Shiva

//ˈʃɪvə// name, noun

name, noun ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A weeklong period of formal mourning for a close relative. Judaism, countable, uncountable

    "Did you know that some parents sit shiva […] for 30 days if their child is discovered to be gay?"

  2. 2
    (Judaism) a period of seven days of mourning after the death of close relative wordnet
Proper Noun
  1. 1
    The god of destruction and transformation, and together with Brahma and Vishnu, one of the principal deities in Hinduism. Within Shaivism he is viewed as the Supreme deity, whereas in other branches of Hinduism such as the Smarta tradition he is worshipped as one of the six manifestations of the Divine. Hinduism

    "The later Bhaumas who were originally Buddhists became worshippers of Siva as is known from their inscriptions."

  2. 2
    A male given name from Sanskrit used in India.

Synonyms

All synonyms
agniasvinsatmanavalokitabhairavabhairavi

Example

More examples

"Shiva Nazi doesn't have any photos yet."

Etymology

Etymology 1

From Hebrew שִׁבְעָה (shiv'á, “seven”), referring to the number of days that shiva spans.

Etymology 2

From Sanskrit शिव (śivá, “the auspicious one”).

Related phrases

sit shiva

More for "shiva"

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