goddess

See also: Goddess

English

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

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

• Audio (GA)

  (file)

• Hyphenation: god‧dess

Noun

goddess (plural goddesses)

1. (religion) A female deity.
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
• Green Goddess
• green goddess
• mother goddess
• porcelain goddess
• sex goddess
• triple goddess
• worship the porcelain goddess

 

Translations

female deity

• Afrikaans: godin
• Albanian: perëndeshë (sq) f
• Arabic: إِلَاهَة‎ f (ʾilāha), إِلٰهَة‎ (ʾilāha)
• Armenian: աստվածուհի (hy) (astvacuhi)
• Asturian: diosa 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)

  Mandarin: 女神 (zh) (nǚshén)

  Min Nan: 女神 (zh-min-nan) (lú-sîn / lí-sîn)

• Coptic: ⲛⲧⲱⲣⲉ (ntōre)
• Crimean Tatar: mabude
• Czech: bohyně (cs) f
• Danish: gudinde (da) c
• Dutch: godin (nl)
• Esperanto: diino (eo)
• Estonian: jumalanna
• 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)
• Kazakh: әйел құдай (äyel quday)
• Khmer: ព្រះម៉ែ (prĕəh mae), ទេវី (km) (teivii), ទេពី (km) (teipii)
• Korean: 여신(女神) (ko) (yeosin), 녀신 (nyeosin) (North Korea)

• Lao: ເທວີ (thē wī), ສຸລາງ (su lāng), ສຸຣາງ (su rāng)
• Latin: dea (la) f, dīva (la) f
• Latvian: dieviete f, dieve f
• Lithuanian: deivė f
• Macedonian: божица f (božica), богиња f (boginja)
• Malagasy: andriamanibavy
• Malay: dewi
• Mon: ဒေဝတဴကာလခဏ္ဏဳ
• Manipuri: ꯗꯦꯕꯤ (debi)
• Nahuatl:

  Classical: cihuateteo

• Norman: déêsse f (Jersey)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: gudinne (no) m or f

  Nynorsk: gudinne f

• Occitan: dieusa f
• Old Church Slavonic:

  Cyrillic: богꙑни f (bogyni)

• Old English: gyden f
• Old Norse: dís f
• Pali: devī f
• Persian: الهه‎ (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: diosa (es) f
• Sumerian: 𒀭 (/diĝir, dingir; dimer, dimir/)
• Swedish: gudinna (sv) c
• Tagalog: bathaluman, diyosa
• Tajik: олиҳа (oliha)
• 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)
• Uzbek: maʻbuda, iloha (uz)
• Vietnamese: nữ thần (vi) (女神)
• Welsh: duwes f

adored or idealized woman

• Arabic: مَعْبُودَة‎ f (maʿbūda)
• 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
• Greek: θεά (el) f (theá)
• Hungarian: istennő (hu)
• Indonesian: Dewi (id)

• Italian: diva (it) f, dea (it) f
• Khmer: ទេពធីតា (dep thi dar)
• Latvian: dieviete f, dieve f
• Polish: bogini (pl) f
• Portuguese: deusa (pt) f
• Russian: боги́ня (ru) f (bogínja)
• Scottish Gaelic: ban-dia f
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: богиња f

  Latin: boginja (sh) f

• Slovak: bohyňa (sk) f
• Swedish: gudinna (sv) c
• Turkish: tanrıça (tr)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. 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
• Slovak: ^{(please verify)} bohyňa (sk) f
• Slovene: ^{(please verify)} boginja (sl) f

See also

• heaven