heaven

Meanings

Noun

• The sky, specifically:
• The abode of God or the gods, traditionally conceived as beyond the sky; especially:
• The afterlife of the blessed dead, traditionally conceived as opposed to an afterlife of the wicked and unjust (compare hell); specifically:
• Any paradise; any blissful place or experience.
• A state of bliss; a peaceful ecstasy.
• Similarly blissful afterlives, places, or states for particular people, animals, or objects.

Verb

• To transport to the abode of God, the gods, or the blessed.
• To beatify, enchant, or please greatly.
• To beautify, to make into a paradise.

Related

Similar words

• firmament, sky; welkin
• paradise, kingdom come, Xanadu
• pearly gates
• delight, dream, paradise

Opposite words

• hell
• horror, nightmare

Narrower meaning words

• cat heaven
• kitty heaven
• dog heaven
• doggy heaven
• hog heaven

Origin

• From a wide variety of Middle English forms including heven, hevin, heuen and hewin, from Old English heofon ("heaven, sky"), from Proto-West Germanic *hebun, of uncertain origin.
• Cognate with Scots heiven, hewin, Old Saxon heƀan ("heaven, sky"), Low German Heven, Middle High German heben, and possibly the rare Icelandic and Old Norse hifinn ("heaven, sky"), which are probably dissimilated forms of the Germanic root which appears in Old Norse himinn ("heaven, sky"), Gothic 𐌷𐌹𐌼𐌹𐌽𐍃 ("heaven, sky"), Old Swedish himin, Old Danish himæn and probably also (in another variant form) Old Saxon himil, Old Dutch himil (modern Dutch hemel) and Old High German himil (German Himmel).
• Accepting these as cognates, some scholars propose a further derivation from Proto-Germanic *himinaz.