reverential
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of reverential
Explanation
When you're reverential, you treat someone or something with a lot of respect. You might speak about your beloved kindergarten teacher in a reverential voice. To talk about someone in a reverential way or treat a family heirloom with reverential care is to act out of a deep, almost solemn kind of respect. The adjective reverential comes close to implying worship — a devoutly religious person feels reverential toward God, for example. It's rooted in the Latin word reverentia, "awe or respect," from revereri, "to stand in awe of, fear, or be afraid of."
Vocabulary lists containing reverential
This Week in Words: July 14 - 20, 2018
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The Grapes of Wrath
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Artemis Fowl
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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.
And last night, the Daily Beast published two reverential letters that Harp allegedly wrote to Trump in 2023, when she served as a presidential campaign aide.
From Slate ● Aug. 21, 2026
Recently, in the r/workingmoms Subreddit, one poster wondered if she stood alone as an elder millennial who doesn’t have a reverential nostalgia for childhood summers.
From Salon ● Jun. 24, 2026
But fairs emphasized the typical, not the singular; the popular, not the elite; the commercial, not the reverential.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 14, 2026
It’s less reverential and more instinctual, despite its reliance on historical fact.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 24, 2024
“You’d better come along with us, Father,” a lean, hawkfaced major on the chaplain’s other side intoned with reverential sorrow.
From "Catch-22" by Joseph Heller
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.
