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.
-
Obsolete. of or relating to divinity or theology.
noun
-
a theologian; scholar in religion.
-
a priest or member of the clergy.
-
the Divine,
-
God.
-
(sometimes lowercase) the spiritual aspect of humans; the group of attributes and qualities of humankind regarded as godly or godlike.
-
verb (used with object)
-
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)
-
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
-
divinenessnoun
-
divinernoun
-
subdivinenessnoun
-
divinableadjective
-
half-divineadjective
-
predivinableadjective
-
pseudodivineadjective
-
subdivineadjective
-
superdivineadjective
-
undivinableadjective
-
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
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
"The Raven"
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
World Religions
Want to remember this word for good? Start your learning journey today with our library of interactive, themed word lists built by the experts at Vocabulary.com – we'll help you make the most of your study time!
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:
There have been eight female emperors on the Chrysanthemum Throne in Japan's imperial family, whose divine status was renounced after World War II.
From Barron's ● Jul. 17, 2026
Another clear argument against divine design is the recurrent laryngeal nerve, which takes a course that simply makes no sense to invent.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 11, 2026
“We believe only in divine, holy love. Nothing else,” says one.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 9, 2026
This would “place us openly under the divine protection,” he noted.
From Salon ● Jun. 29, 2026
It was only to be expected on all scores that Bellerophon should seem less mortal than divine.
From "Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes" by Edith Hamilton
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
Adams talks a lot about “systemising”, the quintessentially autistic way in which he divines patterns in the world, often immersing himself in them.
From The Guardian ● Nov. 19, 2016
The tech giant is understandably reluctant to share the secrets of how it divines such closely held data, though clearly it has special powers to tap into the hive mind of the greater Internet.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 24, 2015
“But the old place is finished,” Mr Stockton divines, “and it’s never coming back.”
From Economist ● Apr. 23, 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
Lacking recourse to the United Nations, the Moabites turned to a diviner named Balaam to curse the Israelis.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 30, 2020
TULSA, Okla. — The landscape architect Michael Van Valkenburgh is a diviner of places, a city whisperer.
From New York Times ● Aug. 10, 2018
By the time Cass, a diviner who’s had disturbing visions before, returns with a policeman a second time, she has started to doubt what she saw.
From New York Times ● Jan. 19, 2011
“If I cure you, will you stop doing that?” the diviner asked.
From "Kaffir Boy: An Autobiography" by Mark Mathabane
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
God's divinest burneth plain Through the crystal diaphane Of our loves that love you.
From The Poetical Works of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Vol. I by Browning, Elizabeth Barrett
For a few minutes both men surrendered themselves to Memory's divinest anguish.
From Playing With Fire by Barr, Amelia Edith Huddleston
They travel on from height to height, In splendour to diffuse The truth that earth's divinest light Hath no abiding hues.
From A Century of Emblems by Cautley, G. S.
He who forsakes that business, and, wasting our divinest gifts, sings the praise of Chaos, what shall we say of him?
From Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Vol IV. No. XX. January, 1852. by Various
Standard analysis divined from the usual awards season augury into the mix 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
After a long, involved set of calculations, Archimedes summed the areas of the infinite triangles and divined the area of the parabola.
From "Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea" by Charles Seife
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
Goth Shakira is an Aquarian Queen of Pentacles divining and loving in Los Angeles.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 19, 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
After introduction ceremonies, my mother, the diviner and I went to a hut, where we sat on mats on the floor, opposite the diviner, as she arranged her divining bones and shells.
From "Kaffir Boy: An Autobiography" by Mark Mathabane
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.
