Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A feeling of profound awe and respect and often love. synonym: honor.
- noun An act showing respect, especially a bow or curtsy.
- noun Used as a form of address for certain members of the Christian clergy.
- transitive verb To consider or treat with profound awe and respect; venerate.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To regard with reverence; look upon with awe and esteem; respect deeply; venerate.
- To do reverence to: treat with respect; pay respect to; specifically, to salute with a reverence, bow, or obeisance.
- Synonyms Worship, Revere, etc. See
adore . - noun A feeling of mingled awe, respect, and admiration; veneration; esteem heightened by awe, as of a superior; reverent regard; especially, such a feeling toward deity.
- noun The outward manifestation of reverent feeling; respect, esteem, or honor, as shown by conduct. See
to do reverence , below. - noun An act or token of reverence.
- noun The use of a phrase indicating respect. See
save your reverence , below. - noun Reverend character; worthiness of respect and esteem.
- noun Hence With a possessive personal pronoun, a title of respect, applied particularly to a clergyman.
- noun Precedence; preëminence.
- noun =Syn, 1. Awe, Veneration, Reverence. Reverence is nearly equivalent to veneration, but expresses something less of the same emotion. It differs from
awe in that it is not akin to the feeling of fear, dread, or terror, while also implying a certain amount of love or affection. We feel reverence for a parent and for an upright magistrate, but we stand in awe of a tyrant.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- transitive verb To regard or treat with reverence; to regard with respect and affection mingled with fear; to venerate.
- noun Profound respect and esteem mingled with fear and affection, as for a holy being or place; the disposition to revere; veneration.
- noun The act of revering; a token of respect or veneration; an obeisance.
- noun That which deserves or exacts manifestations of reverence; reverend character; dignity; state.
- noun A person entitled to be revered; -- a title applied to priests or other ministers with the pronouns
his oryour ; sometimes poetically to a father. - noun an apologetical phrase for an unseemly expression made in the presence of a priest or clergyman.
- noun a contracted form of
Save your reverence . - noun to show reverence or honor; to perform an act of reverence.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun
Veneration ; profoundawe andrespect , normally in asacred context . - noun An act of showing
respect , such as abow . - noun The state of being revered.
- noun A form of
address for some members of theclergy . - verb To show reverence.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb regard with feelings of respect and reverence; consider hallowed or exalted or be in awe of
- noun a feeling of profound respect for someone or something
- noun a reverent mental attitude
- noun an act showing respect (especially a bow or curtsy)
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word reverence.
Examples
-
Then there is reverence for what is around us, reverence for our equals, to which he attributes an immense power in the culture of man.
Paras. 25-51 1909
-
But I haste to the qualifications of this divine work, — fervency, reverence, and confidence; _fervency_ in crying, _reverence and confidence_ in crying, “Abba, Father;” for these two suit well toward our
The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning Hugh Binning 1640
-
They are not reverent any more than Roman Catholics are reverent, for reverence in the sad and delicate meaning of the term reverence is a thing only possible to infidels.
Heretics 1905
-
This is what he terms reverence, and the confidence which is the reverse of this he terms insolence; and the latter he always deems to be a very great evil both to individuals and to states.
Laws 2006
-
One thread that runs through both the realities of the hospital and of Gabon and help elucidate the driving force behind what Schweitzer made of his own life is what he called "reverence for life".
The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com Katherine Marshall 2011
-
In it, the prophet Jeremiah (10: 2-4) discredits the heathens for cutting down these trees and carving the trunks and placing precious metals upon the branches in reverence to their gods.
-
The point of using the classics in this kind of playful reverence is that I always felt the classics had become stuffy through being academized-is that what the word is?
-
I stared at Isaac staring at Yahya's boy in reverence, and I, on the side, in the cool of the night, underneath brilliant stars, prayed that maybe we should just stay in that moment.
Marc Gopin: Thanks to the Imam, My Little Son Got Serious About Synagogue Marc Gopin 2010
-
The stars awaken a certain reverence, because though always present, they are inaccessible; but all natural objects make a kindred impression, when the mind is open to their influence.
-
Graying now, its veterans approach the Vietnam Veterans Memorial (aka “The Wall”) in reverence, some shielding their eyes with their hands, lest they be seen shedding tears for comrades (and perhaps their own youth) lost.
Honor is due 2009
scete commented on the word reverence
reverence bestows dignity
December 4, 2008