# god

Pronunciation: say "GOD" US /ɡɑd/, UK /ɡɒd/

## Proper noun · God

1. The supreme being of various theistic religions and the only god in monotheistic belief, in Christianity sometimes God the Father as distinct from Christ.
   - Simple: The one supreme being that many religions worship, and in Christianity sometimes God the Father.
   - _She prayed to God for the strength to get through the trial._
   - _Theologians have long debated whether God can be known through reason alone._
5. In philosophy, the transcendent principle, such as the ultimate cause or the prime mover, often not conceived of as a person.
   - Simple: In philosophy, the highest principle beyond the world, like the first cause of everything, often not seen 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._
9. The single male deity in various bitheistic or duotheistic religions, which worship a pair of deities.
   - Simple: In some religions that have two gods, the one who is male.
   - _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._

## Noun

2. A deity or supreme being: a supernatural, usually immortal being with superior powers that is thought of as a person.
   - Simple: A spirit or being with special powers beyond nature, who usually lives forever.
   - _Zeus ruled over the other gods from Mount Olympus._
   - _Every village in the valley had its own god of the harvest._
4. Someone or something so admired or valued, often for exceptional skill, that it is treated almost as an object of worship.
   - Simple: A person or thing that people admire or value so much that they almost worship it.
   - _For a whole generation of young filmmakers, the director was a god whose every shot they studied._
   - _In that office, profit is the only god, and everything else comes second._
6. A person in a position of enormous authority, importance or influence, such as a powerful ruler or tyrant.
   - Simple: A person with huge power or importance, like a ruler who has total control.
   - _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._
7. An extremely handsome man. *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: A very good-looking 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._
8. An image or figure representing a deity, especially a statue or statuette.
   - Simple: An image of a god, usually a statue, large or small.
   - _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._

## Interjection · God

3. Short for oh God: used to express strong feeling, especially annoyance or frustration, but also surprise, shock, dismay or relief. — Ellipsis of oh God: expressing annoyance or frustration.
   - Simple: Short for oh God: said when you feel annoyed, fed up, shocked, surprised or relieved.
   - _God, can you please turn that music down for five minutes?_
   - _God, why does the printer always jam right before a meeting?_

## Verb

10. To raise someone to the status of a god.
   - Simple: To make a person into 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._
11. To admire or love someone to excess, treating them almost as a god.
   - Simple: To love and admire someone too much, almost as if they were 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._

## Other meanings

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

## Origin

**Meanings 2, 4, 6–8, 10–11** — Inherited from Middle English god, from Old English god, from Proto-West Germanic *god and Proto-Germanic *gudą; in Old English it was originally neuter and became masculine with the change to Christianity. It is related to German Gott, Dutch god, Swedish gud and Gothic guþ, but not to the word good.
**Meanings 1, 3, 5, 9** — From Middle English God, the capitalized use of god, from Old English god and Proto-Germanic *gudą.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/god (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).