Word.ws English Dictionary

household deities

household deities is the plural of household deity.

Meaning of household deity

Noun

household deity (plural household deities)

  1. A minor tutelary deity watching over a household, usually conceived as a protective ancestral spirit or genius loci.
    • […] Ganesh (Pillayar in Tamil), here is not associated with militant Hinduism; Pillayar is a lovable household deity here, a free and familiar god who craves no chauvinistic devotion.1990, V. Geetha with S. V. Rajadurai, “Communal Violence in Madras: A Portent?”, in Economic and Political Weekly, volume 25, number 38, →ISSN, page 2122
  2. (figuratively) An icon or patron saint: a revered individual within a group.
    • In our day Roy Basler's The Lincoln Legend and Lloyd Lewis' Myths After Lincoln have demonstrated that the most popular and admired of all American heroes has long ago been made superhistorical in myth; he has become, at least north of the Potomac, a household deity.1954, Marshall Fishwick, “American Heroes:Columbia's Path”, in Western Folklore, volume 13, number 2/3, page 155
    Synonyms:
    exemplar

Questions about household deities

What is household deities the plural of?
Household deities is the plural of household deity.

Words near household deities in the dictionary

  1. household appliances
  2. household art
  3. household arts
  4. household bread
  5. household breads
  6. household deities
  7. household deity
  8. household effect
  9. household effects
  10. household god
  11. household gods

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: household deities (page history and authors); household deity (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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