Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
Norse deity

Norse deity

9.9
A god or goddess that the ancient Norse people worship
  • noun
  • Literature
translation icon : deidad nórdica
  • In Norse mythology, Odin is considered the chief deity among the ancient Norse people.

Examples

  • Or Almighty Thor, where we're asked to believe that Richard Grieco is a Norse deity.

    Blog text (7)

  • The ancient rituals were held in honor of a Norse deity to ensure a good harvest.

  • Many Norse deities were associated with different aspects of life, such as love and war.

Synonyms

deity
vsNorse deity
62 7.4

A god or goddess that people worship and think has power over part of the world

is worshipped by a specific ancient culture rather than by people generally
god
vsNorse deity
55 3.0

An object or image that people worship and treat as having power

is a supernatural being rather than a worshipped object

Surface Forms

Norse deity singular
Norse deities plural

Morphology

Norse + deity

The phrase is fully compositional: 'Norse' specifies origin/relation to the Norse/Scandinavian people and 'deity' means a god or goddess, so their combination straightforwardly yields 'a god of the Norse.' This adjective+noun pattern is regular and cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents will readily understand the meaning.

Etymology

Norse deity: The noun Norse deity comes from the gods worshipped by the people called the Norse in northern Europe. Think of Thor with his hammer or Odin with ravens and wolves — these strong images show that deity here means a 'god' from Norse stories.