different between monster vs demon

English

Alternative forms

• monstre (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English monstre, borrowed from Old French monstre, mostre, moustre, from Latin m?nstrum.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?m?nst?(?)/
• (US) enPR: m?n'st?(r), IPA^(key): /?m?nst?/
• Rhymes: -?nst?(?)

Noun

monster (plural monsters)

1. A terrifying and dangerous creature.
2. A bizarre or whimsical creature.

3. A cruel, heartless, or antisocial person, especially a criminal.

   Get away from those children, you meatheaded monster!
4. (medicine, archaic) A horribly deformed person.
   • 1837, Medico-Chirurgical Review (page 465)

     Deducting then these cases, we have a large proportion of imperfect foetuses, which belonged to twin conceptions, and in which, therefore, the circulation of the monster may have essentially depended on that of the sound child.

5. (figuratively) A badly behaved child, a brat.

6. (informal) Something unusually large.
7. (informal) A prodigy; someone very talented in a specific domain.

8. (gaming) A non-player character that player(s) fight against in role-playing games.

Derived terms

Related terms

• monstrous
• monstrously
• monstrose

Translations

Descendants

• ? German: Monster
• ? Japanese: ?????
• ? Korean: ??? (monseuteo)

Adjective

monster (not comparable)

1. (informal) Very large; worthy of a monster.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Alexander Pope to this entry?)
2. (informal) Great; very good; excellent.

Synonyms

• (very large): gigantic, monstrous

Translations

Verb

monster (third-person singular simple present monsters, present participle monstering, simple past and past participle monstered)

1. To make into a monster; to categorise as a monster; to demonise.
   • 1983, Michael Slater, Dickens and Women, page 290,

     A Tale of Two Cities and Great Expectations feature four cases of women monstered by passion. Madame Defarge is ‘a tigress’, Mrs Joe a virago, Molly (Estella?s criminal mother) ‘a wild beast tamed’ and Miss Havisham a witch-like creature, a ghastly combination of waxwork and skeleton.

   • 2005, Diana Medlicott, The Unbearable Brutality of Being: Casual Cruelty in Prison and What This Tells Us About Who We Really Are, Margaret Sönser Breen (editor), Minding Evil: Explorations of Human Iniquity, page 82,

     The community forgives: this is in deep contrast to offenders that emerge from prison and remain stigmatised and monstered, often unable to get work or housing.

   • 2011, Stephen T. Asma, On Monsters: An Unnatural History of Our Worst Fears, page 234,

     Demonizing or monstering other groups has even become part of the cycle of American politics.

2. To behave as a monster to; to terrorise.
   • 1968, Robert Lowell, Robert Lowell: A Collection of Critical Essays, page 145,

     Animals in our world have been monstered by human action as much as the free beasts of the pre-lapsarian state were monstered by the primal crime.

   • 2009, Darius Rejali, Torture and Democracy, page 292,

     In 2002, American interrogators on the ground in Afghanistan developed a technique they called “monstering.” The commander “instituted a new rule that a prisoner could be kept awake and in the booth for as long as an interrogator could last.” One “monstering” interrogator engaged in this for thirty hours.¹⁷⁷

   • 2010, Joshua E. S. Phillips, None of Us Were Like This Before: American Soldiers and Torture, page 39,

     The interrogators asked members of the 377th Military Police Company to help them with monstering, and the MPs complied.

3. (chiefly Australia) To harass.

Anagrams

• Monters, mentors, meronts, metrons, monstre, montres, termons

Dutch

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?m?nst?r/
• Hyphenation: mon?ster

Etymology 1

From Middle Dutch monster, probably from Old French monstre, from Latin m?nstrum. Cognate with English monster.

Noun

monster n (plural monsters, diminutive monstertje n)

1. A monster, terrifying and dangerous creature.
2. An extremely antisocial person, especially a criminal.

Derived terms

Etymology 2

Cognate with English muster.

Noun

monster n (plural monsters, diminutive monstertje n)

1. sample; small, representative quantity of a substance or material, as used for analysis or selection.

Derived terms

Verb

monster

1. first-person singular present indicative of monsteren
2. imperative of monsteren

Anagrams

• morsten, stormen, stromen

Swedish

Etymology

From Latin monstrum.

Pronunciation

Noun

monster n

1. A monster, terrifying and dangerous creature.

Declension

Synonyms

• odjur
• vidunder
• best

Anagrams

• mentors, mostern, stormen

English

Alternative forms

• (now chiefly in reference to the ancient Greek spirit): daimon, daemon, dæmon

Etymology

From Middle English demon, a borrowing from Medieval Latin d?m?n, daem?n (“lar, familiar spirit, guardian spirit”), from Ancient Greek ?????? (daím?n, “dispenser, god, protective spirit”). Doublet of daimon.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?di?.m?n/
• Rhymes: -i?m?n
• Homophone: daemon

Noun

demon (plural demons)

1. An evil supernatural spirit.
   1. An evil spirit resident in or working for Hell; a devil. [from 10th c.]
   2. (now chiefly historical) A false god or idol; a Satanic divinity. [from 10th c.]
   3. A very wicked or malevolent person; also (in weakened sense) a mischievous person, especially a child. [from 16th c.]
   4. A source (especially personified) of great evil or wickedness; a destructive feeling or character flaw. [from 17th c.]

