God

See also: god, gód, Gód, göd, gød, goð, and góð

English

Wikiquote

Michaelangelo: The Creation

Etymology

From Middle English God. See god.

Pronunciation

  • (UK) enPR: gŏd, IPA(key): /ɡɒd/
  • (file)
  • (AAVE) IPA(key): /ɡɑ(d)/
  • (US) IPA(key): /ɡɑd/
  • (file)
  • Rhymes: -ɒd

Proper noun

God (usually uncountable, plural Gods)

  1. The single deity of various monotheistic religions.
    Dawn believes in God, but Willow believes in multiple gods and goddesses.
  2. (Christianity) Short for God the Father, the fountainhead and coeternal hypostasis (person) of the Trinity described in the Old Testament.
  3. (Christianity, chiefly poetic) Short for God the Son, the begotten and coeternal hypostasis of the Trinity, incarnated as Jesus Christ, of one essence with the Father and Holy Spirit.
    • a. 1000, homily recorded in Peter Clemoes's The Anglo-Saxons, p. 274:
      On cyricean wyrð gegæderod cristen folc... to underfonne godes flæsc and godes blod.
    Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death.
  4. The single male deity of various bitheistic or duotheistic religions.
    • 2001, Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy, Jesus and the Lost Goddess, page 133:
      The ancients represented this fundamental duality mythologically as God and Goddess. When Mystery looks at itself, God looks at Goddess.
    • 2005, Nikki Bado-Fralick, Coming to the Edge of the Circle, page 45:
      This reduces the successful invocation of God to a function of the presence of male genitalia. Put another way, women have the wrong equipment to invoke God.
      Goddess and God flow throughout all of nature, through each and every man and woman, becoming fully present in the world.
    • 2006, Ronald L. Clark, The Grace of Being, page 22:
      God and Goddess watched as the finite universe continued to develop into a stable platform to sustain finite life and were pleased.

Usage notes

The word "God" is capitalized in reference to the Abrahamic deity of the Jewish, Christian, and Islamic faiths almost without exception, even when preceded by various qualifiers.[1] The term is frequently, but not always, capitalized in vaguer deistic references to a single deity as well.

Monotheistic Gods are traditionally referenced in English with masculine pronouns and (when depicted) anthropomorphized in the form of adult men, but also traditionally held by theologians to be beyond human sex or gender. Like other languages employing Latin script, English pronouns referring to a God traditionally begin with a capital letter as a sign of respect: He, Him, His, and Himself in the third person and Thee, Thy, Thine, Thyself or You, Your, and Yourself in direct address. However, this use is not universal and the King James Version of the Bible (as well as other modern translations) employs standard uncapitalized pronouns.[2]

Some Jews consider the English word "God" to fall under the Hebrew khumra concerning the avoidance of blasphemy, preferring to use the form G-d or alternatives such as Hashem, Lord, etc.

According to those branches of Christianity which follow the Nicene Creed (e.g. Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, most Protestant sects), God and the Holy Trinity are one and the same, with three distinct persons: the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are all God, but none of the three are one or both of the other persons.

Synonyms

Derived terms

Translations

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.

Noun

God (plural Gods)

  1. A being such as a monotheistic God: a single divine creator and ruler of the universe.
    • 1563, Barnabe Googe, Eglogs, Epytaphes, and Sonettes, sig. Cviiiv:
      A God there is, that guyds the Globe, and framde the fyckle Spheare.
    • 1911, Katharine Harris Bradley as Michael Field, Accuser, p. 158:
      The Muéddin: God is great, there is no God but God.
    • 1960 April 25, advertisement in Life, p. 125:
      Perhaps this... must involve a relationship with a God of truth—and of love, of mercy, of justice.
    • 2009, Nick Cave, The Death of Bunny Munro, p. 68:
      Whoever said that there isn't a God is full of shit!

Translations

Interjection

God

  1. Short for oh God: expressing annoyance or frustration.
    God, is this because of the "I don't love you anymore" T-shirt I bought? It was a joke fer chrissakes.

See also

References

Citations

Bibliography

Anagrams


Afrikaans

Etymology

From Dutch God.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /χɔt/

Proper noun

God

  1. God

Dutch

Etymology

See god.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ɣɔt/
  • (file)
  • (file)
  • Hyphenation: God
  • Rhymes: -ɔt

Proper noun

God m

  1. God
    God, neem me mee naar een plek hier ver vandaan. -- Kempi & Willy - Hier Ver Vandaan 2009
    Oh, mijn God - Oh my god

Derived terms

See also


Middle English

Noun

God

  1. Alternative form of god

Proper noun

God

  1. Alternative form of god

Saterland Frisian

Etymology

From Old Frisian god, from Proto-Germanic *gudą. More at god.

Noun

God m

  1. god
  2. God

Derived terms

  • goddelk

Tok Pisin

Etymology

From English God.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ɡod/

Proper noun

God

  1. God (Abrahamic monotheistic deity)
    • 1989, Buk Baibel long Tok Pisin, Port Moresby: Bible Society of Papua New Guinea, 1:2:
      (please add an English translation of this quote)
This entry has fewer than three known examples of actual usage, the minimum considered necessary for clear attestation, and may not be reliable. This language is subject to a special exemption for languages with limited documentation. If you speak it, please consider editing this entry or adding citations. See also Help and the Community Portal.

Volapük

Etymology

Borrowed from English God.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ɡod/

Proper noun

God

  1. God

West Frisian

Etymology

See god.

Proper noun

God

  1. God
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