a feeling or attitude of deep respect tinged with awe; veneration.
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 ).
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
First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English, from Latin reverentia “respect, fear, awe”; equivalent to revere 1 + -ence
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.
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Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
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
But you don’t need to be from Mexico to understand the significance, reverence, and trepidation that surround this hulking pile nicknamed El Coloso de Santa Úrsula.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 10, 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
This part of the story called for reverence.
From "Educated" by Tara Westover
The billionaire Zuk has sought approval from U.S. regulators to acquire the largest stake in Liberty from private-equity firms Stone Point Capital and Reverence Capital Partners, the people said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 13, 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
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
He is the author of “Solemn Reverence: The Separation of Church and State in American Life.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 27, 2022
The Reverence of this House dares any touch, But with obedient knees, and pious duties?
From Beaumont & Fletcher's Works (3 of 10): The Loyal Subject by Beaumont, Francis
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
The State is for the individual, and for all the individuals, and so it reverences justice, where the rights of all, and the interests of all, exactly balance.
From Speeches, Addresses, and Occasional Sermons, Volume 3 (of 3) by Parker, Theodore
This by the help of the observation already premised, and I hope already weighed and perpended by your reverences and worships, I shall forthwith make appear.
From The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Sterne, Laurence
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
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
Citation: "You have repeatedly demonstrated the Socratic dictum: No man is to be reverenced more than the truth."
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
Thus reverencing law, we enter our protest against rules and customs which are unworthy of the name, since they violate justice, the essence of law.
From History of Woman Suffrage, Volume I by Stanton, Elizabeth Cady
What can excuse us from honouring and reverencing the Being, by whom we receive our Deliverance, our Preservation, and our Life?
For true religion comes not by violence, but chiefly, I think, from being brought up with good men, reverencing their ways and words.
From The Men of the Moss-Hags Being a history of adventure taken from the papers of William Gordon of Earlstoun in Galloway by Crockett, S. R. (Samuel Rutherford)
And they charged him saying, Regard this mirror precisely as if it were our august spirit, and reverence it as if reverencing us.
From Japan by Murray, David
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.
