divine means A surname. It carries an Arena rating of 1488, earned across 2 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, divine ranks #488 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words, #1,680 of 17,124 for Most Sublime Words, #4,996 of 17,126 for Most Elegant Words, #5,163 of 17,130 for Most Beautiful Words.
divine is pronounced /dɪˈvaɪn/.
Why “divine” is a great word
Of, from, or like God or a god. From Old French *divin*, from Latin *dīvīnus* ("of a god"), from *dīvus* ("god"). Unlike "sacred" (which denotes something set apart for religious use) or "deific" (which often implies the act of becoming godlike), divine is the inherent quality of godhood itself. It is the unbearable, gold-leaf light that haloes a saint in a Renaissance fresco; the terrifying, absolute silence that follows a prayer uttered into a void; or the scent of ozone and crushed herbs after a lightning strike—the tangible, almost painful evidence of a presence utterly beyond the human scale.
Etymology
From Old French divin, from Latin dīvīnus (“of a god”), from divus (“god”). Displaced native Old English godcund.
adj
- Of or pertaining to a god.e.g.“a divine being”
- Eternal, holy, or otherwise godlike.e.g.“divine power”
- Of superhuman or surpassing excellence.e.g.“divine skill”
- Beautiful, heavenly.
- Foreboding; prescient.e.g.“Yet oft his heart, divine of something ill, / Misgave him.” — 1667, John Milton, “Book VIII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished
- immortal; elect or saved after death
- Relating to divinity or theology.e.g.“church history and other divine learning” — 1692–1717, Robert South, Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London:
noun
- One skilled in divinity; a theologian.e.g.“Poets were the first divines.” — 1668, John Denham, The Progress of Learning:
- A minister of the gospel; a priest; a clergyman.
- God or a god, particularly in its aspect as a transcendental concept.
verb
- To foretell (something), especially by the use of divination.e.g.“a sagacity which divined the evil designs” — 1834–1874, George Bancroft, History of the United States, from the Discovery of the American Continent, volume (please specify |volume=I to X), Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown and Company [et al.], →OCLC
- To guess or discover (something) through intuition or insight.e.g.“no secret can be told
To any who divined it not before” — 1874, James Thomson, The City of Dreadful Night:
- To search for (underground objects or water) using a divining rod.
- To render divine; to deify.e.g.“Living on earth like angel new divined.” — 1591, Ed[mund] Sp[enser], Daphnaïda. An Elegy upon the Death of the Noble and Vertuous Douglas Howard,Daughter and Heire of Henry Lord Howard, Viscount Byndon, and Wife of Arthure Gorges Esquier. […],
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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