reverence
noun
a feeling or attitude of deep respect tinged with awe; veneration.
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leveren op.
reverence
American
[rev-er-uhns, rev-ruhns]
/ ˈrɛv ər əns, ˈrɛv rəns /
noun
-
reverences
plural
-
a feeling or attitude of deep respect tinged with awe; veneration.
- Antonyms:
- contempt
-
the outward manifestation of this feeling.
to pay reverence.
-
a gesture indicative of deep respect; an obeisance, bow, or curtsy.
-
the state of being revered, or treated with respect tinged with awe.
-
(initial capital letter) a title used in addressing or mentioning a member of the clergy (usually preceded by your orhis ).
verb (used with object)
-
reverences,
present (3rd person singular)
-
reverenced,
past participle, past
-
reverencing
present participle
reverence
1
British
/ ˈrɛvərəns /
noun
-
a feeling or attitude of profound respect, usually reserved for the sacred or divine; devoted veneration
-
an outward manifestation of this feeling, esp a bow or act of obeisance
-
the state of being revered or commanding profound respect
-
archaic a form of apology for using an obscene or taboo expression
verb
Reverence
2
British
/ ˈrɛvərəns /
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
reverencesimple
-
reverencessimple
-
have reverencedperfect
-
has reverencedperfect
-
am reverencingprogressive
-
are reverencingprogressive
-
is reverencingprogressive
-
have been reverencingperfect progressive
-
has been reverencingperfect progressive
Past
-
reverencedsimple
-
had reverencedperfect
-
was reverencingprogressive
-
were reverencingprogressive
-
had been reverencingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of reverence
First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English, from Latin reverentia “respect, fear, awe”; equivalent to revere 1 + -ence
Explanation
Reverence is a feeling of deep respect or awe — like what you have for a president, a hero, or a favorite football player. Reverence can be a feeling of awe, and it can also describe how you treat someone, particularly when used with the word with. To treat someone "with reverence" is to show them intense respect. Your friends may respect you for your loyalty, though they probably do not bow to you with reverence every day.
Vocabulary lists containing reverence
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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:
Throughout human history eclipses have stirred amazement, fear and reverence, as they appear to momentarily halt the normal course of nature.
From Barron's ● Aug. 11, 2026
Now, as the trial of Tyler Robinson, Kirk’s alleged killer, begins, something has replaced that reverence.
From Slate ● Jul. 27, 2026
While Aang’s saga follows the trajectory of Western fantasies that revolve around a Chosen One, his stubborn insistence on nonviolence and befriending perceived enemies reflects Miyazaki’s reverence for empathy, innocence and life’s natural beauty.
From Salon ● Jul. 8, 2026
The West Hollywood clam shack conjures Rhode Island on the West Coast, be it with clams of all kinds, lobster cooked just right or oysters treated with reverence.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 23, 2026
Joanie starts the clapping from the back, slowly, but with reverence and purpose.
From "It’s Kind of a Funny Story" by Ned Vizzini
Eide Bailly sold a majority stake to Reverence Capital Partners and co-investors in a $1.8 billion deal to speed up AI implementation.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 23, 2026
Reverence is a longer black diamond halfway along Rattlesnake Mountain with a few optional double black diamond features.
From Seattle Times ● Jun. 6, 2024
“You don’t see a lot of things like that here,” says Gisselle Meza, a 16-year-old podcast intern at the Reverence Project.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 22, 2023
Reverence radiates from Alberta Whittle’s textile hanging, floating on high, made from clothes — European, African — owned by her cosmopolitan Barbadian grandfather.
From New York Times ● Jun. 23, 2022
But His Reverence insisted that I was wrong, and put me under severe penance.
From The Monk and The Hangman's Daughter by Ambrose Bierce
Manhattan's Metropolitan Museum has revered its precedents as it reverences its Rembrandts.
From Time Magazine Archive
It seemed to me that there pervaded on that island one of the deepest respects and reverences for the dead.
From Time Magazine Archive
“My father praised Robert without respite! So my behavior was disgracious. But such reverences, such empathies that existed between them, they are very combustible. Friendship is a calmer thing. Robert left Zedelgem in winter.”
From "Black Swan Green" by David Mitchell
This last was a great and special favorite with him, its lofty and beautiful spirit carrying his soul with it into those spiritual regions which the child mind reverences without understanding.
From Harper's Round Table, July 16, 1895 by Various
Although he reverences the great actors who have preceded him, Irving takes but little note of tradition.
From The English Stage Being an Account of the Victorian Drama by Augustin Filon
But Pi is precociously enlightened, his innocence not a problem to be rectified but a quality to be reverenced.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 9, 2025
Most white Americans were of British descent, they drew their political principles from English history, and they reverenced the king as protector of his people and their liberties.
From Textbooks ● Jan. 18, 2018
And Douglas, the man engaged to marry Joan, reverenced Lynneth, white daughter of the moon.
From Time Magazine Archive
He went to Paris, where he lived with Theo, painted furiously and tried to become like the Impressionists, whom he reverenced.
From Time Magazine Archive
I liked to read what they liked to read: what they enjoyed, delighted me; what they approved, I reverenced.
From "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë
In a land reverencing charismatic leadership and far-reaching intellect, he looks like a messenger boy and disparages his own brain.
From Time Magazine Archive
They reverently bore them—reverencing the beauty, and above all reverencing them as the work of One who had given him aid to think of their creation, and to embody them according to the pure conception.
From Papers from Overlook-House by Casper Almore
You must have manufactured this riddle out of sheer wantonness, for in the indictment you charge me with reverencing gods!
From The World's Greatest Books — Volume 14 — Philosophy and Economics by Sir John Alexander Hammerton
What can excuse us from honouring and reverencing the Being, by whom we receive our Deliverance, our Preservation, and our Life?
"After acquiring wealth in abundance, the twelve inner seats "Are to be thoroughly reverenced; what use of reverencing aught else below?
From The Sarva-Darsana-Samgraha Review of the Different Systems of Hindu Philosophy by Madhava Acharya
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.
