Definitions

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

  • noun Great honor, praise, or distinction accorded by common consent; renown.
  • noun Something conferring honor or renown.
  • noun A highly praiseworthy asset.
  • noun Adoration, praise, and thanksgiving offered in worship.
  • noun Majestic beauty and splendor; resplendence.
  • noun The splendor and bliss of heaven; perfect happiness.
  • noun A height of achievement, enjoyment, or prosperity.
  • noun A halo, nimbus, or aureole.
  • intransitive verb To rejoice triumphantly; exult.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Exalted praise, honor, or distinction accorded by common consent to a person or thing; honorable fame; renown; celebrity.
  • noun A state of greatness or renown; exaltation; magnificence; pomp.
  • noun Brightness; splendor; luster; brilliancy.
  • noun The eternal splendor and happiness of heaven; celestial bliss.
  • noun Distinguished honor or ornament; that of which one boasts or may boast; that of which one is or may be proud; peculiar distinction; pride.
  • noun An attribute, adjunct, characteristic, quality, or action that renders glorious or illustrious: chiefly in the plural: as, the glories of a great reign; the glories of the stage.
  • noun A state of glorying; exultant elation; vainglory.
  • noun Pride of purpose; laudable ambition.
  • noun In religious symbolism, a mark of great dignity, consisting of a combination of the nimbus and the aureola—that is, of the luminous halo (nimbus) encircling the head of the Deity, of Christ, of the Virgin Mary, and more rarely and less properly of saints, etc., and the radiance or luminous emanation (aureola) encompassing the whole person. Popularly, it is frequently confounded with the nimbus. See aureola, nimbus.
  • noun A concentered burst of sunlight through clouds, as after a storm; a sunburst; a luminous glow of reflected light upon clouds.
  • noun Synonyms Fame, Renown, Honor, Glory. Fame is simply report, repute, whereby one is made widely known for what one is, does, etc.; it may be good or bad, and is thus essentially the same as celebrity: as, an evil fame attaches to all traitors. Renown expresses the same idea through the notion that one is named again and again by the same persons and continually by new persons; it may be bad, but is generally good. Fame may be a weak word, but renown is always strong. Honor is the least external of these words, indicating often only a respectful frame of mind toward another: as, to hold one in honor. The word, however, sometimes has the meaning of a wide and excellent fame. It is the only one of the series that means acts or words of tribute. Glory is superlative fame or honor, but not necessarily of wide extent.
  • To exult; rejoice: always with in.
  • To be boastful; exult arrogantly: always with in.
  • To make glorious; glorify; magnify and honor.
  • To defile; make dirty.

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

  • noun Praise, honor, admiration, or distinction, accorded by common consent to a person or thing; high reputation; honorable fame; renown.
  • noun That quality in a person or thing which secures general praise or honor; that which brings or gives renown; an object of pride or boast; the occasion of praise; excellency; brilliancy; splendor.
  • noun Pride; boastfulness; arrogance.
  • noun The presence of the Divine Being; the manifestations of the divine nature and favor to the blessed in heaven; celestial honor; heaven.
  • noun An emanation of light supposed to proceed from beings of peculiar sanctity. It is represented in art by rays of gold, or the like, proceeding from the head or body, or by a disk, or a mere line.
  • noun an opening in the wall of a glass furnace, exposing the brilliant white light of the interior.
  • noun (Bot.) the name of two leguminous plants (Clianthus Dampieri and C. puniceus) of Australia and New Zeland. They have showy scarlet or crimson flowers.
  • noun (Bot.) a name given to several species of the verbenaceous genus Clerodendron, showy flowering shrubs of tropical regions.
  • intransitive verb To exult with joy; to rejoice.
  • intransitive verb To boast; to be proud.

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

  • noun Great beauty or splendour, that is so overwhelming it is considered powerful.
  • noun Honour and valour.
  • noun Worship or praise, as in glory to God.
  • noun Optical phenomenon caused by water droplets.
  • noun Victory; success.
  • verb To exult with joy; to rejoice.
  • verb To boast; to be proud.

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

  • verb rejoice proudly
  • noun an indication of radiant light drawn around the head of a saint
  • noun a state of high honor
  • noun brilliant radiant beauty

Etymologies

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

[Middle English glorie, from Old French, from Latin glōria.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English glory, glorie, from Old French glorie ("glory"), from Latin glōria ("glory, fame, renown, praise, ambition, boasting"), from Proto-Indo-European *glōs-, *gals-, *galos- (“voice, cry”). Cognate with Ancient Greek κλέος (kléos, "rumor, report"), Old English ceallian ("to cry out, shout, call"). More at call.

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Examples

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  • One of the most empty words I know.

    April 22, 2007

  • whom having not seen you love, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory.

    1 Peter 1:8

    October 25, 2007

  • glory is not an empty word it is full of joy and reflections of Christ. The dictionary put it as full of praise, honor offered in worship, heavenly bliss, rejoice

    October 25, 2007

  • I always think "for thine is the the Kingdom and the power and the glory".

    October 26, 2007

  • the Beloved, the Indwelling = Shekinah, praise

    July 22, 2009