heaven
Americannoun
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heavens
plural
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the abode of God, the angels, and the spirits of the righteous after death; the place or state of existence of the blessed after the mortal life.
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(initial capital letter) Often Heavens the celestial powers; God.
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a metonym for God.
May heaven help us!
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(used with a singular verb) heavens, a wooden roof or canopy over the outer stage of an Elizabethan theater.
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Usually heavens. the sky, firmament, or expanse of space surrounding the earth.
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a place or state of supreme happiness.
She made his life a heaven on earth.
interjection
idioms
noun
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(sometimes capital) Christianity
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the abode of God and the angels
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a place or state of communion with God after death Compare hell
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(usually plural) the sky, firmament or space surrounding the earth
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(in any of various mythologies) a place, such as Elysium or Valhalla, to which those who have died in the gods' favour are brought to dwell in happiness
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a place or state of joy and happiness
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God or the gods, used in exclamatory phrases of surprise, exasperation, etc
for heaven's sake
heavens above
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ecstatically happy
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to do everything possible (to achieve something)
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of heaven
First recorded before 900; Middle English heven, Old English heofon; cognate with Middle Low German heven; akin to Old Norse himinn, Gothic himins, German Himmel
Explanation
Heaven is a place that seems absolutely perfect in every way. You can think of it as the lofty heavens up above, or as a place of everlasting bliss. The places you think of as heaven could also be called "paradise" or "Eden." All of these words are based on a religious idea of heaven as a perfect, blissful existence that's granted to good people after they die. This spiritual heaven is generally depicted as the place where God lives, and is commonly described as being high in the sky. In fact, the original meaning of the Old English heaven, heofon, was "sky."
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:
“I would put a lot of money on OpenAI winning back the mandate of heaven a bit from Anthropic.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 1, 2026
So singular that it all but defies any kind of tea-leaf-reading or, heaven forbid, attempts at replication.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 24, 2026
Olives and cheese are a match made in heaven.
From Salon ● Jul. 7, 2026
"We never feel like we are in hell, nor do we feel like we are in heaven," he said after beating Germany.
From BBC ● Jun. 26, 2026
Mary Redfield asked the spirit if the baby daughter she’d buried was now in heaven.
From "American Spirits" by Barb Rosenstock
"If they are a bit more generous and say that 'Zhu Rongji did accomplish some practical things', I will thank the heavens."
From Barron's ● Aug. 12, 2026
And there’s no time left for the heavens.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 6, 2026
And former reality TV star Spencer Pratt relayed a message from the heavens.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 4, 2026
According to Rodgers, early astronomers "built a huge amount of data about the heavens which would subsequently be used for things that they had never thought about," he said.
From BBC ● May 18, 2026
I had known from childhood that the earth opened and the heavens rained fire upon liars, but I met his gaze.
From "The Hiding Place" by Corrie ten Boom
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.
