Adjacent Words

Perdition definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

PERDI'TION, n. [L. perditio, from perdo, to lose, to ruin.]
1. Entire loss or ruin; utter destruction; as the perdition of the Turkish fleet.
[In this sense, the word is now nearly or wholly obsolete.]
2. The utter loss of the soul or of final happiness in a future state; future misery or eternal death. The impenitent sinner is condemned to final perdition.
If we reject the truth, we seal our own perdition.
3. Loss. [Not used.]

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: (Christianity) the abode of Satan and the forces of evil; where sinners suffer eternal punishment; "Hurl'd headlong...To bottomless perdition, there to dwell"- John Milton; "a demon from the depths of the pit"; "Hell is paved with good intentions"-Dr. Johnson [syn: Hell, perdition, Inferno, infernal region, nether region, pit] [ant: Heaven]

Merriam Webster's

noun Etymology: Middle English perdicion, from Anglo-French perdiciun, Late Latin perdition-, perditio, from Latin perdere to destroy, from per- through + dare to give — more at per-, date Date: 14th century 1. a. archaic utter destruction b. obsolete loss 2. a. eternal damnation b. hell

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. eternal death; damnation. Etymology: ME f. OF perdiciun or eccl.L perditio f. L perdere destroy (as PER-, dere dit- = dare give)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Perdition Per*di"tion, n. [F., fr. L. perditio, fr. perdere, perditum, to ruin, to lose; per (cf. Skr. par[=a] away) + -dere (only in comp.) to put; akin to Gr. ?, E. do. See Do.] 1. Entire loss; utter destruction; ruin; esp., the utter loss of the soul, or of final happiness in a future state; future misery or eternal death. The mere perdition of the Turkish fleet. --Shak. If we reject the truth, we seal our own perdition. --J. M. Mason. 2. Loss of diminution. [Obs.] --Shak.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

If you say that someone is on the road to perdition, you mean that their behaviour is likely to lead them to failure and disaster. (LITERARY) N-UNCOUNT: usu prep N

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

per-dish'-un (apoleia, "ruin" or "loss," physical or eternal): The word "perdition" occurs in the English Bible 8 times (Joh 17:12; Php 1:28; 2Th 2:3; 1Ti 6:9; Heb 10:39; 2Pe 3:7; Re 17:11,18). In each of these cases it denotes the final state of ruin and punishment which forms the opposite to salvation. The verb apolluein, from which the word is derived, has two meanings:

(1) to lose;

(2) to destroy.

Both of these pass over to the noun, so that apoleia comes to signify:

(1) loss;

(2) ruin, destruction.

The former occurs in Mt 26:8; Mr 14:4, the latter in the passages cited above. Both meanings had been adopted into the religious terminology of the Scriptures as early as the Septuagint. "To be lost" in the religious sense may mean "to be missing" and "to be ruined," The former meaning attaches to it in the teaching of Jesus, who compares the lost sinner to the missing coin, the missing sheep, and makes him the object of a seeking activity (Mt 10:6; 15:24; 18:11; Lu 15:4,6,8,24,32; 19:10). "To be lost" here signifies to have become estranged from God, to miss realizing the relations which man normally sustains toward Him. It is equivalent to what is theologically called "spiritual death." This conception of "loss" enters also into the description of the eschatological fate of the sinner as assigned in the judgment (Lu 9:24; 17:33), which is a loss of life. The other meaning of "ruin" and "destruction" describes the same thing from a different point of view. Apoleia being the opposite of soteria, and soteria in its technical usage denoting the reclaiming from death unto life, apoleia also acquires the specific sense of such ruin and destruction as involves an eternal loss of life (Php 1:28; Heb 10:39). Perdition in this latter sense is equivalent to what theology calls "eternal death." When in Re 17:8,11 it is predicated of "the beast," one of the forms of the world-power, this must be understood on the basis of the Old Testament prophetic representation according to which the coming judgment deals with powers rather than persons.

The Son of Perdition is a name given to Judas (Joh 17:12) and to the Antichrist (2Th 2:3). This is the well-known Hebrew idiom by which a person typically embodying a certain trait or character or destiny is called the son of that thing. The name therefore represents Judas and the Antichrist (see MAN OF SIN) as most irrecoverably and completely devoted to the final apoleia.

Geerhardus Vos

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

n. 1. Ruin, destruction, overthrow, wreck, downfall, utter loss, demolition. 2. Eternal death, future misery.

Moby Thesaurus

Abaddon, Gehenna, Hades, Naraka, Pandemonium, Sheol, Tophet, abyss, avichi, bereavement, bloodbath, blue ruin, breakup, carnage, condemnation, consumption, cost, damage, damnation, dead loss, debit, decimation, denial, denudation, depredation, deprivation, desolation, despoilment, despoliation, destruction, detriment, devastation, disintegration, disorganization, dispossession, disruption, dissolution, divestment, doom, downfall, expense, forfeit, forfeiture, hades, havoc, hecatomb, hell, holocaust, infernal regions, inferno, injury, jahannan, limbo, loser, losing, losing streak, loss, lower world, nether world, netherworld, pit, place of torment, privation, purgatory, ravage, robbery, ruin, ruination, sacrifice, shades below, shambles, slaughter, spoliation, stripping, taking away, the abyss, the bottomless pit, the grave, the pit, total loss, underworld, undoing, vandalism, waste, wrack, wrack and ruin, wreck