deity

• deitie (obsolete)

From Middle French deité, from Latin deitās.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈdiː.ɪ.ti/, /ˈdeɪ.ɪ.ti/, [ˈdeɪ̯-]

  • Audio (UK); /ˈdiː.ɪ.ti/:

    (file)

  • Audio (UK); /ˈdeɪ.ɪ.ti/:

    (file)

    [1]

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈdi.ə.ti/, [ˈdi.ə.ɾi], /ˈdeɪ.ə.ti/, [ˈdeɪ̯.ə.ɾi]
• (Indic) IPA^(key): /ˈɖej(a)ʈi/
• (Canada) IPA^(key): [ˈdeː.ɪɾi], [ˈdiː-], [-tɪ]
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): [ˈdɪjɪɾɪj], [ˈdæjɪɾɪj], [-tɪj]
• Hyphenation: de‧i‧ty

deity (countable and uncountable, plural deities)

1. Synonym of divinity: the state, position, or fact of being a god. [from 14th c.]
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto X”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, page 4:

     Thou seest all, yet none at all sees thee: / All that is by the working of thy Deitee.

2. A supernatural divine being; a god or goddess. [from 14th c.]
   • 1941, George Ryley Scott, Phallic Worship: A History of Sex and Sex Rites in Relation to the Religions of All Races from Antiquity to the Present Day, London: T. Werner Laurie, page 15:

     The fact that in most lands the moon was originally a female deity has led many historians to dispute the superiority of the moon over the sun in ancient mythology.

   • 2000, Kenneth Seeskin, Searching for a Distant God: The Legacy of Maimonides, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 23:

     The crux of monotheism is not only belief in a single deity but belief in a deity who is different from everything else.

• (a god): See Thesaurus:god

• Tidey, etyid