Deliverance

How to spell deliverance

11 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce deliverance

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does deliverance mean?

1. nounThe act of being rescued or set free from danger, captivity, or hardship.

Deliverance in a sentence

• The stranded climbers prayed for deliverance before the storm closed in.

• After years in debt, the inheritance felt like a sudden deliverance.

Where does deliverance come from?

Language of origin: French

Deliverance came into English around 1300 from the Old French delivrance, a noun formed from the verb delivrer, meaning 'to set free' or 'to hand over'. That French verb descends from the Late Latin deliberare, built from the prefix de- and liberare, which literally meant 'to set at liberty', from liber, the Latin word for 'free'. The same liber root sits inside everyday relatives such as 'liberty', 'liberate' and 'liberal', all carrying the underlying idea of freedom. Over the centuries the word kept two strands of meaning: the act of rescuing or freeing someone from danger or captivity, and the more workaday sense of handing something over, which survives in the ordinary verb 'deliver'. For the speller, the trap is the ending: it is -ance, not -ence, and the middle holds the familiar word 'deliver', which is a useful anchor for getting the spelling right.

How the word is built

• de- (from, away)
• liver (from Latin liberare: to set free, from liber: free)
• -ance (noun-forming suffix)