Word.ws English Dictionary

ousia

UK/ˈuːsɪə/

ousia noun: the essential nature or ‘substance’ of God, often as contrasted to the ‘energies’ (external actions and influences) through which he is manifest.

Noun

ousia (uncountable)

  1. The essential nature or ‘substance’ of God, often as contrasted to the ‘energies’ (external actions and influences) through which he is manifest.
    • We could never know God's ousia, but in order to adapt his indescribable nature to our limited intellect, God communicated to us through his activities in the world.2009, Karen Armstrong, The Case for God, Vintage, published 2010, page 79
  2. Essence, being.

Origin of ousia

Borrowed from Ancient Greek οὐσία (ousía), from οὖσα (oûsa), the feminine present participle of εἰμί (eimí, “I am”).

Questions about ousia

What does ousia mean?
Ousia means the essential nature or ‘substance’ of God, often as contrasted to the ‘energies’ (external actions and influences) through which he is manifest.
What part of speech is ousia?
Ousia is a noun.
How do you pronounce ousia?
Ousia is pronounced /ˈuːsɪə/ (UK).

Words near ousia in the dictionary

  1. Ouseley
  2. Ouseleys
  3. ousels
  4. ouses
  5. Oushak
  6. ousia
  7. ousie
  8. ousies
  9. ousing
  10. Ouspenskian
  11. Ousset

Source and license

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