heaven

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

English

Alternative forms

• heav'n (poetic)

Etymology

From a wide variety of Middle English forms including hevene, heven, hevin, and hewin (“heaven, sky”), from Old English heofon, heofone (“heaven, sky”), from Proto-West Germanic *hebn (“heaven, sky”), of uncertain origin.

Cognate with Scots heiven, hewin (“heaven, sky”), Middle Dutch heven (“sky, heaven”), Low German Heven (“heaven, sky”), Middle High German heben (“sky, heaven”), and possibly the rare Icelandic and Old Norse hifinn (“heaven, sky”), which are all probably dissimilated forms of the Germanic root which appears in Old Norse himinn (“heaven, sky”), Gothic 𐌷𐌹𐌼𐌹𐌽𐍃 (himins, “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 (“cover, cloud cover, firmament, sky, heaven”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈhɛvən/
• Hyphenation: heav‧en
• Rhymes: -ɛvən

Noun

heaven (countable and uncountable, plural heavens)

1. The sky, specifically:
   1. (dated or poetic, now usually in the plural) The distant sky in which the sun, moon, and stars appear or move; the firmament; the celestial spheres.
      • 1535, Coverdale Bible, Ecclesiastes 3:1:

        All that is vnder the heauen.

      • 2006, Peter Carroll translating a maxim of the Southern Song dynasty in Between Heaven and Modernity: Reconstructing Suzhou, 1895–1937:

        Above is Heaven, Below are Suzhou and Hangzhou

   2. (obsolete) The near sky in which weather, flying animals, etc. appear; (obsolete) the atmosphere; the climate.
   3. (obsolete) A model displaying the movement of the celestial bodies, an orrery.
2. (religion) The abode of God or the gods, traditionally conceived as beyond the sky; especially:
   1. (Christianity, usually capitalized) The abode of God and of the angels and saints in His presence.
      • 1560, Geneva Bible, Revelation 12:7–8:

        And there was a battel in heauen. Michael & his Angels foght againſt the dragon, and the dragon foght & his Angels. But they preuailed not, nether was their place founde anie more in heauen.
   2. (religion, by extension, often capitalized) The abode of the Abrahamic God; similar abodes of the gods in other religions and traditions, such as Mount Olympus.
      • 1649, Alexander Ross translating the Sieur Du Ryer, The Alcoran Of Mahomet, Translated out of the Arabique into French... newly Englished, 406:

        As he [Muhammad] was returning, in the fourth Heaven, Moses advised him to goe back to God.
   3. (by extension, usually capitalized) Providence, the will of God or the council of the gods; fate.
3. (religion) The afterlife of the blessed dead, traditionally conceived as opposed to an afterlife of the wicked and unjust (compare hell); specifically:
   • 1925 July 1, Ernest Hemingway, letter to F. Scott Fitzgerald:

     I wonder what your idea of heaven would be—A beautiful vacuum filled with wealthy monogamists, all powerful and members of the best families drinking themselves to death. And hell would probably be an ugly vacuum full of poor polygamists unable to obtain booze... To me heaven would be a big bull ring with me holding two barrera seats and a trout stream outside that no one else was allowed to fish in and two lovely houses in the town; one where I would have my wife and children and be monogamous and love them truly and well and the other where I would have my nine beautiful mistresses on 9 different floors...

   1. (Christianity, Islam) Paradise, the afterlife of the souls who are not sent to a place of punishment or purification such as hell, purgatory, or limbo; the state or condition of being in the presence of God after death.
   2. (religion, by extension, often capitalized) The afterlife of the blessed dead in other religions and traditions, such as the Pure Land or Elysium.
4. (by extension) Any paradise; any blissful place or experience.
   • 1660 November 14, a speech in the House of Commons in W. Cobbett, Parl. Hist. (1808), IV 145:

     England, that was formerly the heaven, would be now the hell for women.

   • 1782, F. Burney, Cecilia, I iii iv 51:

     Such a shop as that...would be quite a heaven upon earth to me.
5. (by extension) A state of bliss; a peaceful ecstasy.
   • 1550, J. Heywood, Dialogue Prov. Eng. Tongue, II vii:

     Husbandes are in heauen...whose wiues scold not.
6. (informal, with a modifier) Similarly blissful afterlives, places, or states for particular people, animals, or objects.

Usage notes

• Frequently capitalized as 'Heaven' in all senses when regarded as a proper name. When used as a synonym for the impersonal sky, the word has typically been plural ("heavens" or "the heavens") since the 17th century, except in poetry.

Synonyms

• (sky): firmament, sky; welkin
• (paradise): paradise, kingdom come, Xanadu
• (entrance to heaven): pearly gates
• (blissful place or experience): delight, dream, paradise

Antonyms

• (antonym(s) of “paradise”): hell
• (antonym(s) of “blissful place or experience”): horror, nightmare

Hyponyms

Derived terms

Related terms

• heavenish
• heavenric

Translations

Verb

heaven (third-person singular simple present heavens, present participle heavening, simple past and past participle heavened)

1. (obsolete) To transport to the abode of God, the gods, or the blessed.
2. (obsolete) To beatify, enchant, or please greatly.
3. (obsolete) To beautify, to make into a paradise.

References

Anagrams

• Nevaeh

Middle English

Noun

heaven

1. (Late Middle English) Rare form of hevene.