goddess

From Middle English goddesse, equivalent to god +‎ -ess, formed about 1350. The figurative meaning is first found in Spenser's Shepheardes calender (1579). Displaced Old English gyden.

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: gŏd'ĕs, enPR: gäd'ǐs, IPA^(key): /ˈɡɒdɛs/, /-ɪs/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈɡɑdəs/, /-ɛs/

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: god‧dess

goddess (plural goddesses)

1. (religion) A female deity.
   • 2019 January 8, Christine Proust, John Steele, Scholars and Scholarship in Late Babylonian Uruk, Springer, →ISBN, page 248:

     […] since the goddess Antu did not hold a prominent status at Uruk before the fifth century. The primary purpose of MLC 1890 was evidently to present Antu as universal goddess and all-encompassing cosmic location.

2. (figuratively) A woman honored or adored as physically attractive or of superior charm and intelligence.
   • 2014, Mary Castillo, Caridad Pineiro Scordato, Berta Platas, Friday Night Chicas: Sexy Stories from La Noche, page 216:

     The girls who had tormented me in high school had fallen, hard, from their pedestals. The cheerleader goddesses were Wal-Mart moms, wearing enough eyeliner and dark shadow to supply a Goth nightclub for a month.

3. (figuratively) A woman of substantial authority or influence.

• (female deity): deity, divinity, god
• (certain woman): woman

• heaven