/ˈdiː.mən/
OriginFrom Middle English demon, a borrowing from Medieval Latin dēmōn, daemōn (“lar, familiar spirit, guardian spirit”), from Ancient Greek δαίμων (daímōn, “dispenser, god, protective spirit”). Doublet of daimon.
- An evil spirit resident in or working for Hell; a devil.
“So what does the Gospel of Judas really say? It says that Judas is a specific demon called the "Thirteenth." In certain Gnostic traditions, this is the given name of the king of demons - an entity kno”
- historicalA false god or idol; a Satanic divinity.
- A very wicked or malevolent person; also (in weakened sense) a mischievous person, especially a child.
- A source (especially personified) of great evil or wickedness; a destructive feeling or character flaw.
“The demon of stupidity haunts me whenever I open my mouth.”
- in-pluralA person's fears or anxieties.
“After a short spell on an adult psychiatric ward, she decided to find her own way to deal with her demons.”
- A person's inner spirit or genius; a guiding or creative impulse.
“Oh Anthony […] Thy Dæmon that thy spirit which keepes thee, is Noble, Couragious, high vnmatchable.”
““You saw her. And I picked her up,” Lyra said, blushing, because of course it was a gross violation of manners to touch something so private as someone else's dæmon.”
- GreekA tutelary deity or spirit intermediate between the major Olympian gods and mankind, especially a deified hero or the entity which supposedly guided Socrates, telling him what not to do.
- A spirit not considered to be inherently evil; a (non-Christian) deity or supernatural being.
- A hypothetical entity with special abilities postulated for the sake of a thought experiment in philosophy or physics.
“Let the orders now be that each demon is to stop all molecules from crossing his area in either direction except 100 coming from A, arbitrarily chosen to be let pass into B, and a greater number, havi”
- Someone with great strength, passion or skill for a particular activity, pursuit etc.; an enthusiast.
“He’s a demon at the card tables.”
“Chelsea defended like demons to snuff out Manchester City but this was a perfectly calibrated triumph, built upon a structured attacking approach, choosing the right moments to transition, and illumin”
- A type of patience or solitaire (card game) played in the UK and/or US.
“‘That's much the best feeling to have.’ She dealt out the first row of ‘demon’.”
- Any of various hesperiid butterflies of the genera Notocrypta and Udaspes.
- abbreviation, acronym, alt-ofAcronym of distinct electron motion particle: a quasiparticle, a type of massless neutral electron excitation associated with superconductivity.
- alt-of, uncountableAlternative letter-case form of demon (“card game”).
- A male given name from Ancient Greek.
“Demon writes that Taurus, the chief captain of Minos, was slain by Theseus at the mouth of the port, in a naval combat as he was sailing out for Athens.”
Formsdemons(plural) · daimon(alternative) · daemon(alternative) · dæmon(alternative)