verb
-
to exalt to the position of a god or personify as a god
-
to accord divine honour or worship to
-
to exalt in an extreme way; idealize
Other Word Forms
- deifier noun
- half-deified adjective
- hyperdeify verb (used with object)
- self-deifying adjective
- undeified adjective
Etymology
Origin of deify
1300–50; Middle English deifien < Old French deifier < Late Latin deificāre. See deification, -ify
Explanation
When you deify someone, you're paying the highest compliment: you're treating them like a god. Maybe it's because people like to exaggerate, but we deify all the time. We deify the latest sports stars, singers, and actors. When politicians are popular, we deify them. Great writers and artists of the past — like Shakespeare and Picasso — are deified. Anytime we make someone seem so great, so powerful, so wonderful, and so amazing that it can't possibly be true, we're deifying them. Putting someone on a pedestal is something that we often do when we respect or love the person a lot.
Vocabulary lists containing deify
Power Suffix: -fy
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Mythology
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Between the World and Me
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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.
“It’s really important for students to not deify one historical person, one figure, but to understand the motivation and the movement,” Young said.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 23, 2026
And this should prompt us to re-examine the very idea of role models in sports — and reel in our natural instincts to deify men.
From Washington Post • Oct. 9, 2022
“We want to vilify people for transgressions and we deify sports heroes,” Abrams said.
From Seattle Times • Mar. 12, 2022
We build monuments and deify leaders in an effort to transcend our mortality.
From Scientific American • Feb. 28, 2022
Man’s subliminal urge to destroy what he could neither subdue nor deify.
From "The God of Small Things" by Arundhati Roy
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.
