Word.ws English Dictionary

god-fearing

god-fearing is the alternative form of God-fearing and of godfearing.

Adjective capitalized: God-fearing

God-fearing (comparative more God-fearing, superlative most God-fearing)

  1. Following the precepts of a religious practice; respecting and revering God and his authority.
    • Margie married Bill, a good, God-fearing Christian.
    • The skipper Mr. Cooke had hired at Far Harbor was a God-fearing man with a luke warm interest in his new billet and employer, and had only been prevailed upon to take charge of the yacht after the offer of an emolument equal to half a year's sea pay of an ensign in the navy.1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter X, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC

Forms of god-fearing

comparativemore god-fearing
superlativemost god-fearing
comparativemore God-fearing
superlativemost God-fearing
alternative formgodfearing
alternative formgod-fearing

Origin of god-fearing

From God + fearing, likely a continuation (in altered form) of earlier Middle English goddfrihti, gode-frigti (“god-fearing”), variants of Middle English godfriht, gode-friht, godfruht, god-furht, from Old English godfyrht, godefriht (“god-fearing”). Cognate with Gothic 𐌲𐌿𐌳𐌰𐍆𐌰𐌿𐍂𐌷𐍄𐍃 (gudafaurhts, “god-fearing, devout”).

Words formed from god-fearing

Questions about god-fearing

What does god-fearing mean?
God-fearing means following the precepts of a religious practice; respecting and revering God and his authority.
What is god-fearing the alternative form of?
God-fearing is the alternative form of God-fearing and of godfearing.
What part of speech is god-fearing?
God-fearing is an adjective.

Words near god-fearing in the dictionary

  1. god-children
  2. God-Emperor
  3. God-Emperors
  4. God-fearer
  5. God-fearers
  6. god-fearing
  7. God-fearingness
  8. god-forsaken
  9. God-given
  10. god-grandmother
  11. god-grandmothers

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: god-fearing (page history and authors); God-fearing (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-God-fearing.wav.

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