revere
verb (used with object)
to regard with respect tinged with awe; venerate.
revere
1 American
[ri-veer]
/ rɪˈvɪər /
verb (used with object)
-
reveres,
present (3rd person singular)
-
revered,
past participle, past
-
revering
present participle
revere
2
American
[ri-veer]
/ rɪˈvɪər /
noun
Revere
3
American
[ri-veer]
/ rɪˈvɪər /
noun
-
Paul, 1735–1818, American silversmith and patriot, famous for his night horseback ride, April 18, 1775, to warn Massachusetts colonists of the coming of British troops.
-
a city in E Massachusetts, on Massachusetts Bay, near Boston: seaside resort.
Revere
1
British
/ rɪˈvɪə /
noun
revere
2
British
/ rɪˈvɪə /
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
reveresimple
-
reveressimple
-
have reveredperfect
-
has reveredperfect
-
am reveringprogressive
-
are reveringprogressive
-
is reveringprogressive
-
have been reveringperfect progressive
-
has been reveringperfect progressive
Past
-
reveredsimple
-
had reveredperfect
-
was reveringprogressive
-
were reveringprogressive
-
had been reveringperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of revere
First recorded in 1655–65; from Latin reverērī, equivalent to re- re- + verērī “to stand in awe of, fear, feel reverence” (akin to ware 2 )
Explanation
Revere means to respect someone so deeply that you almost worship them. Many Americans revere civil rights activists like Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rosa Parks, who worked to make the country a more just place. Revere is related to the words reverence ("to hold something in worshipful awe") and its opposite — irreverent. Reverence for the irreverent is actually possible. Howard Stern humor is often vulgar and absurdly irreverent yet his legions of fans and even some media analysts revere him and his ability to maintain a loyal audience. Revere is the perfect word when respect is not strong enough but worship seems a little too religious-sounding. Rock stars, for example, are revered by throngs of devoted fans.
Vocabulary lists containing revere
Warm-up, List 1
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"Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death" by Patrick Henry (1775)
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100 SAT words Beginning with "R"
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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:
There are people who absolutely genuinely love and revere him.
From Salon ● Jul. 5, 2026
The site is considered holy to Christians – who revere it as the site of Jesus's last Supper – and to Jews who see it as the tomb of the biblical King David.
From BBC ● May 1, 2026
Under long‑standing arrangements, Jews may visit the compound -- which they revere as the site of the first and second Jewish temples -- but they are not permitted to pray there.
From Barron's ● Apr. 9, 2026
Kikuo and Shunsuke revere kabuki’s bygone giants, who are affixed with that moniker.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 20, 2026
“I mean, what are the writers you revere most greatly?”
From "Black Swan Green" by David Mitchell
“I would have sent a Paul Revere alarm up and down the Valley,” he said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 6, 2026
John Singleton Copley’s 1768 portrait of Paul Revere at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts does something similar, on a smaller scale and in a different medium.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 5, 2026
“That was Walt’s thing. It all connects. I love that people can hopefully now connect both things. You can connect Tomorrowland and Walt with Paul Revere Williams.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 11, 2026
“UCLA, Memorial Park, Paul Revere, St. Bernard …” Bryant said, rattling off just a few of the sites his team practiced at while waiting for the green light to return to campus.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 29, 2026
Paul Revere started a word-of-mouth epidemic with the phrase “The British are coming.”
From "The Tipping Point" by Malcolm Gladwell
The 54-year-old has spent years collecting revolutionary memorabilia and reveres Castro as "the master."
From Barron's ● Aug. 11, 2026
Fred dreams of beating his annual sales goal and earning a trip to Palm Springs, Calif., a place he reveres “the way others may have felt about Canterbury or Jerusalem or Mecca.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 28, 2025
As somebody who has come up through the department, who reveres it, what do the two sides of that coin look like?
From Slate ● Nov. 24, 2025
The film reveres these women not for their perfection or their myth, but for their work.
From Salon ● May 18, 2025
And there are Jews who forget that the world reverences and honors the Jewish home even as it reveres the Bible of the Jew!
From Child Versus Parent Some Chapters on the Irrepressible Conflict in the Home by Stephen Wise
Ballet core may be a recent trend in name, but little girls, including me, have always revered a ballerina.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 11, 2026
Or should that be “was”? In 1979 he published an acclaimed volume of poetry that remains revered in certain, very small, circles.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 6, 2026
Under a blazing sun, clad in black and clutching portraits of their slain leader Ali Khamenei, Iranian pilgrims streamed across the border into Iraq to observe the Arbaeen, the most revered event in Shia Islam.
From Barron's ● Aug. 1, 2026
Willis describes it as a "cultural institution" revered in the industry for its abilities, but with a steep learning curve that requires experience to operate properly.
From BBC ● Jul. 15, 2026
People revered him as much as they feared him; they were just as anxious to prove themselves worthy party members as they were to avoid arrest.
From "A Thousand Sisters" by Elizabeth Wein
The film purports to show how socioeconomic inequality is a result of “the cultural pendulum swinging too far towards revering things we consider ‘masculine,’ like individualism, power, and money,” according to the nonprofit’s website.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 26, 2026
"This tells me about the whole community, this tells me about how they were thinking, how they were behaving, how they were revering the heavens."
From BBC ● Jun. 17, 2026
But know this: Parenting culture is moving toward greater respect for all while still caring for and revering our elders.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 22, 2023
In the small West Texas town of Muleshoe, where two of college football’s foremost masterminds were made, Wes Wood grew up revering Lincoln Riley.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 8, 2023
Phorenice," I said, "I have been a priest from my childhood up, revering the Gods, and growing intimate with their mysteries.
From The Lost Continent by Charles John Cutcliffe Wright Hyne
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.
