apotheosis
Americannoun
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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
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.
Go the Capitol rotunda and look up at the dome, where Constantino Brumidi’s fresco The Apotheosis of Washington, painted during the Civil War, shows Washington in heaven, flanked by goddesses.
From Slate • Feb. 16, 2026
The museum said the leak - from a heating pipe - was stopped shortly after midnight and the only painting damaged was Charles Meynier's The Apotheosis of Poussin, Le Sueur and Le Brun.
From BBC • Feb. 13, 2026
Apotheosis isn’t always an unequivocal honor; it can also amount to an act of subversion.
From New York Times • Dec. 8, 2021
So was the Apotheosis of Democracy pediment over the entrance to the House of Representatives on the U.S.
From Washington Post • Jan. 29, 2015
As allegories abound, and as in fact there is a suspicion that the whole Romance may be only an allegory, an "Apotheosis of Poetry,"--the reader must keep open his internal eye.
From Henry of Ofterdingen: A Romance. by Hardenberg, Friedrich von
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.
