Deity

How to spell deity

5 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce deity

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does deity mean?

1. nounA god or goddess, or the quality of being divine.

Deity in a sentence

• The ancient temple was built to honour a single deity.

• Each region in the empire worshipped its own local deity.

Where does deity come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin deitas, meaning 'divine nature' or 'godhood', which was built on deus, the ordinary Latin word for a god. The abstract noun deitas is often credited to the early Christian writer Augustine, who needed a term for the quality of being divine rather than for a particular god. English took it in during the 1300s through Old French deite, and the spelling settled with that telltale 'ei' cluster pronounced as two separate sounds. The same deus root branches widely: it is a relative of Latin divus 'divine', of the Greek sky-god Zeus, and of the Sanskrit deva 'shining one' or 'god', all going back to an ancient root meaning to shine or the bright daytime sky. The spelling trap is precisely that 'ei' ordering, where writers expect the more familiar 'ie' pattern and end up with the wrong sequence.

How the word is built

• dei- (god, from Latin deus)
• -ty (noun suffix of state or quality, from Latin -tas)