veneration
Americannoun
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the act of venerating.
-
the state of being venerated.
-
the feeling of a person who venerates; a feeling of awe, respect, etc.; reverence.
They were filled with veneration for their priests.
- Antonyms:
- disrespect
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an expression of this feeling.
A memorial was erected in veneration of the dead of both world wars.
noun
-
a feeling or expression of awe or reverence
-
the act of venerating or the state of being venerated
Related Words
See respect.
Other Word Forms
- unvenerative adjective
- venerational adjective
- venerative adjective
- veneratively adverb
- venerativeness noun
Etymology
Origin of veneration
1400–50; late Middle English < Latin venerātiōn- (stem of venerātiō ), equivalent to venerāt ( us ) ( venerate ) + -iōn- -ion
Explanation
Veneration is similar to worship or respect: we feel veneration for things and people we adore and are devoted to completely. This is a strong word. The main meaning is for a type of religious zeal: if you unquestionably believe in your religion, then you feel and show veneration for your god and beliefs. Also, veneration can apply outside religion when you have enormous respect for something or someone. Great people like Martin Luther King or Mother Theresa inspire veneration. If you feel a combination of awe and love for someone, you are full of veneration.
Vocabulary lists containing veneration
Pride and Prejudice
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The Federalist Papers, No. 14 by James Madison
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Society and Solitude
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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.
Ms. Gage, who teaches American history at Yale, presents the book as an attempt, timed for the semiquincentennial, to improve the contemporary “national historical dialogue, which tends to emphasize veneration or damnation over real understanding.”
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 1, 2026
"Today we can't imagine the veneration of Hindu, Jain or Buddhist divine spirits or deities without a human form, can we? Which is what makes this transition so interesting," says Sushma Jansari, the exhibition's curator.
From BBC • Jun. 20, 2025
The grave became a place of veneration, then a site of controversy in the early 2000s when Little Round Top’s owner began to shoo away the curious.
From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 28, 2025
You write this in your new book, Memory and Authority: “A distinctive feature of American constitutional culture is its quasi-religious veneration of its framers and founders.”
From Slate • May 8, 2024
I suppose I have a considerable organ of veneration, for I retain yet the sense of admiring awe with which my eyes traced her steps.
From "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë
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.
