paradise

English Online Dictionary. What means paradise‎? What does paradise mean?

English

Alternative forms

• paradize (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English paradis, paradise, paradys, from Late Old English paradīs, borrowed from Old French paradis, from Latin paradīsus, from Ancient Greek παράδεισος (parádeisos), ultimately from Proto-Iranian *paridayjah. Doublet of parvis. Displaced Old English neorxnawang.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, NYC) enPR: părʹədīs, IPA^(key): /ˈpæɹ.ə.daɪs/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈpɛɹ.ə.daɪs/

Noun

paradise (countable and uncountable, plural paradises)

1. (chiefly religion) The place where sanctified souls are believed to live after death.

   Synonym: Heaven
2. (Abrahamic religions) A garden where Adam and Eve first lived after being created.

   Synonym: Garden of Eden
3. (figuratively) A very pleasant place, such as a place full of lush vegetation.

   Synonym: heaven
4. (figuratively) An ideal place for a specified type of person, activity, etc.
5. (figuratively) A very pleasant experience.
6. (architecture, obsolete) An open space within a monastery or adjoining a church, such as the space within a cloister, the open court before a basilica, etc.
7. (obsolete) A churchyard or cemetery.
8. (slang) The upper gallery in a theatre.
9. A cake, often as a paradise slice.

Derived terms

Descendants

• → Fijian: parataisi
• → Maori: pararaiia
• → Niuean: parataiso
• → Tokelauan: palataiho

Translations

See also

• Abraham's bosom
• Arcadia
• Avalon
• Eden
• happy hunting ground
• kingdom come
• nirvana
• Shangri-La
• sweet hereafter
• utopia

Verb

paradise (third-person singular simple present paradises, present participle paradising, simple past and past participle paradised)

1. To place (as) in paradise.

   Synonym: imparadise

   • 1652, Edward Benlowes, Theophila, or, Loves Sacrifice, London: Henry Seile and Humphrey Moseley, Canto 7, stanza 81, p. 105,^[10]

     Yet dy’dst THOU not, but that (Spîrit quickned) free

     THOU might’st Saints Paradised see,

     Rejoyc’d Assurance give to Them rejoyc’d in THEE!

   • 1763, uncredited translator, “An Epistle of M. de Voltaire, upon his arrival at his estate near the Lake of Geneva, in March, 1755” in Francis Fawkes and William Woty (eds.), The Poetical Calendar, London: J. Coote, Volume 12, p. 48,^[11]

     […] blest thro’ every hour

     With blissful change of pleasure and of power,

     Couldst thou, thus paradis’d, from care remote,

     Rush to the world, and fight for Peter’s boat?
2. (obsolete) To transform into a paradise.
   • 1613, Thomas Heywood, “Epithalamion” in A Marriage Triumphe Solemnized in an Epithalamium, London: Edward Marchant,^[13]

     She enters with a sweet commanding grace,

     Her very presence paradic’d the place:

   • 1828, Ann Willson, letter to her brother, in Familiar Letters of Ann Willson, Philadelphia: Wm. D. Parrish & Co., 1850, pp. 84-85,^[14]

     Then let us individually aim at paradising the world, and these efforts, though feeble, would doubtless be blessed to ourselves […]

3. (obsolete, rare) To affect or exalt with visions of happiness.

   Synonyms: entrance, bewitch

   • 1606, John Marston, Parasitaster, or The Fawn, London: W. Cotton, Act IV,^[15]#*: O we had first some long fortunate greate Politicians that were so sottishlie paradized as to thinke when popular hate seconded Princes displeasure to them, any vnmerited violence could seeme to the world iniustice,

References

Anagrams

• Paradesi

Latin

Noun

paradīse

1. vocative singular of paradīsus

Yoruba

Etymology

Borrowed from English paradise.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /k͡pá.ɾá.dí.sè/

Noun

párádísè

1. paradise