Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Exaltation to divine rank or stature; deification.
- noun Elevation to a preeminent or transcendent position; glorification.
- noun An exalted or glorified example.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun Deification; consecration; specifically, under the Roman empire, the formal attribution of divine honors to a deceased emperor or other member of the imperial family.
- noun . Figuratively, excessive honor paid to any great or distinguished person; the ascription of extraordinary virtues or superhuman qualities to a human being.
- noun The personification and undue exaltation of a virtue, a sentiment, or an idea.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun plural The act of elevating a mortal to the rank of, and placing him among, “the gods;” deification.
- noun plural Glorification; exaltation.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun The fact or action of becoming or making into a
god ;deification . - noun
Glorification ,exaltation ; crediting someone with extraordinary power or status. - noun A
glorified example orideal ; theapex or pinnacle (of a concept or belief). - noun The best moment or highest point in the development of something, for example of a life or career; the apex, culmination, or climax (of a development).
- noun Loosely, release from earthly life, ascension to heaven;
death . - noun psychology The latent entity that mediates between a person's
psyche and theirthoughts . Theid ,ego andsuperego in Freudian Psychology are examples of this.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun model of excellence or perfection of a kind; one having no equal
- noun the elevation of a person (as to the status of a god)
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Blagojevich is regularly described as the apotheosis of the shady Illinois politician -- a genus that rivals the Louisiana and Jersey City variety for chicanery.
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In the classic world, the word apotheosis was given to the ceremony that conferred the condition of gods upon a nation's heroes.
August 2006 2006
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But we speak now separately of human testimony, according to which — that which the Grecians call apotheosis, and the Latins relatio inter divos — was the supreme honour which man could attribute unto man, specially when it was given, not by a formal decree or act of state (as it was used among the Roman Emperors), but by an inward assent and belief.
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After that comes what the Greeks would have termed apotheosis.
LEE’S LIEUTENANTS DOUGLAS SOUTHALL FREEMAN 2001
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After that comes what the Greeks would have termed apotheosis.
LEE’S LIEUTENANTS DOUGLAS SOUTHALL FREEMAN 2001
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After that comes what the Greeks would have termed apotheosis.
Lee’s Lieutenants Douglas Southall Freeman 1971
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After that comes what the Greeks would have termed apotheosis.
Lee’s Lieutenants Douglas Southall Freeman 1971
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The flower-maidens 'chorus in _Parsifal_ might be called the apotheosis of Italian song.
Wagner's "Tristan und Isolde"; an essay on the Wagnerian drama George Ainslie Hight
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Syndicalism is described as the apotheosis of proletarian autonomy.
Political Parties; a Sociological Study of the Oligarchical Tendencies of Modern Democracy 1916
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The apologists also keep the idea of apotheosis secondary to that of a full knowledge of God, [404] but even after the great epoch when
The Mission and Expansion of Christianity in the First Three Centuries 1851-1930 1908
seanahan commented on the word apotheosis
There is a Babylon 5 episode "Falling towards Apotheosis", which is where I first heard this word.
February 1, 2007
seanmeade commented on the word apotheosis
i most associate apotheosis with the painting in the US Capitol Building: The Apotheosis of George Washington. when i first saw it i was like 'what the heck?!' i like George and all, but he never became a god in *my* world ;-)
March 26, 2007
ceviche commented on the word apotheosis
If you read Lord Byron's Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, where the character enters Rome's St. Peter's Basilica, you will encounter an example of apotheosis. The movement is not that obvious, but it is there. It gets played out in an episode of combat and opposition. I found that troubling when I first read the work. Byron, and his Schilleresque sense of the sublime, kind of struck me like the guy was a jerk. A self-aggrandizing jerk.
April 23, 2007
sionnach commented on the word apotheosis
The first time ever I read this word was in the blurb for a classical LP; specifically for Beethoven's Seventh Symphony, in which one of the movements (I assume the 3rd) was described as "the apotheosis of the dance". It must refer to the second meaning: "model of excellence or perfection of a kind; one having no equal".
Another poth-y word.
December 13, 2008
marco_nj commented on the word apotheosis
A favorite word of the New York Times
January 17, 2009
mostlyfoobar commented on the word apotheosis
Ooh! Ooh! I've verbed this word in my blog and need the past simple tense. I'm going with 'apotheosized' as in: 'It is mandatory if we are to coexist with these apotheosized creations of ours.' (referring to Strong AIs)
April 23, 2010
whalenbryan commented on the word apotheosis
One of Faulkner's favourites.
November 13, 2011
Silpa commented on the word apotheosis
As difficult as it is to imagine, the apotheosis of Mark Zuckerberg’s career, many believe, is yet to come.
October 29, 2017