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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

idol.

A graven image or representation of anything that is revered, or believed to convey spiritual power.

4 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈaɪ.dl̩/Received-Pronunciation[ˈaɪ.dl̩]Received-Pronunciation/ˈaɪ.dl̩/Canada, General-American[ˈaɪ.ɾl̩]Canada, General-American
  1. A graven image or representation of anything that is revered, or believed to convey spiritual power.

  2. A cultural icon, or especially popular person.

  3. A popular entertainer, usually young, captivating and attractive, and often female, with an image of being close to fans.

    Tom Cruise is his idol.
    Sachin Tendulkar is Rohan's idol.
  4. An eidolon or phantom; a misleading or elusive image or representation.

    obsolete
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *weyd- Proto-Indo-European *-os Proto-Indo-European *wéydos Proto-Hellenic *wéidos Ancient Greek εἶδος (eîdos) Ancient Greek εἴδωλον (eídōlon)der. Latin īdōlumder. Old French idolebor. Middle English ydole English idol From Middle English ydole, from Old French idole, from Latin idolum, from Ancient Greek εἴδωλον (eídōlon, “image, idol”), from εἶδος (eîdos, “form”), from Proto-Indo-European *wéydos (“seeing, image”), from *weyd- (“to see”). Doublet of aidoru, eidolon, and idolum and related to idea.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.