apotheosis
Americannoun
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apotheoses
plural
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the elevation or exaltation of a person to the rank of a god.
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the ideal example; epitome; quintessence.
This poem is the apotheosis of lyric expression.
noun
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the elevation of a person to the rank of a god; deification
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glorification of a person or thing
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a glorified ideal
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the best or greatest time or event
the apotheosis of De Niro's career
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of apotheosis
Explanation
If your teacher says the term paper you handed in last week is a work of genius that sets a new gold standard for the school, he's telling you your work is the apotheosis of term papers. The epitome. Perfection. Hidden in the middle of apotheosis you'll find the Greek theos, meaning god. (Theology, the study of religion, has the same root.) Combine theos with apo "from" and you get a person, place, or thing that is so out-of-this-world amazing that it seems as if it's "from God." It's divine. You could make the assertion that Leonardo da Vinci was the apotheosis of genius and that the Mona Lisa is the apotheosis of all his paintings.
Vocabulary lists containing apotheosis
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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:
They called it the “Attitude Era,” and in retrospect it represented the absolute apotheosis of pre-millennium x-treme marketing.
From Slate ● Jun. 11, 2026
But she later enjoyed an apotheosis as the matriarch of the largest empire the world had ever seen.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 9, 2026
Borglum believed the American political system was the apotheosis of human civilization, and he wanted his sculpture to stand alongside the Parthenon and pyramids as testaments to grand civilizations and cultures.
From Slate ● Mar. 13, 2025
For Johnson to now be speaker of the House feels as if it is the apotheosis of his political career and aspirations.
From Salon ● Dec. 21, 2023
In the midst of the excitement of the family the scandalization of Úrsula, the joy of the people cramming the street to watch that apotheosis of squandering.
From "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
And the things it forgets, the apotheoses and apocalypses it lets sift through its mesh!
From The Guardian ● Oct. 15, 2016
They are their own apotheoses, their own parodies.
From Time Magazine Archive
Thus did flattery renew the apotheoses of the Caesars of ancient Rome.
From The Court of the Empress Josephine by Thomas Sergeant Perry
The result is that he has plenty of apotheoses.
From Napoleon the Little by Victor Hugo
Eagle of the apotheoses, what breath of Erebus has driven thee to me? or, flying from the Campus Martius, dost thou bring to me the soul of the last of the Emperors?
From The Temptation of St. Antony or A Revelation of the Soul by Gustave Flaubert
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.
