification of the living?
  2. (transitive) To deify.
    • 1595, Edmund Spenser, Colin Clouts Come Home Againe.
      Then got he bow and fhafts of gold and lead, / In which fo fell and puiflant he grew, / That Jove himfelfe his powre began to dread, / And, taking up to heaven, him godded new.
    • 1951, Eric Voegelin, Dante Germino ed., The New Science of Politics: An Introduction (1987), page 125
      The superman marks the end of a road on which we find such figures as the "godded man" of English Reformation mystics
    • 1956, C. S. Lewis, Fritz Eichenberg, Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold, page 241
      "She is so lately godded that she is still a rather poor goddess, Stranger.
Translations Translations
God
Pronunciation
  • (British) enPR: gŏd, IPA: /ɡɒd/, /ɡɔːd/
  • (AAVE) IPA: /ɡɑ(d)/
  • (America) IPA: /ɡɑd/
Proper noun
  1. The single deity of various monotheistic religions, especially the deity of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
    • c. 1000, Beowulf, l. 930:
      A mæg God wyrcan wunder æfter wundre.
    • 1611, Bible (KJV), 1 John 4:8 & 16 ↗:
      Hee that loueth not, knoweth not God: for God is loue... God is loue, and hee that dwelleth in loue, dwelleth in God, and God in him.
    • 1740, Samuel Richardson, Pamela, Vol. II, p. 388:
      ...God, the All-gracious, the All-good, the All-bountiful, the All-mighty, the All-merciful God...
    • 1911, Katharine Harris Bradley as Michael Field, Accuser, page 158:
      The Muéddin: God is great, there is no God but God.
    Dawn believes in God, but Willow believes in multiple gods and goddesses.
    1. (Christianity) God the Father, the fountainhead and coeternal hypostasis (person) of the Trinity described in the Old Testament, and in the New Testament as the father of Jesus.
      • 1899, The Sunday School Journal, page 378:
        God sent Jesus to earth to be the King of the Jews; that is, the one to tell them what they should do. […] I will tell you why God let Jesus die upon the cross.
    2. (Christianity, often poetic) God the Son, the begotten and coeternal hypostasis of the Trinity, incarnated as Jesus Christ, of one essence with the Father and Holy Spirit.
      • a. 1000, homily recorded in Peter Clemoes's The Anglo-Saxons, page 274:
        On cyricean wyrð gegæderod cristen folc... to underfonne godes flæsc and godes blod.
      Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death.
  2. The single male deity of various bitheistic or duotheistic religions.
    • 2001, Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy, Jesus and the Lost Goddess, page 133 ↗:
      The ancients represented this fundamental duality mythologically as God and Goddess. When Mystery looks at itself, God looks at Goddess.
    • 2005, Nikki Bado-Fralick, Coming to the Edge of the Circle, page 45 ↗:
      This reduces the successful invocation of God to a function of the presence of male genitalia. Put another way, women have the wrong equipment to invoke God.
      Goddess and God flow throughout all of nature, through each and every man and woman, becoming fully present in the world.
    • 2006, Ronald L. Clark, The Grace of Being, page 22 ↗:
      God and Goddess watched as the finite universe continued to develop into a stable platform to sustain finite life and were pleased.
Synonyms Translations Translations Noun

god (plural gods)

  1. A being such as a monotheistic God: a single divine creator and ruler of the universe.
    • 1563, Barnabe Googe, Eglogs, Epytaphes, and Sonettes, sig. Cviiiv:
      A God there is, that guyds the Globe, and framde the fyckle Spheare.
    • 1911, Katharine Harris Bradley as Michael Field, Accuser, p. 158:
      The Muéddin: God is great, there is no God but God.
    • 1960 April 25, advertisement in Life, p. 125:
      Perhaps this... must involve a relationship with a God of truth—and of love, of mercy, of justice.
    • 2009, Nick Cave, The Death of Bunny Munro, p. 68:
      Whoever said that there isn't a God is full of shit!
Translations Interjection
  1. Short for oh God#English|oh God: expressing annoyance or frustration.
    God, is this because of the "I don't love you anymore" T-shirt I bought? It was a joke!


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