      The demon of stupidity haunts me whenever I open my mouth.

   5. (in the plural) A person's fears or anxieties. [from 19th c.]
      • 2013, The Guardian, 21 January:

        After a short spell on an adult psychiatric ward, she decided to find her own way to deal with her demons.

2. A neutral supernatural spirit.
   1. A person's inner spirit or genius; a guiding or creative impulse. [from 14th c.]
      • 1616, William Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra, II.3:

        Oh Anthony […] Thy Dæmon that thy spirit which keepes thee, is Noble, Couragious, high vnmatchable.

      • 2000, Phillip Pullman, The Amber Spyglass:

        “You saw her. And I picked her up,” Lyra said, blushing, because of course it was a gross violation of manners to touch something so private as someone else's dæmon.

   2. (Greek mythology) A tutelary deity or spirit intermediate between the major Olympian gods and mankind, especially a deified hero or the entity which supposedly guided Socrates, telling him what not to do. [from 16th c.]
   3. A spirit not considered to be inherently evil; a (non-Christian) deity or supernatural being. [from 19th c.]
   4. An hypothetical entity with special abilities postulated for the sake of a thought experiment in philosophy or physics.
      • 1874, William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin, “Kinetic Theory of the Dissipation of Energy” in Nature 9, 441-444:

3. Someone with great strength, passion or skill for a particular activity, pursuit etc.; an enthusiast. [from 19th c.]
4. (Britain, card games) A form of patience (known as Canfield in the US). [from 19th c.]
   • 1924, EM Forster, A Passage to India, Penguin 2005, p. 89:

     ‘That's much the best feeling to have.’ She dealt out the first row of ‘demon’.

5. Any of various hesperiid butterflies of the genera Notocrypta and Udaspes.

Usage notes

Meanings drawing on the neutral, ancient Greek conception now often distinguish themselves by the variant spellings daimon or daemon.

Synonyms

• (evil spirit): See Thesaurus:demon
• (neutral spirit): genius, tutelary deity, see also Thesaurus:god and Thesaurus:spirit

Hyponyms

• (evil spirit): See Thesaurus:demon
• (theoretical entity): Maxwell's demon

Related terms

Translations

Anagrams

• Emond, monde, moned

Dutch

Etymology

From Latin daemon (“lar, genius, guardian spirit”), from Ancient Greek ?????? (daím?n, “dispenser, god, protective spirit”). This etymology is incomplete. You can help Wiktionary by elaborating on the origins of this term.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?de?.m?n/
• Hyphenation: de?mon

Noun

demon m (plural demonen or demons)

1. genius, lar
2. (uncommon) demon

   Synonyms: demoon, duivel

Finnish

Noun

demon

1. Genitive singular form of demo.

Anagrams

• moden

Latin

Alternative forms

• d?mum

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /?de?.mon/, [?d?e?m?n]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /?de.mon/, [?d???m?n]

Noun

d?mon m

1. accusative singular of d?mos

Middle English

Etymology

From Medieval Latin d?m?n, daem?n, from Ancient Greek ?????? (daím?n). Doublet of tyme (“time”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /d???m??n/

Noun

demon (plural demones)

1. demon, devil, malicious spirit
2. (rare) daimon, helpful spirit

Descendants

• English: demon

References

• “d?m?n, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-04-25.

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

Borrowed from Ancient Greek ?????? (daím?n).

Noun

demon m (definite singular demonen, indefinite plural demoner, definite plural demonene)

1. a demon

Derived terms

• demonisere

Related terms

• demonisk

References

• “demon” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

Borrowed from Ancient Greek ?????? (daím?n).

Noun

demon m (definite singular demonen, indefinite plural demonar, definite plural demonane)

1. a demon

Derived terms

• demonisere

Related terms

• demonisk

References

• “demon” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Polish

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin daemon (“lar, genius, guardian spirit”), from Ancient Greek ?????? (daím?n, “dispenser, god, protective spirit”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?d?.m?n/

Noun

demon m anim

1. demon

Declension

Derived terms

• demoniczny, demonicznie
• demonizowa?
• demonologia

Romanian

Alternative forms

• dimon (regional, Moldova)

Etymology

Borrowed from Greek ???????? (daímonas), partly through the intermediate of (South) Slavic *demon?. Compare also Aromanian demun.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [?demon]

Noun

demon m (plural demoni)

1. demon
2. (figuratively) a despicable person

Declension

Synonyms

• diavol
• drac

Antonyms

• înger
• sfânt

Related terms

• demonic

Serbo-Croatian

Etymology

Borrowed from Greek ???????? (daímonas).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /d?mo?n/
• Hyphenation: de?mon

Noun

dèm?n m (Cyrillic spelling ??????)

1. demon

Declension

Derived terms

• dèm?nsk?