Definitions

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

  • noun The god of the ocean, often considered king of the gods and frequently paired with Mitra as an upholder of the world, inflicter of disease on sinners, and bringer of rain.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In Hind, myth., a deity represented in the Vedic hymns as of very great and manifold powers—the guardian of immortality, cherisher of truth, the seizer and punisher of ill-doers, the forgiver of sins, protector of the good, and the like.

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

  • noun (Hindu Myth.) The god of the waters; the Indian Neptune. He is regarded as regent of the west, and lord of punishment, and is represented as riding on a sea monster, holding in his hand a snaky cord or noose with which to bind offenders, under water.

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

  • proper noun Hinduism A god of the sky, of rain and of the celestial ocean, as well as a god of law and of the underworld.
  • proper noun astronomy One of the Kuiper belt objects.

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

  • noun in Vedism, god of the night sky who with his thousand eyes watches over human conduct and judges good and evil and punishes evildoers; often considered king of the Hindu gods and frequently paired with Mitra as an upholder of the world

Etymologies

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

[Sanskrit Varuṇaḥ.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Sanskrit वरुण (váruṇa).

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