God

Alternative forms

• od (archaic, regional, euphemistic)
• god (as proper noun, often derogatory or in philosophy)
• gawd, Gawd, g-d, G-d

Etymology

Derived from Middle English God. See god.

Pronunciation

• (UK) enPR: gŏd, gôd, IPA^(key): /ɡɒd/, /ɡɔːd/

  • Audio (UK):

    (file)

• (African-American Vernacular) IPA^(key): /ɡɑ(d)/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ɡɑd/

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ɒd
• Homophone: gaud (cot–caught merger)

Proper noun

God (usually uncountable, plural Gods)

2. The first deity of various theistic religions, and the only deity in the Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

   Dawn believes in God, but Willow believes in multiple gods and goddesses.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 1 John 4:8:

     Hee that loueth not, knoweth not God: for God is loue

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 1 John 4:16:

     God is loue, and hee that dwelleth in loue, dwelleth in God, and God in him.

   • 1741, [Samuel Richardson], Pamela: Or, Virtue Rewarded. […], 3rd edition, volume II, London: […] C[harles] Rivington, […]; and J. Osborn, […], →OCLC, page 388:

     ...God, the All-gracious, the All-good, the All-bountiful, the All-mighty, the All-merciful God...

   • 1911, Katharine Harris Bradley as Michael Field, Accuser, page 158:

     The Muéddin: God is great, there is no God but God.

   • 1971 [1963 November 22], Lyndon Johnson, “The Beginning”, in The Vantage Point‎, Holt, Reinhart & Winston, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 17:

     This is a sad time for all people. We have suffered a loss that cannot be weighed. For me, it is a deep personal tragedy. I know that the world shares the sorrow that Mrs. Kennedy and her family bear. I will do my best. That is all I can do. I ask for your help — and God's.

   • Paragraph 73, R v Brenton Harrison Tarrant (Sentencing remarks) ([2020] NZHC 2192)

     He (n.b.: a Muslim) has told me that he will not allow one person’s actions to stop him from praying to his God.

   • 2011, Steve Urick, Practical Christian Living, →ISBN, page 214:

     All this will culminate in a final showdown in Israel between the true Lord (Jehovah) God of Israel and the false god (Allah) of Mecca (the center of pagan idolatry in Arabia, at the Kaaba) […]

   1. (Trinitarian Christianity) God the Father as distinguished from Jesus Christ, God the Son.
      • 1899, The Sunday School Journal, page 378:

        God sent Jesus to earth to be the King of the Jews; that is, the one to tell them what they should do. […] I will tell you why God let Jesus die upon the cross.

3. The single male deity of various bitheistic or duotheistic religions.
   • 2001, Timothy Freke, Peter Gandy, Jesus and the Lost Goddess, page 133:

     The ancients represented this fundamental duality mythologically as God and Goddess. When Mystery looks at itself, God looks at Goddess.

   • 2005, Nikki Bado-Fralick, Coming to the Edge of the Circle, page 45:

     This reduces the successful invocation of God to a function of the presence of male genitalia. Put another way, women have the wrong equipment to invoke God.
     Goddess and God flow throughout all of nature, through each and every man and woman, becoming fully present in the world.

   • 2006, Ronald L. Clark, The Grace of Being, page 22:

     God and Goddess watched as the finite universe continued to develop into a stable platform to sustain finite life and were pleased.

4. (philosophy) The transcendent principle, for example the ultimate cause or prime mover, often not considered as a person.
   • 1895, “The Tâo-Tĭh-King, or Thoughts on the Nature and Manifestations of God”, in G. G. Alexander, transl., Lâo-Tsze the Great Thinker […], page 55:

     God (the great everlasting infinite First Cause from whom all things in heaven and earth proceed) [translating Chinese 道] can neither be defined nor named.

   • 2000, Catriona Hanley, Being and God in Aristotle and Heidegger, →ISBN, page 195:

     For Aristotle, God as the ultimate ground is the being that is responsible for the workings of the rational cosmos, but not for itself.

   • 2017, Aryeh Finkelberg, Heraclitus and Thales’ Conceptual Scheme: A Historical Study, →ISBN, page 156:

     Now, if night, winter, hunger, and war, which describe the God’s appearance as the multiple world, are his ‘scents’ and ‘names’, the same must be true of the world’s several constituents: all created things are just transient ‘scents’, and their names misnomers, of the fiery God.

