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heavens

HEV-uhnz/ˈhɛvənz/

6 meanings of heavens

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  1. 1
    nouncountableplural
    The vast sky above the earth, where the sun, moon, and stars are seen.

    Astronomers have charted the heavens for thousands of years.

    As night fell, countless stars filled the heavens above the desert.

    Similarskies, sky, firmament

    Note

    The astronomer's plural, nearly always with the: a belt of the heavens, stars that flood the heavens with light. It has stayed in serious use for four centuries, from Shakespeare's The Comedie of Errors to E. R. Harrison's Cosmology (1981). Nathanael Carpenter's Geography of 1625 still pictures the heavens carried from east to west every twenty-four hours, the turning sky of the older astronomy.

  2. 2
    interjection
    Used to express surprise, shock, outrage, or frustration at something unexpected or unwelcome.

    Heavens, the prices have gone up again since last month!

    Oh heavens, I completely forgot about the meeting this morning.

    Similargoodness, gosh, golly

  3. 3
    nounplural
    Plural of heaven.

    Many traditions describe the heavens as the dwelling place of the divine.

    The poem imagines the blessed ascending into the heavens after death.

    Note

    Religion uses the plural in two ways. It can count separate realms, as when Charles Coleman's The Mythology of the Hindus (1832) says the Jains hold to "a plurality of heavens and hells." Or it can name the one divine abode in a grander form, as in the Washington Post's "Christ's coming from the heavens" (1906). Context tells them apart: a count or a matching hells means many, while the heavens alone usually means one.

Less common meanings

  1. 4
    nounrareplural
    Plural of heaven.

    Thunder rolled across the heavens as the gale drew nearer.

    The heavens grew heavy with rain that gray afternoon.

    Note

    Here the sky is the low one, where clouds gather and thunder rolls, not the starry distance of the astronomical sense. The plural is rare in this use, and the weather around it usually tells the reader which sky is meant. The singular heaven once reached further still, to mean the atmosphere or even the climate, though those uses are now obsolete.

  2. 5
    nounrareplural
    Plural of heaven.

    The heavens favored the bold, or so the old saying went.

    He trusted that the heavens would guide his every choice.

    Note

    Providence takes the place of the sky in this use, so the heavens stand for the power that governs events. The King James Bible of 1611 states it plainly: "thou shalt have known that the heavens do rule." The verb is plural even though a single will is meant. The singular heaven carries the same idea, usually capitalized, and it broadens to mean fate.

  3. 6
    verbobsolete
    Third-person singular simple present indicative of heaven. The verb is obsolete.
    Note

    A verb form that shares its spelling with the plural noun but belongs to a verb no longer in use. To heaven once meant to carry someone to the abode of the blessed, to delight them greatly, or to turn a place into a paradise. All of those uses are now obsolete, so heavens as a verb, taking a singular subject, belongs to older writing.

heavens is a form of heaven

heaven, noun: In many religions, the place where God or the gods live and where the good go after death, as opposed to hell. Full entry

Forms
heavenheavens plural
Spelling
heaven → heavens: add -s
Sound
The ending sounds like /z/.

Practice

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