Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Preservation or deliverance from destruction, difficulty, or evil.
  • noun A source, means, or cause of such preservation or deliverance.
  • noun Deliverance from the power or penalty of sin; redemption.
  • noun In religions such as Hinduism and Buddhism, deliverance from the cycle of rebirth and suffering.
  • noun The agent or means that brings about such deliverance.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Preservation from destruction, danger, or calamity; deliverance.
  • noun In theology, deliverance from the power and penalty of sin.
  • noun Source, cause, or means of preservation from some danger or evil.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The act of saving; preservation or deliverance from destruction, danger, or great calamity.
  • noun (Theol.) The redemption of man from the bondage of sin and liability to eternal death, and the conferring on him of everlasting happiness.
  • noun Saving power; that which saves.
  • noun an organization for prosecuting the work of Christian evangelization, especially among the degraded populations of cities. It is virtually a new sect founded in London in 1861 by William Booth. The evangelists, male and female, have military titles according to rank, that of the chief being “General.” They wear a uniform, and in their phraseology and mode of work adopt a quasi military style.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun religion The process of being saved, the state of having been saved (from hell).
  • noun The process of being restored or made new for the purpose of becoming saved; the process of being rid of the old poor quality conditions and becoming improved.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun saving someone or something from harm or from an unpleasant situation
  • noun a means of preserving from harm or unpleasantness
  • noun (theology) the act of delivering from sin or saving from evil
  • noun the state of being saved or preserved from harm

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English savacioun, from Old French sauvacion, from Late Latin salvātiō, salvātiōn-, from salvātus, past participle of salvāre, to save; see salvage.]

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Examples

  • But an event in the history of salvation becomes a miracle from the fact that something _extraordinary_, something _new_, happens in it, which by its newness and its extraordinary character presents itself to man as the manifestation of certain divine _ends in salvation_, and can be explained _at first sight_, but only at first sight, from nothing else than from the service which it renders to the plan of redemption.

    The Theories of Darwin and Their Relation to Philosophy, Religion, and Morality Rudolf Schmid

  • I now ask, Does not this show that the salvation in the text is truly _a great salvation_?

    Life and Labors of Elder John Kline, the Martyr Missionary Collated from his Diary by Benjamin Funk John Kline 1830

  • Congratulations - I think my salvation is a while off especially since Gabriella graduated to sleeping most of the night in our bed this week!

    learning to sleep 2004

  • You shelve your future, or what you call your salvation, on the merits of a Sacrifice, and think yourselves relieved of all further trouble.

    The Mystery of a Turkish Bath Rita

  • Christ came: "All things are now ready"; the salvation is already accomplished, and only waits the Lord's time to be manifested: He "is ready to judge." last time -- the last day, closing the day of grace; the day of judgment, of redemption, of the restitution of all things, and of perdition of the ungodly.

    Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible 1871

  • For we miserably mutilate it, and sinfully as well as foolishly limit its application and its power, if we recognise it only -- I was going to say mainly -- as being the ground of our hope and of what we call our salvation, and do not recognise it as being the obligatory example of our lives, which we are bound to translate into our daily practice.

    Expositions of Holy Scripture Ephesians; Epistles of St. Peter and St. John Alexander Maclaren 1868

  • The upper classes of Europe in the same spirit applauded what they called the salvation of society by the _coup d'etat_, the massacre on the Boulevards and the lawless deportation of the leaders of the working men in France.

    Lectures and Essays Goldwin Smith 1866

  • The joy of Cornelius at what he called the salvation of the Meistersinger knew no bounds.

    My Life — Volume 2 Richard Wagner 1848

  • If you, as St. Paul says, have a form of godliness, and yet in your life and actions deny the power of it, by living without God in the world, and following the lowest maxims of the world in everything but what you call the salvation of your souls, what wonder if your children grow up despisers of those who are good?

    Sermons for the Times Charles Kingsley 1847

  • Joy in God and in his salvation is the only true, solid, satisfying joy.

    Commentary on the Whole Bible Volume III (Job to Song of Solomon) 1721

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