Im christl. Glauben Aufenthalts- und Strafort für die Seelen der Verdammten, das Reich des Teufels und der ewigen Trennung von Gott. Die Vorstellung von der H. ging aus dem antiken Bild eines unterweltl. Totenreichs hervor. In der religiösen Kunst ist die H. oft als flammenumhüllter Schreckensort dargestellt.
In den meisten Religionen Ort der ewigen Verdammnis.
ETYM Latin abyssus a bottomless gulf, from Greek for bottomless; a priv. + byssos depth, bottom.
(Irregular plural: abysses).
A bottomless gulf or pit; SYN. abysm.
Any unfathomable (or apparently unfathomable) cavity or chasm or void extending below (often used figuratively)
ETYM AS. hell; akin to Dutch hel, Old High Germ. hella, German hölle, Icel. hal, Swed. helfvete, Dan. helvede, Goth. halja, and to AS. helan to conceal. Related to Hele, Conceal, Cell, Helmet, Hole, Occult.
1. A cause of difficulty and suffering; SYN. blaze.
2. Any place of pain and turmoil; SYN. hell on earth, the pits, inferno.
3. Noisy and unrestrained mischief; SYN. blaze.
In various religions, a place of posthumous punishment. In Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism, hell is a transitory stage in the progress of the soul, but in Christianity and Islam it is eternal (purgatory is transitory). Judaism does not postulate such punishment.
In the Bible, the word “hell” is used to translate Hebrew and Greek words all meaning “the place of departed spirits, the abode of the dead”. In medieval Christian theology, hell is the place where unrepentant sinners suffer the torments of the damned, but the 20th-century tendency has been to regard hell as a state of damnation (that is, everlasting banishment from the sight of God) rather than a place.
In astrophysics, a unit for describing the temperature inside a star. One inferno is 1 billion K, or approximately 1 billionşC.
Yoo-hoo, used to attract attention or as a call to persons!
aus dem Volksglauben abgeleitete Märchengestalt (Frau H.), die vermutl. auf eine heidnische Gottheit zurückgeht.