god

Less common meanings

5. 5
   prime moverproper noun · Goduncountable

   In philosophy, the transcendent principle, such as the ultimate cause or the prime mover, often not conceived of as a person.

   In the lecture, God appeared not as a judge or a father but as the unmoved source of all motion.

   Aristotle's God thinks only about its own thinking and takes no interest in human affairs.

   Note

   Aristotle's God is the classic case: in Catriona Hanley's words, the ultimate ground responsible for the workings of the rational cosmos, though not for itself. The name has also been stretched to render the Chinese Dao, in The Tâo-Tĭh-King, or Thoughts on the Nature and Manifestations of God (1895). Writing on Heraclitus can even give it an article: the God, appearing as the multiple world. Source

   Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 5 facts

   • Aristotle conceived of God as the ultimate ground or unmoved mover. philosophynow.org
   • Catriona Hanley describes Aristotle's God as responsible for the rational cosmos but not for itself. en.wiktionary.org
   • The translation uses God to render Dao, under the stated English title. upload.wikimedia.org
   • G. G. Alexander's translation was published in 1895. scholars.hkbu.edu.hk
   • Writing about Heraclitus uses the God with an article and describes its appearance as the multiple world. en.wiktionary.org
6. 6
   nounfigurativelycountable

   A person in a position of enormous authority, importance or influence, such as a powerful ruler or tyrant.

   For thirty years the party chairman was a god, and the newspapers printed nothing he had not approved.

   In the old studio system, the heads of the big film companies were gods.

   Similarmogul, titan, potentate

   Note

   Here the word measures power, not talent or looks: when Percy E. Corbett wrote in Law in Diplomacy (1959) that "in 1951 Stalin was a god," he meant a ruler beyond question. Because it shades into tyranny, the word often carries criticism, of the person or of those who treat them so. Source

   Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 2 facts

   • Percy E. Corbett wrote Law in Diplomacy, first published in 1959. api.pageplace.de
   • Corbett wrote that in 1951 Stalin was a god, using god figuratively for a powerful ruler. en.wiktionary.org
7. 7
   handsome mannouncolloquialfigurativelycountable

   An extremely handsome man.

   Lounging by the pool were three tanned gods from the college swim team.

   The magazine put a bronzed Greek god in a white linen shirt on its summer cover.

   UsageA common phrase is a Greek god: He looks like a Greek god.

   SimilarAdonis, hunk

   Note

   Wilfred Owen's poem Disabled uses the word after look, with no like: "Someone had said he'd look a god in kilts." Source

   Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact

   • Wilfred Owen's poem Disabled contains the quoted line, using 'look a god' without 'like'. en.wikisource.org
8. 8
   carved figurenouncountable

   An image or figure representing a deity, especially a statue or statuette.

   Travelers left flowers at the feet of the bronze god in the temple courtyard.

   Archaeologists found a clay god, no bigger than a thumb, buried beneath the floor.

   Similaridol, image, effigy

9. 9
   partner deityproper noun · Goduncountable

   The single male deity in various bitheistic or duotheistic religions, which worship a pair of deities.

   The ritual opens by calling on the Goddess and then on the God, the horned lord of the woods.

   Their tradition teaches that God and Goddess are equal partners in the turning of the seasons.

   Note

   This God always has a partner: God and Goddess are paired, both capitalized and usually without an article, as in Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy's Jesus and the Lost Goddess (2001), where "God looks at Goddess." Context, not spelling, separates this God from the one God of monotheism. Source

   Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 2 facts

   • Jesus and the Lost Goddess was written by Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy and first published in 2001. uni-goettingen.de
   • The book contains the words 'God looks at Goddess.' en.wiktionary.org
10. 10
    declare divineverbtransitive

    To raise someone to the status of a god.

    Rome godded several of its emperors after their deaths, adding them to the state's official worship.

    In the poem, the sky father vows to god the mortal girl who saved his son.

    Similardeify

    Note

    The making of a god is literal in this verb, a word of poetry and learned prose. In Spenser's Colin Clouts Come Home Againe (1595), Jove, dreading his power, takes him up to heaven and "him godded new"; in C. S. Lewis's Till We Have Faces (1956), a goddess is "so lately godded" that she is still a poor one. Source

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 4 facts

    • Edmund Spenser wrote Colin Clouts Come Home Againe, first published in 1595. darkwing.uoregon.edu
    • Jove fears Cupid's power, takes him to heaven, and makes him a god; the quotation is accurate. darkwing.uoregon.edu
    • C. S. Lewis wrote Till We Have Faces, first published in 1956. fadedpage.com
    • In the novel, a priest describes the goddess Istra as recently deified and still a poor goddess, using the quoted words. fadedpage.com
11. 11
    praise too muchverbtransitive

    To admire or love someone to excess, treating them almost as a god.

    The sports pages godded him up long before he had won anything that mattered.

    Biographers who god their subjects tend to skip over the ugly parts.

    UsageNewer writing adds up: godded him up. The d doubles: godded, godding.

    Similaridolize, worship, deify, lionize

    Note

    Shakespeare used it in Coriolanus, whose hero says an old friend loved him above a father: "Nay, godded me, indeed." Newer writing adds the particle up, as in god someone up: in Conrad C. Fink's Sportswriting: The Lively Game, "godded him up" names the worry that coverage of athletic stars turns them into saints. Source

    Checked 3 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

    • Shakespeare used godded in Coriolanus; Coriolanus speaks the quoted words about an old friend who loved him beyond a father's measure. opensourceshakespeare.org
    • Conrad C. Fink wrote Sportswriting: The Lively Game. news.uga.edu
    • Fink's book contains godded him up in a discussion of journalists' concern that coverage idealizes athletic stars. en.wiktionary.org
12. 12
    noun

    The person who owns and runs a multi-user dungeon, or MUD, an online role-playing game.