divine
Americanadjective
-
of or relating to a god, especially the Supreme Being.
-
addressed, appropriated, or devoted to God or a god; religious; sacred.
divine worship.
-
proceeding from God or a god.
divine laws;
divine guidance.
-
godlike; characteristic of or befitting a deity.
divine magnanimity.
-
the divine kingdom.
-
extremely good; unusually lovely.
He has the most divine tenor voice.
-
being a god; being God.
Zeus, Hera, and other divine beings in Greek mythology.
-
of superhuman or surpassing excellence.
Beauty is divine.
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Obsolete. of or relating to divinity or theology.
noun
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divines
plural
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a theologian; scholar in religion.
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a priest or member of the clergy.
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the Divine,
-
God.
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(sometimes lowercase) the spiritual aspect of humans; the group of attributes and qualities of humankind regarded as godly or godlike.
-
verb (used with object)
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divines,
present (3rd person singular)
-
divined,
past participle, past
-
divining
present participle
-
to discover or declare (something obscure or in the future) by divination; prophesy.
-
to discover (water, metal, etc.) by means of a divining rod.
-
to perceive by intuition or insight; conjecture.
She divined personal details about her customers based on their clothing and accents.
It was not difficult to divine his true intent.
- Synonyms:
- understand, discern
-
Archaic. to portend.
verb (used without object)
-
divines,
present (3rd person singular)
-
divined,
past participle, past
-
divining
present participle
-
to use or practice divination; prophesy.
-
to have perception by intuition or insight; conjecture.
- Synonyms:
- understand, discern
adjective
-
of, relating to, or characterizing God or a deity
-
godlike
-
of, relating to, or associated with religion or worship
the divine liturgy
-
of supreme excellence or worth
-
informal splendid; perfect
noun
-
(often capital) another term for God
-
a priest, esp one learned in theology
verb
-
to perceive or understand (something) by intuition or insight
-
to conjecture (something); guess
-
to discern (a hidden or future reality) as though by supernatural power
-
(tr) to search for (underground supplies of water, metal, etc) using a divining rod
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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divinenessnoun
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divinernoun
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subdivinenessnoun
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divinableadjective
-
half-divineadjective
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predivinableadjective
-
pseudodivineadjective
-
subdivineadjective
-
superdivineadjective
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undivinableadjective
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undivinedadjective
-
undiviningadjective
-
divinelyadverb
-
half-divinelyadverb
-
subdivinelyadverb
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
divinesimple
-
divinessimple
-
have divinedperfect
-
has divinedperfect
-
am diviningprogressive
-
are diviningprogressive
-
is diviningprogressive
-
have been diviningperfect progressive
-
has been diviningperfect progressive
Past
-
divinedsimple
-
had divinedperfect
-
was diviningprogressive
-
were diviningprogressive
-
had been diviningperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of divine
First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English divin(e), devin(e), from Old French devin(e), Latin dīvīnus, equivalent to dīv(us) “god” + -īnus -ine 1
Explanation
"To err is human, to forgive divine" means that everyone makes mistakes, but we should try to be like god and forgive one another. Divine basically means relating to, coming from, or like God or a god. Divine also has an old-fashioned and informal meaning of being very good or pleasing, as in "She looked absolutely divine in her blue and white gown." This is an adjective that goes back to Middle English, borrowed from Old French devine, from Latin dīvīnus "divine, foreseeing," from dīvus "god."
Vocabulary lists containing divine
"The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe
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"The Raven"
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World Religions
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
For Antigone this is an imposition of political power over divine law, and she puts her life on the line to uphold her obligation to her family and faith.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 11, 2026
The autonomy ethic that is so comfortable for non-Orthodox Jewish Americans can be seen as diametrically opposed to the ideas of divine command and judgment that are so deeply embedded in traditional Judaism.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 10, 2026
Many churches believe God has a divine plan for the end of everything.
From BBC ● Sep. 3, 2026
But divine entities stopped intervening in man’s affairs long ago; besides, I had the answer drawn and nocked since I’d walked out of the theater days before.