Noun

God (plural Gods)

1. A being such as a monotheistic God: a single divine creator and ruler of the universe.
   • 1563, Barnabe Googe, Eglogs, Epytaphes, and Sonettes, sig. Cviiiv:

     A God there is, that guyds the Globe, and framde the fyckle Spheare.

   • 1911, Katharine Harris Bradley as Michael Field, Accuser, p. 158:

     The Muéddin: God is great, there is no God but God.

   • 1960 April 25, advertisement in Life, p. 125:

     Perhaps this... must involve a relationship with a God of truth—and of love, of mercy, of justice.

   • 2009, Nick Cave, The Death of Bunny Munro, page 68:

     Whoever said that there isn't a God is full of shit!

Interjection

God

1. Short for oh God: expressing annoyance or frustration.

   God, is this because of the "I don't love you anymore" T-shirt I bought? It was a joke!

   • 2012, BioWare, Mass Effect 3 (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →OCLC, PC, scene: Citadel (Priority: Earth):

     Admiral Anderson: God... feels like years since I just sat down.

See also

References

• “god, n. and int.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014.

Anagrams

• Dog, OGD, DOG, 'dog, ODG, dog

Etymology

From Dutch God.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /χɔt/

• Audio:

  (file)

Proper noun

God

1. God

Etymology

See god.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɣɔt/

• Audio (Belgium):

  (file)

• Audio (Netherlands):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: God
• Rhymes: -ɔt

Proper noun

God m

1. God

   God, neem me mee naar een plek hier ver vandaan. -- Kempi & Willy - Hier Ver Vandaan 2009

   Oh, mijn God

   Oh my god

   • 1934, Martinus Nijhoff, “De moeder de vrouw”, in Nieuwe gedichten [New poems]‎; reprinted in W.J. van den Akker en G.J. Dorleijn, editors, Verzamelde gedichten [Collected poems], Amsterdam: Uitgeverij Bert Bakker, 2001, →ISBN, page 232:

     Zij was alleen aan dek, zij stond bij 't roer, / en wat zij zong hoorde ik dat psalmen waren. / O, dacht ik, o, dat daar mijn moeder voer. / Prijs God, zong zij, Zijn hand zal u bewaren.

     She was alone on deck, she was at the helm, / and what she sang, I heard, were psalms. / Oh, I thought, oh, were it that my mother sailed there. / Praise God, she sang, His hand will preserve you.

Noun

God

1. Alternative form of god

Proper noun

God

1. Alternative form of god

Etymology

See god.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɡod/

Proper noun

God m

1. God

   Ġif God nǣre, þonne sċolde man hine āþenċan.

   If God didn't exist, we would have to invent him.

   Hwæt wāt iċ be Gode and be līfes andġiete? Iċ wāt þæt þēos weorold is.

   What do I know about God and the meaning of life? I know that this world exists.

Etymology

Inherited from Old Frisian god, from Proto-West Germanic *god. Cognates include West Frisian god and German Gott.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɣɔd/
• Hyphenation: God
• Rhymes: -ɔd

Proper noun

God m

1. God

Noun

God m (plural Gode)

1. god

References

• Piet Kramer (1961) “God”, in Seelter Woudebouk (Paat Seeltersk-Düütsk)‎, Leeuwarden
• Marron C. Fort (2015) “God”, in Saterfriesisches Wörterbuch mit einer phonologischen und grammatischen Übersicht, Buske, →ISBN

Etymology

Inherited from Old English god.

Proper noun

God

1. God

Etymology

Inherited from English God.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɡod/

Proper noun

God

1. God (Abrahamic monotheistic deity)
   • 1989, Buk Baibel long Tok Pisin, Port Moresby: Bible Society of Papua New Guinea, Jenesis 1:2:

     Tudak i karamapim bikpela wara na spirit bilong God i go i kam antap long en.

     →New International Version translation

Etymology

Borrowed from English God.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɡod/

Proper noun

God

1. God

Etymology

See god.

Proper noun

God

1. God

Proper noun

God

1. Alternative form of Gud
   • 1867, “A YOLA ZONG”, in SONGS, ETC. IN THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, number 14, page 90:

     Zo bless all oore frends, an God zpeed ee plowe.

     So bless all our friends, and God speed the plough.

References

• Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 90