demon

/ˈdiː.mən/

demon noun: an evil being resident in or working for Hell; a devil. Also the acronym of distinct electron motion particle.

Image: Michelangelo, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

demon (plural demons)

An evil being resident in or working for Hell; a devil.
- 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...
- 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...2007 December 2, April D. DeConick, “What the Gospel of Judas really says”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 23 Nov 2011, Essay
(historical) A false god or idol; a Satanic divinity.
(broadly, figuratively) A very wicked or malevolent person; also (in weakened sense) a mischievous person, especially a child.
A source (especially personified) of great evil or wickedness; a destructive feeling or character flaw.
- The demon of stupidity haunts me whenever I open my mouth.
(in plural) A person's fears or anxieties.
- After a short spell on an adult psychiatric ward, she decided to find her own way to deal with her demons.2013 January 21, The Guardian
A person's inner spirit or genius; a guiding or creative impulse.
- Oh Anthony […] Thy Dæmon that thy spirit which keepes thee, is Noble, Couragious, high vnmatchable.c. 1606–1607 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard...
- “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.2000, Phillip Pullman, The Amber Spyglass
(Greek) 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.
A supernatural being not considered to be inherently evil; a (non-Christian) deity.
A hypothetical entity with special abilities postulated for the sake of a thought experiment in philosophy or physics.
- 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.1874, William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin, “Kinetic Theory of the Dissipation of Energy” in Nature 9, 441-444
Someone with great strength, passion or skill for a particular activity, pursuit etc.; an enthusiast.
- He’s a demon at the card tables.
- 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.2021 May 29, David Hytner, “Chelsea win Champions League after Kai Havertz stuns Manchester City”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 28 Aug 2021
A type of patience or solitaire (card game) played in the UK and/or US.
- ‘That's much the best feeling to have.’ She dealt out the first row of ‘demon’.1924, EM Forster, A Passage to India, Penguin, published 2005, page 89
Any of various hesperiid butterflies of the genera Notocrypta and Udaspes.

Noun (2) capitalized: Demon

Demon (uncountable)

Alternative letter-case form of demon (“card game”).

Proper noun capitalized: Demon

Demon

A male given name from Ancient Greek.
- Demon writes that Taurus, the chief captain of Minos, was slain by Theseus at the mouth of the port, in a naval combat as he was sailing out for Athens.1952, Plutarch, “Theseus”, in Dryden, et. al, transl., The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans (Great Books of the Western World; 14)

Also used as

demon is also the acronym of distinct electron motion particle.

demon is also the alternative spelling of daemon.

demon meaning in Hindi, Urdu, Bengali and Telugu

demon in Hindi

evil being: दानव dānav, दैत्य daitya, देव dev, शैतान śaitān, राक्षस rākṣas, इब्लीस iblīs
false god, Satanic divinity: राक्षस rākṣas, शैतान śaitān, देव dev, इबलीस iblīs
person with great energy or skill, enthusiast: राक्षस rākṣas

demon in Urdu

evil being: دیو dev, شیطان śaitān, ابلیس iblīs

demon in Bengali

evil being: দৈত্য dōitto, শয়তান śoẏotan, ইবলিশ iboliś

demon in Telugu

person with great energy or skill, enthusiast: రాక్షసుడు rākṣasuḍu

More languagesFewer languages

demon in Punjabi: ਪਿਸ਼ਾਚ piśāc
demon in Odia: ଅସୁର asura
demon in Sanskrit: असुर asura, राक्षस rākṣasa, दैत्य daitya
demon in Tagalog: demonyo
demon in Arabic: شَيْطَان šayṭān, شيطان šeṭān
demon in Malay: raksasa, syaitan, iblis
demon in Indonesian: siluman, iblis, setan, dajal
demon in Persian: شیطان šeytân, دیو dêv, ابلیس eblis
demon in Thai: มาร maan, ปิศาจ bpì-sàat, ภูต pûut, มาห์ maa
demon in Vietnamese: quỷ, ma quỷ, yêu ma, ma quái
demon in Myanmar: နတ်ဆိုး nathcui:
Kashmiri: مُشران muśrān, دؠو dyav
Dzongkha: བདུད bdud, འདྲེ 'dre

Examples of demon in a sentence

For a while I used to grind demons and try to get the count higher.
Bruce Campbell was a "demon-killing machine" because he made quick work of killing demons.
The ritual was performed to exorcise the demons from the village.

All 40 example sentences with demon

Synonyms of demon

Pines' Demon
Pines Demon
Pines's demon
genius
tutelary deity
barghest
bogie
bogeyman
boggard
bogle

13 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of demon

Forms of demon

plural	demons
alternative form	daimon
alternative form	daemon
alternative form	dæmon

Plural of demon: demons

Origin of demon

From Middle English demon, a borrowing from Medieval Latin dēmōn, daemōn (“lar, familiar spirit, guardian spirit”), from Ancient Greek δαίμων (daímōn, “dispenser, god, protective spirit”). Displaced native Old English sċucca (“evil spirit”) and Old English þyrs (“ogre or monster”). Doublet of daimon.

From distinct electron motion + -on.

From Maxwell's demon; a derivation from “disk and execution monitor” is generally considered a backronym.

Words formed from demon

Phrases with demon

Words that rhyme with demon

Questions about demon

What does demon mean?: Demon means an evil being resident in or working for Hell; a devil.
What is demon in Hindi?: Demon in Hindi is दानव (dānav), दैत्य (daitya), देव (dev). See Demon meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is demon?: Demon can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce demon?: Demon is pronounced /ˈdiː.mən/.
What is the plural of demon?: The plural of demon is demons.

Words near demon in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: demon (page history and authors); Demon (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.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-demon.wav.

Cite this entry: “demon.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/demon. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.