SALVATION

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does salvation mean? 

• SALVATION (noun)
  The noun SALVATION has 4 senses:

1. (theology) the act of delivering from sin or saving from evil

2. a means of preserving from harm or unpleasantness

3. the state of being saved or preserved from harm

4. saving someone or something from harm or from an unpleasant situation

  Familiarity information: SALVATION used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SALVATION (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

(theology) the act of delivering from sin or saving from evil

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

redemption; salvation

Hypernyms ("salvation" is a kind of...):

deliverance; delivery; rescue; saving (recovery or preservation from loss or danger)

Domain category:

divinity; theology (the rational and systematic study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truth)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "salvation"):

absolution; remission; remission of sin; remittal (the act of absolving or remitting; formal redemption as pronounced by a priest in the sacrament of penance)

conversion; rebirth; spiritual rebirth (a spiritual enlightenment causing a person to lead a new life)

atonement; expiation; propitiation (the act of atoning for sin or wrongdoing (especially appeasing a deity))

Sense 2

Meaning:

A means of preserving from harm or unpleasantness

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Context example:

they turned to individualism as their salvation

Hypernyms ("salvation" is a kind of...):

agency; means; way (thing or person that acts to produce a particular effect or achieve an end)

Sense 3

Meaning:

The state of being saved or preserved from harm

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Hypernyms ("salvation" is a kind of...):

safety (the state of being certain that adverse effects will not be caused by some agent under defined conditions)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Saving someone or something from harm or from an unpleasant situation

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Context example:

the salvation of his party was the president's major concern

Hypernyms ("salvation" is a kind of...):

deliverance; delivery; rescue; saving (recovery or preservation from loss or danger)

Derivation:

salve (save from ruin, destruction, or harm)

 Context examples 

The use of my own salvation.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

When I came in he threw himself on his knees before me and implored me to let him have a cat; that his salvation depended upon it.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

But now entered Hans, and she saw that his sanity and his salvation were involved.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

I beg permission to have a few witnesses examined concerning my character, and if their testimony shall not overweigh my supposed guilt, I must be condemned, although I would pledge my salvation on my innocence.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Girls do it every day, poor things, and are taught to think it is their only salvation, but you had better lessons, and though I trembled for you at one time, I was not disappointed, for the daughter was true to the mother's teaching.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Just as the sun was setting upon that melancholy night I saw the lonely figure of the Indian upon the vast plain beneath me, and I watched him, our one faint hope of salvation, until he disappeared in the rising mists of evening which lay, rose-tinted from the setting sun, between the far-off river and me.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Teachers, you must watch her: keep your eyes on her movements, weigh well her words, scrutinise her actions, punish her body to save her soul: if, indeed, such salvation be possible, for (my tongue falters while I tell it) this girl, this child, the native of a Christian land, worse than many a little heathen who says its prayers to Brahma and kneels before Juggernaut—this girl is—a liar!

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

There were two leaden crowns among the silver, but I would not for that stand in the way of his salvation.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

This may yet be his salvation, for, if all go well, it will tide him over the despairing period; he will then, in a kind of way, wake again to the realities of life.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

This nail, he continued, pulling off his hat and turning up his sightless orbs, is one of those wherewith man's salvation was secured.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)