Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To instruct especially so as to encourage intellectual, moral, or spiritual improvement.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To build; construct.
- To build in or upon; cover with buildings.
- To build up or increase the faith, morality, etc., of; impart instruction to, particularly in morals or religion.
- To convince or persuade.
- To benefit; favor.
- To cause or tend to cause moral or intellectual improvement; make people wiser or better.
- To be instructed or improved, especially morally; become wiser or better.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. Archaic To build; to construct.
- v. To instruct and improve, especially in moral and religious knowledge; to teach.
- v. obsolete To teach or persuade.
- v. rare To improve.
WordNet 3.0
- v. make understand
Etymologies
- Latin aedificare 'build'. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English edifien, from Old French edifier, from Late Latin aedificāre, to instruct spiritually, from Latin, to build; see edifice. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“It also skirts around aedificare and hence the English "edify" - to improve spiritually.”
“Richard Rorty characterises 20th century philosophy as a distinction between those that 'edify' and those that 'systematise'.”
“The aim of all Christian worship is to bring us nearer to God and to Christ -- not merely to touch our heart, or soothe our conscience, or improve our minds, but to "edify" us -- that is, to build us up in faith and holiness and comfort unto salvation.”
“The aim which should ever burn clear before us, and preside over even our smallest actions, is that which lies in this misused old word, 'edify' yourselves.”
“( "edify"), by removing those things which are hindrances to edification, and testing what is unsound, and putting together all that is true in the building [Chrysostom].”
“edify," literally, "build up," namely, in faith, hope, and love, by discoursing together on such edifying topics as the Lord's coming, and the glory of the saints (Mal 3: 16).”
“The King Memorial, and Alpha's effort to edify the legacy of one of its own, cast a spotlight on the fraternity's ideals and the manifestation of those ideals.”
The Huffington Post: Gregory S. Parks: The King Memorial and the Ideals of Brotherhood
“As if someone sitting under a palapa all day can edify us on the merits of drug legalization. johanson”
“So, in that spirit and in an effort to temporarily edify and embitter you, my many readers like most primitive people -- and I am a primitive people -- I know only the numbers "1", "2" and "many", I'd like to share the resolutions I plan to make this coming New Year:”
“But there's a problem: most of the resources that exist today to edify my friends and neighbors are still reflective of the myopic notion that schools can be meaningfully ranked according to a single measure -- test scores.”
The Huffington Post: Sam Chaltain: The (Keynesian) Economics of School Choice
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘edify’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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Words related to knowledge
Words that relate to learning, knowing, being enlightened...
revelation, eureka, awakening, idea, sapient, astute, canny, intelligent, wise, sharp, shrewd, informed and 467 more...
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GRE 2014
abase, abate, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abjure, abortive, abound, abrasive, abreast, abridge and 1577 more...
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SAT Words
But only the ones that I don't already know.
abase, abash, abominate, abstruse, acclivity, accolade, accost, adroit, adulate, adulterate, adumbrate, affray and 241 more...
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GRE
droll, dyspeptic, ebullient, ardor, edify, efficacy, malinger, mannered, martinet, maudlin, mendacious, mendicant and 102 more...
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Things you might hear on a Mormon Sunday
Come on brothers and sisters!
in my heart of he..., every fiber of my..., i'd like to bear ..., brothers and sisters, sweet spirit, edify, please bless, jesus wants me fo..., visiting teacher, relief society, elders quorum, quorum of the 12 and 39 more...
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Article's related words
reading 2 articles a week and here will reference unknown words, weekly!
fervor, belie, inure, hiatus, ambivalent, chasten, revere, despise, expurgate, edify, neologism, inchoate and 13 more...
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DAY2_01/05/2013
day 2, pundit, potentate, miscreant, renegade, ribald, timid, dispersal, reprisal, disservice, inoculate, dessicate and 33 more...
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man gre
abase, abeyance, abreast, abscission, abscond, abyss, accede, accretion, acerbic, acidulous, acumen, adulterate and 483 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
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gre2
aberrant, aberration, aboveboard, abrasive, abstemious, acme, admonish, affable, affluent, alacrity, allegory, alleviate and 1894 more...
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ash vocab
flippant, fillip, expiate, explicate, extirpate, facile, florid, fealty, allegiance, fetid, febrile, pert and 134 more...
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GRE
pejorative, austere, unconscionable, lissome, edify, winsome, axiom, malinger, abjure, deleterious, contumacious, peregrinate and 152 more...
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SAT Words
But only the ones that I don't already know.
abase, abash, abominate, abstruse, acclivity, accolade, accost, adroit, adulate, adulterate, adumbrate, affray and 241 more...
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ICE
quincunx, adoxography, panjundrum, breloque, surd, scripturient, rousant, favrile, embouchure, aquarelle, griffonage, sussultatory and 234 more...
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Words I Know
List of most of the words I've learned
garner, abase, abate, abdicate, abduct, aberration, abet, abhor, abide, abject, abjure, abnegation and 1046 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for edify.
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