Numen
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A divinity, especially a local or presiding god.
"The Egyptians were doubtless the most singular of all the Pagans, and the most oddly discrepant from the rest in their manner of worship; yet nevertheless, that these also agreed with the rest in those fundamentals of worshipping one supreme and universal Numen […]"
- 2 a spirit believed to inhabit an object or preside over a place (especially in ancient Roman religion) wordnet
- 3 An influence or phenomenon at once mystical and transcendent.
"[…]but never did the places or the persons turn into idols for my irrational worship. It was only the numen in them that I loved, who, as I passed by abstracted, whispered some immortal word in my ear."
Example
More examples"The Egyptians were doubtless the most singular of all the Pagans, and the most oddly discrepant from the rest in their manner of worship; yet nevertheless, that these also agreed with the rest in those fundamentals of worshipping one supreme and universal Numen […]"
Etymology
From Latin nūmen.
More for "numen"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.