Worship

How to spell worship

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce worship

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does worship mean?

1. verbTo show reverence and adoration for a deity, or to admire someone or something intensely.
2. nounThe act of showing reverence and devotion, especially to a deity.

Worship in a sentence

• verb

  Many families gather on Sunday to worship together at the local church.

• noun

  The new community hall is used for both worship and public meetings.

• verb

  Some fans seem to worship every actor who appears in the franchise.

• noun

  Freedom of worship is protected under the constitution.

Where does worship come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word comes straight from Old English, where it appeared as weorþscipe, a noun meaning 'worthiness' or 'the condition of being held in high regard'. It was built from weorþ, meaning 'worthy' or 'of value' (the same root that gives us the modern word 'worth'), joined to the native suffix -scipe, which signals a state or quality and survives today as the familiar ending '-ship' in words like 'friendship' and 'hardship'. Originally it simply meant honour or esteem given to a person, and that older flavour still lingers in British courtesy titles such as 'Your Worship' for a mayor or magistrate. Over the medieval period the sense narrowed toward the reverence owed to God or a deity, which is now its central meaning. Remembering that it is literally 'worth' plus '-ship' helps with the spelling, since the second syllable is the suffix -ship and not 'shop'.

How the word is built

• worth (from Old English weorþ: worthy, of value)
• -ship (from -scipe: condition or quality)