goddess

See also: Goddess

English

Etymology

From Middle English goddesse, equivalent to god +‎ -ess, formed about 1350. The figurative meaning is first found in Edmund Spenser's Shepheardes calender (1579). Displaced Old English gyden.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: gŏd'ĕs, enPR: gäd'ǐs, IPA^(key): /ˈɡɒdɛs/, /-ɪs/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈɡɑdəs/, /-ɛs/

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: god‧dess

Noun

goddess (plural goddesses)

1. (religion) A female deity.
   • 2019 January 8, Christine Proust, John Steele, Scholars and Scholarship in Late Babylonian Uruk, Springer, →ISBN, page 248:

     […] since the goddess Antu did not hold a prominent status at Uruk before the fifth century. The primary purpose of MLC 1890 was evidently to present Antu as universal goddess and all-encompassing cosmic location.

2. (figuratively) A woman honored or adored as physically attractive or of superior charm and intelligence.
   • 2014, Mary Castillo, Caridad Pineiro Scordato, Berta Platas, Friday Night Chicas: Sexy Stories from La Noche, page 216:

     The girls who had tormented me in high school had fallen, hard, from their pedestals. The cheerleader goddesses were Wal-Mart moms, wearing enough eyeliner and dark shadow to supply a Goth nightclub for a month.

3. (figuratively) A woman of substantial authority or influence.

Hypernyms

• (female deity): deity, divinity, god
• (certain woman): woman

Derived terms

• bitch goddess
• demigoddess
• domestic goddess
• goddesship
• goddesshood
• goddessless
• goddesslike
• goddessling
• goddessly
• goddess-queen
• goddessship
• goddess-ship
• goddessy
• goddex
• green goddess
• Green Goddess
• mother goddess
• personal goddess
• porcelain goddess
• regal sea goddess
• sex goddess
• triple goddess
• worship the porcelain goddess

Translations

female deity

Afrikaans: godin Albanian: perëndeshë (sq) f Arabic: إِلَاهَة f (ʔilāha), إِلٰهَة (ʔilāha) Armenian: աստվածուհի (hy) (astvacuhi) Asturian: diosa (ast) f Azerbaijani: ilahə Belarusian: багі́ня (be) f (bahínja) Bengali: দেবী (bn) (debi) Bulgarian: боги́ня (bg) f (bogínja) Burmese: ဒေဝီ (my) (dewi) Catalan: deessa (ca) f Chinese: Cantonese: 女神 (neoi5 san4) Hokkien: 女神 (zh-min-nan) (lú-sîn / lí-sîn) Mandarin: 女神 (zh) (nǚshén) Coptic: ⲛⲧⲱⲣⲉ (ntōre) Cornish: duwes f Crimean Tatar: mabude Czech: bohyně (cs) f Danish: gudinde (da) c Dutch: godin (nl) f Egyptian: (nṯrt) Esperanto: diino (eo) Estonian: jumalanna Faroese: please add this translation if you can Finnish: jumalatar (fi) French: déesse (fr) f Galician: deusa (gl) f Georgian: ქალღმერთი (kalɣmerti) German: Göttin (de) f, weibliche Gottheit f, weiblicher Gott m Greek: θεά (el) f (theá) Ancient: θεά f (theá) Ionic: θεή f (theḗ) Hawaiian: akua wahine Hebrew: אֵלָה (he) f (elá) Hindi: देवी (hi) f (devī) Hungarian: istennő (hu) Icelandic: gyðja (is) f, dís (is) f Ido: deino (io) Indonesian: dewi (id) Interlingua: dea Irish: bandia m Italian: dea (it) f Japanese: 女神 (ja) (めがみ, megami), 女神 (ja) (じょしん, joshin) Kazakh: әйел құдай (äiel qūdai) Khmer: ព្រះម៉ែ (prĕəh mae), ទេវី (km) (teivii), ទេពី (km) (teipii) Korean: 여신(女神) (ko) (yeosin), 녀신(女神) (nyeosin) (North Korea) Kurdish: Northern Kurdish: îlahe (ku) Lao: ເທວີ (th), ສຸລາງ (su lāng), ສຸຣາງ (su rāng) Latin: dea (la) f, dīva (la) f Latvian: dieviete f, dieve f Lithuanian: deivė f Macedonian: бо́жица f (bóžica) Malagasy: andriamanibavy Malay: dewi Manipuri: ꯗꯦꯕꯤ (debi) Marathi: देवी f (devī) Mon: ဒေဝတဴကာလခဏ္ဏဳ Nahuatl: Classical: cihuateteo Norman: déêsse f (Jersey) Norwegian: Bokmål: gudinne (no) m or f Nynorsk: gudinne f, gydje f Occitan: dieusa f Old Church Slavonic: Cyrillic: богꙑни f (bogyni) Old English: gyden f Old Norse: dís f Pali: devī f Pashto: الهه (ps) f (elāha) Persian: الٰهه (fa) (elâhe), ایزدبانو (izadbânu) Polish: bogini (pl) f Portuguese: deusa (pt) f Romanian: zeiță (ro) f Russian: боги́ня (ru) f (bogínja) Sanskrit: देवी (sa) f (devī), ग्ना (sa) f (gnā́) Scottish Gaelic: ban-dia f Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: бо̀гиња f, бо̀жица f Roman: bòginja (sh) f, bòžica (sh) f Slovak: bohyňa (sk) f Slovene: bogínja (sl) f Spanish: dea (es) f, diosa (es) f Sumerian: 𒀭 (/⁠diĝir, dingir; dimer, dimir⁠/) Swedish: gudinna (sv) c Tagalog: bathaluman, diyosa Tajik: олиҳа (oliha), илоҳа (iloha) Tatar: алиһә (tt) (alihä) Thai: เทวี (tee-wii) Tibetan: please add this translation if you can Tocharian B: ñäkteñña Turkish: tanrıça (tr) f, ilahe (tr) f Ugaritic: 𐎛𐎍𐎚 (ỉlt) Ukrainian: боги́ня (uk) f (bohýnja) Urdu: دیوی f (devī) Uyghur: ئىلاھە (ilahe) Uzbek: maʻbuda, iloha (uz) Vietnamese: nữ thần (vi) (女神), thiên nữ (天女) Welsh: duwes f

adored or idealized woman

Arabic: مَعْبُودَة f (maʕbūda) Catalan: deessa (ca) f Chinese: Mandarin: 女神 (zh) (nǚshén) Czech: bohyně (cs) f Dutch: schoonheid (nl) Finnish: jumalatar (fi) French: déesse (fr) f Galician: deusa (gl) f Georgian: ქალღმერთი (kalɣmerti) Greek: θεά (el) f (theá) Hungarian: istennő (hu) Indonesian: dewi (id) Italian: diva (it) f, dea (it) f Khmer: ទេពធីតា (teep thiidaa) Latvian: dieviete f, dieve f Macedonian: бо́жица f (bóžica) Polish: bogini (pl) f Portuguese: deusa (pt) f Russian: боги́ня (ru) f (bogínja) Scottish Gaelic: ban-dia f Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: бо̀гиња f Latin: bòginja (sh) f Slovak: bohyňa (sk) f Slovene: boginja (sl) f Swedish: gudinna (sv) c Turkish: tanrıça (tr)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

Hungarian: (please verify) istennő (hu) f Indonesian: (please verify) dewi (id) Italian: (please verify) dea (it) f Latin: (please verify) dea (la) f Romanian: (please verify) zeiță (ro) f

See also

• heaven