Ousia

//ˈuːsɪə// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The essential nature or ‘substance’ of God, often as contrasted to the ‘energies’ (external actions and influences) through which he is manifest. uncountable

    "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."

  2. 2
    Essence, being. uncountable

Synonyms

All synonyms
essencegravamenlife principleprana

Example

More examples

"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."

Etymology

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

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.