Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A celestial being having three pairs of wings.
- n. Christianity The first of the nine orders of angels in medieval angelology.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. One of the celestial beings described in Isaiah vi. 1–6 as surrounding the throne of Jehovah. In angelology the seraphs are regarded as the highest order of angels (see
celestial hierarchy , under hierarchy), and as having a twofold office, that of celebrating Jehovah's holiness and power, and serving as messengers and ministers between heaven and earth. See the etymology.
Wiktionary
- n. biblical A six-winged angel; the highest choir or order of angels in Christian angelology, ranked above cherubim, and below God. A detailed description can be found at the beginning of Isaiah chapter 6
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. One of an order of celestial beings, each having three pairs of wings. In ecclesiastical art and in poetry, a seraph is represented as one of a class of angels.
WordNet 3.0
- n. an angel of the first order; usually portrayed as the winged head of a child
Etymologies
- Singular form of seraphim, from Latin seraphim, from Hebrew שרפים (serafim), plural form of שרף (saraf, "seraph"). (Wiktionary)
- Back-formation from pl. seraphim, from Middle English seraphin, from Old English, from Late Latin seraphīn, seraphīm, from Greek serapheim, from Hebrew śərāpîm, pl. of śārāp, fiery serpent, seraph, from śārap, to burn; see śrp1 in Semitic roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“In among the swirls of blackness, she could see the bright flashes of weapons, the Shadowhunters brandishing the brilliant white daggers Tessa knew now were called seraph blades, each one brought into shimmering life by the name of an angel.”
“They seemed to pierce the sky like shining daggers, and Simon realized where he had seen that material before: in the hard, glasslike weapons the Shadowhunters carried, the ones they called seraph blades.”
“The word seraph would better express their heavenly attributes.”
“The word seraph means "celestial being" and seraphim represent the highest known rank of angels.”
“The seraph is the divine messenger, and he brings a coal from the altar, and lays that upon the prophet's lips, which is but the symbolical way of saying that the man who is conscious of his own evil will find in himself a blessed despair of being his own healer, and that he has to turn to the divine source, the vision of which has kindled the consciousness, to find there that which will take away the evil.”
“He wears boots of red leather, and huge spurs with bell rowels; and he is never seen without the "seraph".”
“You, dear seraph of the Classic Angel Collection, have twenty more days to teach me this before you're off to your heaven under the stairs.”
“Poor dear good old Gwynne, tender, sensitive, shrinking, with the face of a seraph and the heart of a maid.”
“All of a sudden there was this seraph, this six-winged angel on a cross, floating right in front of me...”
“Into ODares nightmarish world of lone and lethal missions comes a mysterious stranger, a seraph, who offers him a chance to save rather than destroy lives.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘seraph’.
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Gene Wolfe
Please contribute your favorite words from any of Gene Wolfe’s books to this prize-winning list.
In case you come across words in this list which are too commonplace to fit in, please ...gallipot, roost, badelaire, oblesque, execration, dhole, amschaspand, arctother, chalcedony, penitence, asimi, autarch and 839 more...
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Postscripture ✞
Terms associated with the Christianity, The Bible, etc. I have a related, but more narrow list called Imbible Code.
A related list is Words Associated With Jesus.apostole, pharaoh, sodom, babel, sabbath, baptize, cherub, elohim, lapsarian, crucifixion, nephilim, hosanna and 195 more...
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RELI - words with Biblical connotations
Words in the Bible evoking biblical stories or with special spiritual meaning. Proper names have been reduced to the minimum.
ark, judgement, holy, saint, baptism, spirit, love, eternal, altar, balsam, covenant, flood and 1115 more...
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ghost
This is Ghost List 2 ( the kind that go 'boo!' ) :P
( open list )
more:
http://www.wordnik.com/lists/macabrephantom, spectral, specter, spectre, spooky, poltergeist, haunt, spirit, banshee, cryptic, shadow, phantasm and 311 more...
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RELI - words you immediately associat...
advent, almighty, altar, anoint, apostle, archangel, ark, Balaam, baptism, baptist, baptize, begotten and 341 more...
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♗
euonym, eidolon, aurulent, sable-vested, aether, seraph, woodwose, je ne sais quoi, silver-tongued, schadenfreude, cri de coeur, mare's nest and 10 more...
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♥
ambrosia, inamorata, gossamer, lily-white, hummingbird, roucoulement, poppy, daisy, calypso, lunula, lamb, dove and 1526 more...
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dickinsonian
psalteries, enamoring, estates, whim, calyx, hoisted, nought, pentateuchal, retina, obviated, revelation, stalactite and 193 more...
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the first list
an immense, grandiloquent list that loads like a thousand years sentence in stone. new words are in the other lists.
ridiculous, brummagem, predicament, sanctimonious, vapid, eschew, admonish, auspicious, capitulation, enumerate, lachrymose, tenet and 1648 more...
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Morthalion's Words
supercilious, kvetch, kvass, splurge, erroneous, pugnacious, macabre, gauche, conglomerate, abyss, paraphernalia, kleptomania and 285 more...
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Good Words
fenestering, cetic, immanent, quickening, archetypal, shibboleth, soma, wetware, heritable, Apotheosis, halcyon, cellar door and 482 more...
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The Most Beautiful Words in the Engli...
mellifluous, obscure, star-crossed, undulating, solstice, messiah, audacious, solace, twilight, wanderlust, lovelorn, byzantine and 219 more...
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colleen's words
yellow, green, pie, blue, fur, people, incense, book, brown, avuncular, mountain, fog and 1316 more...
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If-Christ-Had-Not-Died-For-Thee-Thou-...
Words that have been used as baby names, including virtue names, nature names, place names, etc.
The title is an actual name given to a Puritan boy in the 17th century.faith, hope, grace, charity, chastity, prudence, patience, temperance, river, phoenix, stone, violet and 455 more...
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Words Covered in Faery Dust (S)
words that evoke magic, mystery, mayhem, magnificence or anything else that glimmers in the grass
sabian symbols, saffron, sagacious, sage, salamander, sally lunn, salmon, salsify, salt water taffy, samhain, sand dollar, sandalwood and 270 more...
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snarkout's Words
agenbite, scandent, vulpine, ratel, corvid, magpie, meline, musteline, ecdysiast, waxwing, abecedarian, guillotine and 111 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for seraph.
RachelAnne "...But we loved with a love that was more than love--I and my Annabelle Lee; with a love that the winged seraphs of heaven coveted her and me..." (Annabelle Lee by Edgar Allan Poe
Jul 14, 2011