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• paradise
  paradise

  noun

  heaven, as the final abode of the righteous.
• Paradise
  Paradise

  noun

  a town in N California.

paradise

¹ American  

[par-uh-dahys, -dahyz] / ˈpær əˌdaɪs, -ˌdaɪz /

noun

• paradises
  plural

1. heaven, as the final abode of the righteous.

2. an intermediate place for the departed souls of the righteous awaiting resurrection.

3. (often initial capital letter) Eden.

4. a place of extreme beauty, delight, or happiness.

5. a state of supreme happiness; bliss.

6. Architecture.

   1. parvis.

   2. an enclosure beside a church, as an atrium or cloister.

7. Italian Paradiso. (initial capital letter, italics) the third and concluding part of Dante's Divine Comedy, depicting heaven, through which he is guided by Beatrice.

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Paradise ² American  

[par-uh-dahys, -dahyz] / ˈpær əˌdaɪs, -ˌdaɪz /

noun

1. a town in N California.

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paradise British  

/ ˈpærəˌdaɪs /

noun

1. heaven as the ultimate abode or state of the righteous

2. Islam the sensual garden of delights that the Koran promises the faithful after death

3. Also called: limbo. (according to some theologians) the intermediate abode or state of the just prior to the Resurrection of Jesus, as in Luke 23:43

4. the place or state of happiness enjoyed by Adam before the first sin; the Garden of Eden

5. any place or condition that fulfils all one's desires or aspirations

6. a park in which foreign animals are kept

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paradise Cultural  

1. A place or state of pure happiness. Christians (see also Christian) have identified paradise both with the Garden of Eden and with heaven.

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paradise Idioms  

1. see fool's paradise.

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• paradises
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of paradise

First recorded before 1000; Middle English, Old English paradīs, from Late Latin paradīsus, from Greek parádeisos “park, pleasure-grounds,” from Old Iranian; compare Avestan pairi-daēza “enclosure”; akin to Greek perí peri- ( def. ), teîkhos “mound, wall”

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Explanation

In some religions, paradise is considered the ultimate destination, but in general, it's any place that is ideal and free from worry. Eden, Shangri-la, or even the corner nail salon — each might represent paradise to someone. Paradise comes from the Greek paradeisos meaning "park, paradise, Garden of Eden." The Garden of Eden was a paradise free from all worries until Eve ate the apple that broke the dream. Often when you see advertisements for tourism in the Caribbean, a sense of paradise is evoked by the beautiful images and carefree descriptions.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

paradise Paradise paradises

To someone who cared most about great writing, Salon was a paradise.

From Slate ● Nov. 6, 2026

But paradise can’t be lost if it was never really paradise to begin with.

From Salon ● Oct. 29, 2026

A paradise for luxury real estate, the capital only has around 10,000 social housing units for its 3.5 million inhabitants.

From Barron's ● Oct. 8, 2026

Leo cautioned against "losing our humanity amid a paradise of machines" in wide-ranging remarks to Church and state officials at the Élysée Palace.

From BBC ● Sep. 26, 2026

And everything that grows: frangipani, jacaranda, mangwansi beans, sugarcane, breadfruit, bird of paradise.

From "The Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver

The newly configured district includes Santa Rosa, Paradise and Susanville.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 4, 2026

Retired Major League Baseball star Matt Holliday is ready to part ways with the newly built Paradise Valley, Ariz., estate he purchased earlier this year.

From MarketWatch ● Nov. 2, 2026

A family of Eurasian beavers was released at Paradise Fields in 2023, returning the animals to urban London for the first time in more than 400 years.

From BBC ● Oct. 13, 2026

For some of the best local cuisine, you’ll have to leave the confines of Paradise Bay.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 7, 2026

These views were picked up and amplified in Amazonia: Man and Culture in a Counterfeit Paradise, by Betty J. Meggers, the Smithsonian archaeologist.

From "1491" by Charles C. Mann

“Sinkholes are paradises for many rare and endangered plant species. We are continuing to make new discoveries.”

From BBC ● Nov. 22, 2024

County residents who’ve taken out their lawns and transformed their yards into fragrant, leafy, low-water paradises — often with a DIY approach.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 2, 2022

Neither Amsterdam nor Brussels were pedestrian paradises in the 1970s.

From Seattle Times ● Apr. 6, 2022

Suffice to say they do not find the intellectual paradises they imagined.

From Salon ● Jul. 31, 2021

Some scholars imagine ancient hunter-gatherer societies as peaceful paradises, and argue that war and violence began only with the Agricultural Revolution, when people started to accumulate private property.

From "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind" by Yuval Noah Harari

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Related Words

• bliss
• heaven
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