glory
Pluralglories (some meanings)
Verbglories, glorying, gloried
Pluralglories (some meanings)
Formsglories, glorying, gloried
- 1Great honor, fame, and admiration, especially won through victory or great achievement.
The general returned home covered in glory after the long campaign.
Few writers achieve such lasting glory within their own lifetime.
UsageUsually won or achieved: covered in glory, go out in a blaze of glory.
Similarhonor, fame, renown, prestige, acclaim
Oppositedisgrace, dishonor, shame, ignominy
Note
Behind this sense stands Latin glōria, which meant fame and praise but also ambition and boasting. Spenser's knight in The Faerie Queene (1590) "spred his glorie through all countries wide." The boasting strand lingers in the obsolete "arrogance" sense.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
- English glory ultimately derives from Latin glōria, whose meanings included fame, praise, ambition, and boasting. en.wiktionary.org
- Edmund Spenser wrote The Faerie Queene, whose first three books were first published in 1590. en.wikisource.org
- The quoted words occur in Book II, Canto I; the narrator describes the knight Guyon spreading his fame. en.wiktionary.org
- Glory has an obsolete sense meaning pride, boastfulness, or arrogance. en.wiktionary.org
- 2Magnificent beauty and splendor.
The cathedral's interior revealed itself in all its glory.
Autumn paints these hills with a glory of red and gold.
UsageCommon in the set phrase in all its glory (or in all their glory).
Similarsplendor, magnificence, beauty, grandeur
- 3Worship or praise offered to someone or something.
The hymn offered glory to the creator.
Every verse of the old hymn gives glory to God.
UsageUsually no article, with to: glory to God; also give God the glory.
Similarpraise, worship, honor, homage, adoration
Note
The King James Bible of 1611 gives the model line, "Glory to God in the highest." Because it names praise offered rather than renown held, it pairs naturally with give and offer. By contrast, glory as renown is something a person wins.
- 4The visible sign of God's presence as perceived by humans in Abrahamic religions.
Scripture describes how the glory of God descended upon the mountain.
The faithful spoke of a glory that filled the sanctuary at dawn.
UsageUsually with the: the glory of God.
Note
Theology's glory translates the Hebrew kavod and the Greek doxa. It means the presence of God made perceptible, not fame, and it is often described as radiant light or overwhelming splendor at moments of revelation or in consecrated space.
- 5Something especially beautiful, admirable, or worthy of praise ('her hair was her crowning glory').
The restored ballroom was a glory of gilt and crystal.
Her voice was a glory in the opera's final act.
UsageOften the glory of a place or thing, or plural: the glories of Venice.
- 6To take great pleasure or pride in something (usually 'glory in').
Some people glory in their own achievements far too loudly.
She gloried in the praise her work received.
UsageIt can sound boastful, especially when someone glories in their own achievements.
Similarrevel, delight, exult, bask
Note
Joy and pride share this verb, though it often leans toward boasting. Its natural home is scripture. The Revised Version of 1881 renders 2 Corinthians with "I have gloried to him on your behalf" and also turns the verb into a noun, "our glorying."
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- The Revised Version's New Testament was first published in 1881. en.wikipedia.org
- The Revised Version contains the quoted wording in 2 Corinthians 7:14. ebible.org
- The Revised Version also uses the noun phrase 'our glorying' in 2 Corinthians 7:14. ebible.org
Less common meanings
- 7A radiance of light imagined to shine from especially holy beings, shown in art as rays of gold or a disk around the head or body.
The icon showed a glory radiating from the figure's body in thin lines of gold.
Medieval artists often surrounded their martyrs with a glory of light.
Note
Dickens's Hard Times (1854) describes a woman who looks "as if she had a glory shining round her head." Addison's Cato (1713) turns it into a metaphor, in which a father's sufferings "spread a Glory round him."
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
- Charles Dickens wrote Hard Times, first published in 1854. en.wikipedia.org
- The quotation occurs in the narration describing Rachael as Stephen sees her. gutenberg.org
- Joseph Addison wrote Cato, first published in 1713. gutenberg.ca
- Portius metaphorically describes the sufferings of his father, Cato, as spreading a glory around him. gutenberg.ca
- 8An optical phenomenon of concentric colored rings, like a rainbow, formed when sunlight or moonlight strikes the water droplets in mist or cloud, centered opposite the sun or moon.
Mountaineers above the clouds sometimes spot a glory ringing their own shadow.
The pilot photographed a vivid glory centered on the plane's shadow.
Similaranticorona
Note
A meteorologist's glory is a matter of geometry. It sits at the antisolar point, directly opposite the sun, so it rings the observer's own shadow cast onto cloud or mist from a summit or an aircraft. The colored rings come from light scattered back by uniform droplets and spread by diffraction. Its synonym anticorona marks the contrast with the corona, which surrounds the sun or moon itself.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 6 facts
- A solar glory is centred at the antisolar point, directly opposite the Sun. cloudatlas.wmo.int
- Glories surround the observer's shadow and can be observed from mountains or aircraft. en.wikipedia.org
- Backscattering by water droplets, with diffraction and interference, produces the coloured rings. weather.gov.hk
- Uniform droplet sizes produce distinct glory rings. atoptics.org.uk
- Anticorona is another name for a glory, reflecting its position opposite the Sun. spark.iop.org
- A corona surrounds the Sun or Moon. cloudatlas.wmo.int
- 9An overweening pride, boastfulness, or arrogance.
Note
A sense the language has lost: here glory is a vice, the puffed-up pride of someone who boasts. George Chapman's Homer (c. 1624) warns a man rash enough to dare "in glory of thy fortunes." Read older texts with this in mind, but avoid the sense today, because a modern reader will hear praise where the writer meant arrogance.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 3 facts
- Glory historically meant pride, boastfulness or arrogance. en.wiktionary.org
- The Chapman translation containing the passage was first published around 1624. assets.press.princeton.edu
- The quotation occurs in Chapman's translation, in Venus's warning against revealing their encounter. gutenberg.org
- 10To shine with radiant brightness.
Down in a casement sat, A low sea-sunset glorying round her hair
1859, Alfred Tennyson, Idylls of the KingNote
Tennyson's Idylls of the King has "a low sea-sunset glorying round her hair," where the participle with round paints the same picture as the painted halo.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- Alfred Tennyson wrote Idylls of the King. en.wikisource.org
- The quoted wording occurs in the narrator's description in The Last Tournament, part of Idylls of the King. en.wikisource.org
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Origin
Latin glōria ("glory, fame, renown, praise") became Old French glorie and then Middle English glory. Gloria is a doublet. The word pushed out the native Old English wuldor.