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
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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Hidden Figures
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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
Which brings me to what I believe is the modern apotheosis of the genre.
From Salon ● Jun. 18, 2025
In the Civil Rights Movement timeline, 1965 is often seen as the apotheosis, the crowning moment.
From Slate ● Oct. 31, 2023
After several rounds of refinement in the Langley wind tunnels, the Mustang achieved its apotheosis with the P-51D.
From "Hidden Figures" by Margot Lee Shetterly
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
The result is that he has plenty of apotheoses.
From Napoleon the Little by Hugo, Victor
Pictures of battles, triumphs, apotheoses filled the galleries.
From The Influence of the Bible on Civilisation by Dobschutz, Ernst Von
Posterity, infatuated with Pagan apotheoses, made of that simple martyrdom an interesting legend, colored with the myths of resurrection and ascension to that very heaven which the telescope has put out of man's way.
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.
