seraph

[ ser-uhf ]

noun

, plural ser·aphs, ser·a·phim [ser, -, uh, -fim].

1. one of the celestial beings hovering above God's throne in Isaiah's vision. Isaiah 6.
2. a member of the highest order of angels, often represented as a child's head with wings above, below, and on each side.

seraph

/ ˈsɛrəf /

noun

1. theol a member of the highest order of angels in the celestial hierarchies, often depicted as the winged head of a child
2. Old Testament one of the fiery six-winged beings attendant upon Jehovah in Isaiah's vision (Isaiah 6)

Other Words From

• seraph·like adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of seraph¹

First recorded in 1660–70; back formation from seraphim

Word History and Origins

Origin of seraph¹

C17: back formation from plural seraphim, via Late Latin from Hebrew

Example Sentences

Sivan has come a long way from the azure-eyed, impossibly cheekboned seraph that he embodied at the start of his career, and on club songs such as “Silly” and “Rush,” he danced like someone who has seen the range of human possibility at a Berlin fetish dungeon.

From Los Angeles Times

Zora Neale Hurston has a book called “Seraph on the Suwanee.”

From New York Times

Meanwhile, Isabel wonders how long she can march toward irrelevance as a magazine editor; her husband, Dan, a former C-list rocker who “looked, at age twenty, like a seraph out of Botticelli,” now cooks up pancakes for the kids rather than hit songs; and their 5-year-old daughter Violet “is coming into a world of hidden rules, which she can learn only by breaking them.”

From Los Angeles Times

While the Bolt is GM’s top-selling EV at the moment, it trails far behind Tesla models in sales and has never really broken out of a niche market position, said Ambrose Conroy, an automotive expert at the consultancy Seraph.

From Washington Post

The submarine HMS Seraph was waiting.

From BBC

Related Words

• angelic
• pious
• upstanding