godlike

From god +‎ -like.

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈɡɑdlaɪk/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈɡɒdlaɪk/
• Hyphenation: god‧like

• Audio (US):

  (file)

godlike (comparative more godlike, superlative most godlike)

1. Having the characteristics of a god.

   Hyponym: Godlike

   • 1895, H. L. Mencken, transl., The Antichrist, translation of Der Antichrist by Friedrich Nietzsche, §48:

     Man himself had been his greatest blunder; he had created a rival to himself; science makes men godlike — it is all up with priests and gods when man becomes scientific!

   • 1990 September 1, Lois McMaster Bujold, The Vor Game, Baen Books, →ISBN, →OL:

     When a normal ensign looked at his commander, he ought to see a godlike being, not a, a... future subordinate.

   • 2001 July 14, Meltdown (Farscape), season 3, episode 12, spoken by John Crichton (Ben Browder):

     Godlike aliens! Man, do I hate godlike aliens! I'll trade a critter for a godlike alien, any day!

2. Characteristic of a god.
   • 1817, John Keats, On Seeing the Elgin Marbles:

     And each imagin'd pinnacle and steep / Of godlike hardship tells me I must die / Like a sick Eagle looking at the sky.

   • 1850, Horace Mann, A Few Thoughts for a Young Man:

     Beneficence is godlike, and he who does most good to his fellow-man is the Master of Masters, and has learned the Art of Arts.

   • 1949, Henry Kuttner, The Time Axis, published 1965, →OL:

     It took the combined skills of three great civilizations far apart in time to frame that godlike concept in which the tangible universe itself was only a single factor.

• doglike