Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun [capitalized] The one Supreme or Absolute Being. The conceptions of God are various, differing widely in different systems of religion and metaphysics; but they fall, in general, under two heads: theism, which is most fully developed in Christianity, and in which God is regarded as a personal moral being, distinct from the universe, of which he is the author and ruler; and pantheism, in which God is conceived as not personal, and as identified with the universe. See theism, pantheism.
  • noun In mythology, a being regarded as superior to nature, or as presiding over some department of it; a superior intelligence supposed to possess supernatural or divine powers and attributes, either general or special, and considered worthy of worship or other religious service; a divinity; a deity: as, the gods of the heathen; the god of the thunder or of riches; the sun-god; a fish-god.
  • noun Figuratively, a person or thing that is made an object of extreme devotion or sought after above all other things; any object of supreme interest or admiration.
  • noun An image of a deity; an idol.
  • noun One of the audience in the upper gallery of a theater: so called from the elevated position, in allusion to the gods of Olympus.
  • noun God be thanked; thank God.
  • noun Easter Sunday.
  • noun Corpus Christi day.
  • noun A Middle English form of good.
  • To deify.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A being conceived of as possessing supernatural power, and to be propitiated by sacrifice, worship, etc.; a divinity; a deity; an object of worship; an idol.
  • noun The Supreme Being; the eternal and infinite Spirit, the Creator, and the Sovereign of the universe; Jehovah.
  • noun A person or thing deified and honored as the chief good; an object of supreme regard.
  • noun rare Figuratively applied to one who wields great or despotic power.
  • noun (Law) See under Act.
  • noun [Colloq.] the occupants of the highest and cheapest gallery of a theater.
  • noun a burial place; a churchyard. See under Acre.
  • noun [Obs.] A church.
  • noun [Obs.] earnest penny.
  • noun Easter.
  • obsolete Good.
  • transitive verb obsolete To treat as a god; to idolize.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • proper noun The single deity of various monotheistic religions.
  • proper noun The single male deity of various duotheistic religions.
  • proper noun An impersonal and universal spiritual presence or force.
  • proper noun An omnipotent being, creator of the universe (as in deism).
  • proper noun The (personification of the) laws of nature.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a man of such superior qualities that he seems like a deity to other people
  • noun any supernatural being worshipped as controlling some part of the world or some aspect of life or who is the personification of a force
  • noun a material effigy that is worshipped
  • noun the supernatural being conceived as the perfect and omnipotent and omniscient originator and ruler of the universe; the object of worship in monotheistic religions

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English, from the Old English god ("supreme being, deity") (related to Old High German got ("a rank of deity")), from the Proto-Germanic *gudan (compare Dutch and West Frisian God, German Gott, Danish Gud), from the Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰuto- (“that which is invoked”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰaw- (“to call, to invoke”) or *ǵʰew- (“to pour”). Not related to the word good.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word God.

Examples

  • Although I don't believe in god, I believe God is visiting his judgment on Americans -- only we haven't seen his handwriting on the wall (you know, MENE MENE TEKEL UPHARSIN).

    Stanton Peele: The Writing on the Wall: Why Americans Have to Be Brought Low 2010

  • In one of its ugliest campaigns, the ADL protested the right of Muslim college students at UC Irvine to wear graduation stoles that carried the Shahada, the basic testimony of Islamic faith: "There is no god but God and Muhammad is his Messenger."

    Kamran Pasha: The ADL Defames its Jewish Heritage 2010

  • Tobias Grey on How to Win a Cosmic War by Reza Aslan: Aslan's new book -- his second, after the bestselling No god but God, about the origins and evolution of Islam -- provides more than just historical precedent; it also offers a very persuasive argument for the best way to counter jihadism and its many splinter groups, such as al-Qaeda.

    Old Media Monday: Reviewing the Reviewers Omnivoracious 2009

  • The thinking child may reason that if the bush is not conscious, then something must be helping the bush figure out what I want, and so we create a being from nothingness, a god, or rather, God.

    Archive 2009-08-01 doyle 2009

  • Tobias Grey on How to Win a Cosmic War by Reza Aslan: Aslan's new book -- his second, after the bestselling No god but God, about the origins and evolution of Islam -- provides more than just historical precedent; it also offers a very persuasive argument for the best way to counter jihadism and its many splinter groups, such as al-Qaeda.

    Shelfari: Shelfari 2009

  • Starting with their altar to an "unknown god," St. Paul then touched on some of the things the Greek philosophers got right about God, straightway announcing who and what God is and what He has done for man through His Son Jesus.

    Tissier de Mallerais speaks The details of the doctrinal talks 2009

  • That spirit is the god of this world until God does away with the spirit of evil.

    OpEdNews - Diary: Dear God, Please Give Us Wisdom To Save World 2009

  • The thinking child may reason that if the bush is not conscious, then something must be helping the bush figure out what I want, and so we create a being from nothingness, a god, or rather, God.

    Why I don't believe in evolution doyle 2009

  • Surely, there is no god like their God, and there is no nation like their nation.

    Rizpah: Midrash and Aggadah. 2009

  • Hollus finally makes the case that science has one goal: CALCULATING GOD in order “to discover why God has behaved as he has and to determine his methods”.

    Calculating God-Robert J. Sawyer « The Merry Genre Go Round Reviews 2009

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • Guiding Organizing Design

    March 29, 2009

  • God is the consciousness, or Mind, in which the universe exists. God is the center and circumference of all being. God is the light in which there is no darkness, the Truth in which there is no error, and all that is unlike God is consumed as it draws closer to this consciousness.

    July 20, 2009

  • "All that worketh good is some manifestation of God asserting and developing good."

    from Message to The Mother Church 1900 by Mary Baker Eddy

    July 20, 2009

  • When I was a kid I used to pray every night for a new bicycle. Then I realized God doesn’t work that way, so I stole one and prayed for forgiveness.

    (Emo Philips)

    December 12, 2010

  • 'You live' he sent me. 'There's no God and that's his only Commandment. From "The Last Werewolf" by Glen Duncan.

    April 1, 2012

  • "Before there was I Am"

    -God

    November 12, 2018

  • Lot or lotter?

    The Lottery Really

    Needs

    January 8, 2023