Word.ws English Dictionary

deesis

UK/dɪˈiːsɪs/

deesis noun: a call to witness.

Noun

deesis

  1. (rhetoric) A call to witness.
    Synonyms:
    adjuration
  2. (rhetoric) A vehement expression of desire, as in "think of the children!" or requests preceded by "for God's sake".

Synonyms of deesis

Forms of deesis

alternative formdeësis

Origin of deesis

From Ancient Greek δέησις (déēsis, “entreaty, petition, want”), from δέω (déō, “lack, miss”), δέομαι (déomai, “beg”).

Questions about deesis

What does deesis mean?
Deesis means a call to witness.
What part of speech is deesis?
Deesis is a noun.
How do you pronounce deesis?
Deesis is pronounced /dɪˈiːsɪs/ (UK).

Words near deesis in the dictionary

  1. deescalations
  2. deescalatory
  3. Deese
  4. Deeses
  5. Deeside
  6. deesis
  7. deess
  8. deesses
  9. deest
  10. deestablishment
  11. deesterification

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: deesis (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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