demon — English Dictionary

demon
Word-form referencesdaemon
Pronunciations (2)
  • /ˈdiː.mən/
  • ˈdiː.mən

Noun

  1. An evil supernatural being. An evil being resident in or working for Hell; a devil.

    Examples
    More examples (1)

    So what does the Gospel of Judas really say? It says that Judas is a specific demon called the "Thirteenth." In certain Gnostic traditions, this is the given name of the king of demons - an entity known as Ialdabaoth who lives in the 13th realm above the earth. Judas is his human alter ego, his undercover agent in the world. These Gnostics equated Ialdabaoth with the Hebrew Yahweh, whom they saw as a jealous and wrathful deity and an opponent of the supreme God whom Jesus came to earth to reveal. Whoever wrote the Gospel of Judas was a harsh critic of mainstream Christianity and its rituals. Because Judas is a demon working for Ialdabaoth, the author believed, when Judas sacrifices Jesus he does so to the demons, not to the supreme God. This mocks mainstream Christians' belief in the atoning value of Jesus' death and in the effectiveness of the Eucharist.

  2. An evil supernatural being. A false god or idol; a Satanic divinity.

    Usage
    • Historical
  3. An evil supernatural being. A very wicked or malevolent person; also (in weakened sense) a mischievous person, especially a child.

    Usage
    • broadly
    • Figurative
  4. An evil supernatural being. A source (especially personified) of great evil or wickedness; a destructive feeling or character flaw.

    Examples

    The demon of stupidity haunts me whenever I open my mouth.

  5. An evil supernatural being. A person's fears or anxieties.

    Usage
    • in-plural
    Examples

    After a short spell on an adult psychiatric ward, she decided to find her own way to deal with her demons.

  6. A neutral supernatural being. A person's inner spirit or genius; a guiding or creative impulse.

    Examples

    Oh Anthony […] Thy Dæmon that thy spirit which keepes thee, is Noble, Couragious, high vnmatchable.

    More examples (1)

    “You saw her. And I picked her up,” Lyra said, blushing, because of course it was a gross violation of manners to touch something so private as someone else's dæmon.

  7. A neutral supernatural being. A tutelary deity or spirit intermediate between the major Olympian gods and mankind, especially a deified hero or the entity which supposedly guided Socrates, telling him what not to do.

    Usage
    • Greek
  8. A neutral supernatural being. A supernatural being not considered to be inherently evil; a (non-Christian) deity.

  9. A neutral supernatural being. A hypothetical entity with special abilities postulated for the sake of a thought experiment in philosophy or physics.

    Examples
    More examples (1)

    Let the orders now be that each demon is to stop all molecules from crossing his area in either direction except 100 coming from A, arbitrarily chosen to be let pass into B, and a greater number, having among them less energy but equal momentum, to cross from B to A.

  10. Someone with great strength, passion or skill for a particular activity, pursuit etc.; an enthusiast.

    Examples

    He’s a demon at the card tables.

    More examples (1)

    Chelsea defended like demons to snuff out Manchester City but this was a perfectly calibrated triumph, built upon a structured attacking approach, choosing the right moments to transition, and illuminated by the smoothness of Havertz’s technique.

  11. A type of patience or solitaire (card game) played in the UK and/or US.

    Examples

    ‘That's much the best feeling to have.’ She dealt out the first row of ‘demon’.

  12. Any of various hesperiid butterflies of the genera Notocrypta and Udaspes.

Noun

  1. an evil supernatural being

    Broader terms
  2. a cruel wicked and inhuman person

  3. someone extremely diligent or skillful

    Broader terms
    Examples

    he worked like a demon to finish the job on time

    she's a demon at math

Word forms
demonsdaimondaemondæmon

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