From Salon ● Aug. 2, 2026
A few things have fallen into place—things that I hope are more divine intervention than some ancient family curse leading me into a trap that’s gonna end my batball career.
From "Fast Pitch" by Nic Stone
Brook was one of those rare divines, to borrow Portia’s metaphor from “The Merchant of Venice,” who followed his own instructions.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 3, 2022
But it never does quite marry the two divines.
From Economist ● May 24, 2018
He hears the story of Lancelot and divines his own magic, protective spear.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 19, 2015
If there was ever a time we can start to turn this thing around it’s now Back at Waikeria, Neil Campbell divines a pivotal moment.
From The Guardian ● Aug. 14, 2015
The two divines wore tunics “the color of the men of light,” as Marcos called the color yellow.
From "The House of the Spirits: A Novel" by Isabel Allende
In this week’s Amicus Plus segment, Slate’s judicial diviner Mark Joseph Stern joins to talk about a Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling on abortion that really took both text and history and human rights seriously.
From Slate ● Feb. 3, 2024
There is also Augure, a diviner who can sense the future, and from the start the omens look forbidding for the newlyweds.
From New York Times ● Nov. 11, 2021
Lacking recourse to the United Nations, the Moabites turned to a diviner named Balaam to curse the Israelis.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 30, 2020
“I have no plan when I go into the studio,” said Garry Nichols, who has a sideline as a water diviner.
From New York Times ● Jun. 5, 2013
He nodded at the crowd and bowed to the diviner, who returned an even deeper one.
From "Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky" by Kwame Mbalia
This belief was revived during the Renaissance, leading Milton to exclaim, in his poem “Il Penseroso”: “Hail divinest Melancholy/Whose saintly visage is too bright/To hit the sense of human sight.”
From New York Times ● Feb. 26, 2010
He was the divinest and sweetest impersonation of unostentatious unselfishness and of transparent honesty and integrity that I ever knew among men.
From The Story of a Life by J. Breckenridge (John Breckenridge) Ellis
Most of all his pen produced, of divinest poetry, of gravest philosophy, of grandest thought, was minted into words and inscribed in this simple apartment.
From Literary Shrines The Haunts of Some Famous American Authors by Theodore F. (Theodore Frelinghuysen) Wolfe
That is not the word; he is the divinest madman!
From The Front Yard by Constance Fenimore Woolson
“Worthy father of Lady Hebron, my revered wife,” said Tutmosis, “from thy bearing I see that thou divinest the subject of which I wish to speak.”
From The Pharaoh and the Priest An Historical Novel of Ancient Egypt by Alexander Glovatski
Standard analysis divined from the usual awards season augury skews in favor of Anderson and “One Battle,” too.
From Salon ● Mar. 13, 2026
Yet Oldham divined a prohibition from the penumbras of an 1872 statute.
From Slate ● Jul. 10, 2025
The challenge for those affected is that the precise position of US foreign policy is having to be divined.
From BBC ● Feb. 15, 2025
For example, Roman priests divined the will of the gods by examining a sacrificed animal’s entrails, a custom adopted from the Etruscans.
From Textbooks ● Apr. 19, 2023
François was surprised, too, when they shot out in a tangle from the disrupted nest and he divined the cause of the trouble.
From "The Call of the Wild" by Jack London
In a Substack post on Wednesday, Basmajian identifies the most reliable sectors with predictive value for divining future economic activity.
From MarketWatch ● Feb. 18, 2026
This laudable notion of divining true skill should be extended to teachers to mitigate the oh-so-tempting use of AI in lesson plans, discussions, projects and tests.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 17, 2025
The most-watched broadcast TV show of the recently ended 2024-2025 season, according to Nielsen, is “Tracker,” which is highly entertaining, but not a significant source for divining meaning about America’s political and cultural health.
From Salon ● Jul. 16, 2025
They are similar to divining rods some claim can be used to find water, and that UK water companies have used in the past to search for underground pipes.
From BBC ● Oct. 29, 2024
I’d have to do some divining of my own, I thought as I rolled over.
From "Moon Over Manifest" by Clare Vanderpool
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
