adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of godly
First recorded before 1000; Middle English; Old English godlīc; God + -ly
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:
Melissa Gordon struggled to reconcile the godly woman she thought she knew with the details now emerging.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 24, 2026
Allen was “a godly person” who never cursed or shared his political views at the time, a former teammate told The Times, but he was also “very competitive.”
From Los Angeles Times ● May 3, 2026
His vanishing cultural presence also exposed another inconvenient fact—that he was hardly as godly as the memes made him out to be.
From Slate ● Mar. 20, 2026
"He was the most godly, humane, kind, gracious human being I think I've ever met," Alex Ryvchin of the Executive Council of Australia Jewry, told reporters at Bondi on Monday morning.
From BBC ● Dec. 15, 2025
With his tousled blond hair and blue eyes, he might’ve been Jason’s brother on the mortal side as well as the godly side.
From "Blood of Olympus" by Rick Riordan
Sire, midnight should have ended Gormflaith's watch, But Gormflaith had another kind of will And ended at a godlier hour by slumber, A letter in her hand, the night-lamp out.
From King Lear's Wife; The Crier by Night; The Riding to Lithend; Midsummer-Eve; Laodice and Dana? by Bottomley, Gordon
In these warm lines the heart will trust itself, as it will not to the tongue, and pour out the prophecy of a godlier existence than all the annals of heroism have yet made good.
From Essays — First Series by Emerson, Ralph Waldo
Merryn: Sire, midnight should have ended Gormflaith's watch, But Gormflaith had another kind of will And ended at a godlier hour by slumber, A letter in her hand, the night-lamp out.
From Georgian Poetry 1913-15 by Marsh, Edward Howard, Sir
Are you a-come amongst us to make us wiser or richer or thriftier or godlier; or are you just a loafer,—a mere loafer?
From One Of Them by Lever, Charles James
No grace can enter their souls without flowing on to mine; they could not be lifted up to a higher and godlier plane of life without drawing me up with them.
From The Warfare of the Soul Practical Studies in the Life of Temptation by Hughson, Shirley C.
“This man is the godliest man that I have ever known,” Jill said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 28, 2019
“I hope voters aren’t trying to find the most Christian-y, godliest candidate out there, because who are we to judge one another’s level of faith, our Christian quote, quotient, if you will,” she said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 1, 2016
"I wanted to behave in the godliest way possible, and I opted to apologize for my tone and approach," she said.
From Slate ● Dec. 11, 2013
It is going to be so frightening, we are all going to tremble — even the godliest among us.”
From New York Times ● Apr. 29, 2011
Yet is it noblest, godliest known, When righteous triumph swells its tone.
From Thomas Davis, Selections from his Prose and Poetry by Rolleston, T. W. (Thomas 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.
