EGAVE

cherub

About 0.26 uses per million words.

Meaning

  1. noun A winged creature attending God and guarding his throne described as a being with four faces (man, lion, ox, and eagle), human hands, calf hooves, four wings, and many eyes. A description can be found in Ezekiel chapter 1 and Ezekiel chapter 10; similar to a lamassu (winged bull with a human torso) in the pre-exilic texts of the Hebrew Bible, more humanoid in later texts.
  2. noun A winged angel, described by Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite (c. 5th–6th century) as the second highest order of angels, ranked above thrones and below seraphim.
  3. noun In later texts changed to a winged baby; in artistic depictions sometimes a baby's head with wings but no body.
  4. noun A person, especially a child, seen as being particularly angelic or innocent.

Similar words

amoretto limitary cherubin seraph seraphim putto guardian angel watcher auphanim angel

Often followed by

and that in with of heads on who is

Word family

cherubic cherubically cherubim cherublike cherubs

Save “cherub” to learn later