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• Pantheon
  Pantheon

  noun

  a domed circular temple at Rome, erected a.d. 120–124 by Hadrian, used as a church since a.d.
• Panthéon
  Panthéon

  noun

  a national monument in Paris, France, used as a sepulcher for eminent French persons, begun in 1764 by Soufflot as the church of Ste. Geneviève and secularized in 1885.
• pantheon
  pantheon

  noun

  (esp in ancient Greece or Rome) a temple to all the gods

Pantheon

¹ American  

[pan-thee-on, -uhn, pan-thee-uhn] / ˈpæn θiˌɒn, -ən, pænˈθi ən /

noun

1. a domed circular temple at Rome, erected a.d. 120–124 by Hadrian, used as a church since a.d.

2. (lowercase) a public building containing tombs or memorials of the illustrious dead of a nation.

3. (lowercase) the place of the heroes or idols of any group, individual, movement, party, etc., or the heroes or idols themselves.

   to earn a place in the pantheon of American literature.

4. (lowercase) a temple dedicated to all the gods.

5. (lowercase) the gods of a particular mythology considered collectively.

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Panthéon ² American  

[pahn-tey-awn] / pɑ̃ teɪˈɔ̃ /

noun

1. a national monument in Paris, France, used as a sepulcher for eminent French persons, begun in 1764 by Soufflot as the church of Ste. Geneviève and secularized in 1885.

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pantheon ¹ British  

/ pænˈθiːən, ˈpænθɪən /

noun

1. (esp in ancient Greece or Rome) a temple to all the gods

2. all the gods collectively of a religion

3. a monument or building commemorating a nation's dead heroes

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Pantheon ² British  

/ pænˈθiːən, ˈpænθɪən /

noun

1. a circular temple in Rome dedicated to all the gods, built by Agrippa in 27 _bc , rebuilt by Hadrian 120–24 _ad , and used since 609 _ad as a Christian church

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Other Word Forms

• pantheonic
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of Pantheon

1375–1425; late Middle English panteon < Latin Panthēon < Greek Pántheion, noun use of neuter of pántheios of all gods, equivalent to pan- pan- + the ( ós ) god + -ios adj. suffix

Explanation

In the pantheon of great movie stars, Marilyn Monroe might well be considered the brightest of them all. The actual Pantheon was a temple built by the Romans — but we use it to mean any group of exalted figures. To place someone in a pantheon is to decide that they belong to a "club" whose members are all only the greatest people to have done the same thing. It's like a little temple of little gods. Tiger Woods, for example, definitely belongs in the pantheon of great golfers –– alongside Palmer, Nicklaus and Singh. If you want to see the real Pantheon, that is the building itself with the world's oldest concrete dome, then you'll have to go to Rome.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Pantheon Panthéon pantheon

“Affordability has worsened this year, as mortgage rates have climbed and wages have risen only slightly more quickly than home prices,” Samuel Tombs, chief U.S. economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, wrote in a note.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 18, 2026

Colin Scott had just arrived in the Italian capital with partner Anabella Mcallister, when he disappeared up a side street near the Pantheon at about 22:00 on Friday evening.

From BBC ● Aug. 16, 2026

Economist Oliver Allen of Pantheon Macroeconomics cautioned that there could be a sharper slowdown ahead.

From Barron's ● Aug. 14, 2026

Familiarity between BlackRock and Pantheon helped complete their TPC continuation vehicle without such disagreements.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 6, 2026

Once, when she was eight or nine, her father took her to the Pantheon in Paris to describe Foucault’s pendulum.

From "All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr

In 1989, during the French revolutionary bicentennial celebrations, Condorcet was symbolically interred in the Panthéon, but Brissot, who advocated the export of the revolution to other nations by force, remains a less-celebrated figure.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 27, 2026

French President Emmanuel Macron is seeking to change that by inducting Manouchian into the Panthéon national monument on Wednesday.

From Seattle Times ● Feb. 20, 2024

Manouchian’s coffin, covered with the French flag, will be carried in the street in front of the Panthéon by soldiers of the Foreign Legion.

From Seattle Times ● Feb. 20, 2024

In 2019, the Panthéon — a heavily freighted monument to France that was commissioned by Louis XV and finished during the Revolution — was stormed by hundreds of undocumented migrants, most from West Africa.

From New York Times ● Apr. 14, 2022

It seems to realise its own ugliness and tries to conceal itself behind the Panthéon.

From Stained Glass Tours in France by Charles Hitchcock Sherrill

The Green Lantern, a secondary figure in the DC Comics pantheon, had the ill luck to be trapped in a 2011 Ryan Reynolds film even its director didn’t like.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 14, 2026

But in a pantheon of colourful characters, Count Binface, a man wearing a rubbish bin over his head, is stealing the show.

From Barron's ● Aug. 12, 2026

Susan Morrison’s new biography of the “SNL” creator, “Lorne: The Man Who Invented Saturday Night Live,” places Michaels into the same single-name pantheon as his pals Mick and Paul.

From Salon ● Jul. 5, 2026

“Plucked from a provincial neighborhood,” John Buchanan writes, Greene “rose to high fame in his time and rests now in the pantheon of heroes of the Revolution and a Founder of the new nation.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 26, 2026

While Hinduism retained its popular rituals and devotion to its pantheon, at its core Hinduism became monotheistic and introspective.

From "Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea" by Charles Seife

Related Words

• chapel
• church
• house
• mosque
• pagoda
• place of worship
• sanctuary
• shrine
• synagogue