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beatitude

[bee-at-i-tood, -tyood]
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noun
  1. supreme blessedness; exalted happiness.
  2. (often initial capital letter) any of the declarations of blessedness pronounced by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount.
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Origin of beatitude

1375–1425; late Middle English < Latin beātitūdō perfect happiness, equivalent to beāti- (see beatific) + -tūdō -tude
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for beatitudes

Historical Examples

  • There was the street of a Thousand Beatitudes, which, let us pray, were enjoyed by its founder.

    Harper's Young People, May 25, 1880

    Various

  • “The poor in spirit,”—the “mourner,”—the “meek,”—claim His first beatitudes.

    The Mind of Jesus

    John R. Macduff

  • For instance, the "beatitudes" do not appear in either Mark or John.

  • These eight beatitudes are the diatonic scale of heaven's music.

  • And yet they write about it as though it were the very head and front of all the beatitudes!'

British Dictionary definitions for beatitudes

beatitude

noun
  1. supreme blessedness or happiness
  2. an honorific title of the Eastern Christian Church, applied to those of patriarchal rank
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Word Origin

C15: from Latin beātitūdō, from beātus blessed; see beatific

Beatitude

noun
  1. New Testament any of eight distinctive sayings of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:3–11) in which he declares that the poor, the meek, those that mourn, the merciful, the peacemakers, the pure of heart, those that thirst for justice, and those that are persecuted will, in various ways, receive the blessings of heaven
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Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for beatitudes

beatitude

n.

early 15c., "supreme happiness," from Middle French béatitude (15c.) and directly from Latin beatitudinem (nominative beatitudo) "state of blessedness," from past participle stem of beare "make happy," related to bene-. As "a declaration of blessedness" (usually plural, beatitudes, especially in reference to the Sermon on the Mount) it is attested from 1520s.

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
beatitudes in Culture

Beatitudes

[(bee-at-uh-toohdz, bee-at-uh-tyoohdz)]

Eight sayings of Jesus at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount. The word is from the Latin beatus, meaning “blessed,” and each of the Beatitudes begins with the word blessed. They include “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the Earth” and “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God.”

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The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.