reverence
noun
a feeling or attitude of deep respect tinged with awe; veneration.
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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:
Curating with reverence and love, Rosales uses her voice to establish a baseline of respect that many historians fail to achieve.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 9, 2026
He acknowledged many people had a "negative" view of food creators, but added: "People give them too much reverence in the first place. They're just people with an opinion."
From BBC ● Aug. 25, 2026
“All Eyez on Me,” the double album Shakur released in 1996, overflows with groovy bass samples that display his reverence for 1970s and 1980s R&B—Kool & the Gang, Bootsy Collins, Cameo and more.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2026
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
He stares at the Commandant with a reverence reserved for deities.
From "An Ember in the Ashes" by Sabaa Tahir
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 for the military—and the opportunities it brings—pervade the state.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 29, 2025
Reverence is a longer black diamond halfway along Rattlesnake Mountain with a few optional double black diamond features.
From Seattle Times ● Jun. 6, 2024
Through hands-on intervention — Sherrills at the Reverence Project several days a week and Lester at the Ambassadors Shop on 103rd Street — many residents of Watts are choosing to participate.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 22, 2023
"A fine old horse, your Reverence; a fine old horse, fit to carry your worship's weight; but he never will go again upon all fours."
From Geoffery Gambado A Simple Remedy for Hypochondriacism and Melancholy Splenetic Humours by William Henry Bunbury
It seemed to me that there pervaded on that island one of the deepest respects and reverences for the dead.
From Time Magazine Archive
Manhattan's Metropolitan Museum has revered its precedents as it reverences its Rembrandts.
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
As I have said, he reverences something: for no human being is without the faculty.
From Household Education by Harriet Martineau
Madame Potrelle made a succession of reverences, and handed me my shirts, which she had under her arm, wrapped in a handkerchief.
From Fr?d?rique; vol. 1 by Charles Paul de Kock
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
Leaving school two months after his sixteenth birthday in 1855, he soon became office-boy in a warehouse on a day since reverenced by the Rockefeller clan.
From Time Magazine Archive
Low-churchmen do not pray to the Virgin; she is reverenced but, by those who enjoy detecting a fine distinction, as the mother of Christ rather than as the mother of God.
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
He beseeches the Greeks to restore to him his dear child, the maiden Chryseis, their captive, and to accept in return the proffered ransom, reverencing the god.
From Greek Women by Mitchell Carroll
What men are here—wild, insolent, unjust, or are they hospitable, reverencing the Gods?
From Homer's Odyssey A Commentary by Denton Jaques Snider
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
Honor meant courage and courtesy, the reverencing of all women for the love of one.
From Historia Amoris: A History of Love, Ancient and Modern by Edgar Saltus
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.
