god
1 Americannoun
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one of several deities, especially a male deity, presiding over some portion of worldly affairs.
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an image of a deity; an idol.
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any deified person or object.
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a nebulous powerful force imagined to be responsible for one's fate.
The god of poker dealt me two aces.
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Theater. gods,
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the upper balcony in a theater.
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the spectators in this part of the balcony.
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verb (used with object)
noun
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the Supreme Being, worshiped as the creator or ultimate source of the universe.
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the Supreme Being according to a particular religion or conception.
She called upon Allah, the God of Islam, for help.
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the Supreme Being considered with reference to a particular attribute.
May the God of mercy comfort you.
interjection
noun
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a supernatural being, who is worshipped as the controller of some part of the universe or some aspect of life in the world or is the personification of some force
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an image, idol, or symbolic representation of such a deity
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any person or thing to which excessive attention is given
money was his god
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a man who has qualities regarded as making him superior to other men
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(in plural) the gallery of a theatre
noun
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theol the sole Supreme Being, eternal, spiritual, and transcendent, who is the Creator and ruler of all and is infinite in all attributes; the object of worship in monotheistic religions
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to behave in an imperious or superior manner
interjection
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of god1
First recorded before 900; Middle English, Old English; cognate with Dutch god, German Gott, Old Norse goth, Gothic guth
Origin of God2
see origin at god ( def. )
Explanation
A god is a supreme being or deity, and it's spelled with a lowercase g when you're not referring to the God of Christian, Jewish, or Muslim tradition. The ancient Greeks had many gods — including Zeus, Apollo, and Poseidon. A physical representation of a deity is also called a god. If you go to Hawaii, you can even buy a god in a gift shop — a statue or idol that represents one of the Hawaiian gods, like a figure of the god Pele. The word god also refers to a man of superior quality or exceptional beauty. Elvis Presley was considered a god by many teenage girls in the late 1950s.
Vocabulary lists containing god
Reading: Literature - Mythology - Introductory
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Reading: Literature - Mythology - Middle School
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Ancient Greece: Mythology and Literature - Middle School
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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:
A chorus of “oohs!” rang around the field, and one teammate said, “Oh my god, Carter … you got knocked on your ass!”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 25, 2026
When the thing dies, the worms fall away to reveal that it wasn’t always a demon, but a boar god felled by a dark force.
From Salon ● Jul. 22, 2026
Priests used this odd object, divided into zones inscribed with the name of a god, as a teaching tool: In a sacrificed animal, departures from the liver’s usual features were viewed as messages from deities.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 18, 2026
"I didn't realise how special the recordings were until we listened back and thought 'oh my god, we were really on fire,'" guitarist Lynval Golding told BBC Radio 2.
From BBC ● Jul. 4, 2026
Little had I known then that it would attract the god of rot.
From "City of the Plague God" by Sarwat Chadda
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“People talk about, like, ‘Oh, my God, I hear they’re so amazing,’” he said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 29, 2026
"May God help the army, it doesn't have the authority to do anything," he told AFP.
From Barron's ● Jul. 28, 2026
"Marriage is about the lifelong commitment made before God for me, and for some couples the setting can make that sacred moment even more personal and memorable."
From BBC ● Jul. 24, 2026
And God or whatever higher power was like, ‘Now, now.’
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 22, 2026
The other, the life we lived with God, grew daily better, truth upon truth, glory upon glory.
From "The Hiding Place" by Corrie ten Boom
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That made its giant beast gods feel real too, along with their snarling rage against annihilation.
From Salon ● Jul. 22, 2026
Here, Holland’s Telemachus gambles Athena is hiding inside half the people he meets until his father chides, “Don’t look for gods in men, you’ll just be disappointed.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 15, 2026
The social media gods have been good to Matejka, and the Kardashian story is only half of it.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 6, 2026
"Lily Allen at The O2. No support act, arrived on stage at 9:10pm, all wrapped up by 10pm, not one word to the audience, £86 to sit in the gods," he said.
From BBC ● Jun. 30, 2026
“Don’t pay that fool any mind. Even gods can succumb to the disease of ignorance.”
From "Kwame Crashes the Underworld" by Craig Kofi Farmer
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The earth not paeans thee, nor serves thy hest, Be godded not by Heaven! avert thy face, And leave to blank disgrace The oblivious world! unsceptre thee of state and place!
From New Poems by Thompson, Francis
This last old man, Whom with a crack'd heart I haue sent to Rome, Lou'd me, aboue the measure of a Father, Nay godded me indeed.
From Coriolanus by Shakespeare, William
This last old man, Whom with crack'd heart I have sent to Rome, Lov'd me above the measure of a father; Nay, godded me indeed.
From Coriolanus by Shakespeare, William
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.