Deity Meaning: Gods, Goddesses and the Divine

Two senses of deity

1. A god or goddess. Any being regarded as divine and worthy of worship. This is the countable sense: a deity, the deities of ancient Egypt, a household deity.
2. Divine nature. The state or quality of being divine. Here the word is uncountable: debates about the deity of Christ are about whether, and how, Jesus is truly God.

When written with a capital letter as the Deity, the word can simply mean God, in the sense of the one supreme being worshipped in monotheistic faiths. You will mostly see this capitalized form in older or very formal prose.

Fans sometimes stretch the word to cover someone admired almost to the point of worship, as in a football deity, though that is playful exaggeration.

How traditions use the word

Deity is a neutral, descriptive word, which is why scholars of religion like it. It can describe the gods of any faith without judging them.

• Polytheistic traditions, such as the religions of ancient Greece, Rome, Egypt and Scandinavia, honoured many deities, each linked with areas of life such as the sea, war, harvest or love.
• Hinduism has many deities worshipped in temples and homes. Many Hindus understand these deities as forms or aspects of one supreme reality, while devotees often feel a special bond with one particular deity.
• Judaism, Christianity and Islam are monotheistic and worship one God. In these faiths, deity usually refers to God's divine nature, and believers would not speak of God as one deity among many. Christians speak of one God in three persons, the Trinity, while Judaism and Islam stress that God is one and has no equal.
• Some Buddhist and folk traditions recognise heavenly beings or local spirits that are sometimes called deities, even where the central teaching does not focus on a creator god.

For the wider vocabulary of belief, see religion, faith and our faith and belief hub.

Deity meaning in the Bible

In English Bibles, the abstract sense is the one that matters most. In Colossians 2:9, the Greek word theotes, divine nature, describes the fullness of God dwelling in Christ. The King James Version translates it as Godhead, while many modern English translations use Deity. So when Christians speak of the deity of Christ, they mean the teaching that Jesus is fully divine, not merely a great teacher or prophet.

The Bible also mentions deities of other peoples, such as Baal of the Canaanites and Dagon of the Philistines, usually to contrast them with the God of Israel. Modern translations and study notes may call these foreign deities or false gods, depending on the translators' style.

Different Christian groups explain the deity of Christ in different ways, and some groups that use the Bible do not accept the Trinity at all. A respectful summary simply notes what each tradition holds.

Using deity in sentences

• The village festival honours a local deity believed to protect the harvest.
• Ancient sailors often prayed to a sea deity before setting out.
• The museum's new gallery displays carved images of several Egyptian deities.
• Her thesis compares how three faiths describe the nature of deity.
• In that old story, the river itself is treated as a deity that must be thanked.

Origin and pronunciation

Deity appeared in English around 1300 as deite, meaning divine nature. It came from Old French deité and Late Latin deitas, a word formed by Augustine from Latin deus, god. By the late 1300s it also meant a god, or the Supreme Being. Deus goes back to an ancient root linked with the idea of shining or the bright sky.

Both DEE-i-tee and DAY-i-tee are accepted. DEE-i-tee is heard often in American English and DAY-i-tee is common in British English, but both are used on both sides of the Atlantic. Many Indian English speakers say DEE-i-tee. Either one will be understood.

Deity, divinity and related words

Ancient peoples also consulted an oracle when they hoped to hear a god's answer to a question.