Is "Dios" plural or singular?

Question

Is "Dios" plural or singular?

Who knows? - annierats, Sep 5, 2015

Creo que ésta es una pregunta sobre la ortografía--y no de teología. (Ojalá) - Daniela2041, Sep 5, 2015

Answer 1

Fun fact this phenomenon occurs in almost all Abrahamic texts as originally the ancient Israelites were polytheistic. You can see it in the Bible in genesis were god refers to himself as we and refers to man as made in our image. So in short while dio was originally the plural it became the singular due to religious reasons

I wonder if the word isn't simply a variation of the original Latin, 'deus', meaning 'a god', which has been rendered in numerous (similar) ways in the various Romance languages. In Spanish & Portuguese it ends with S. In French, Italian and Romanian it does't end in S or any other plural indicator. I don't see why the Spanish would concoct a kind of 'pluralised singular' when even the Italians were happy to keep it straightforwardly singular...

I don't know what you're doing here in the past but this caught my eye. One hebrew word for God is elohim which is a plural form. Our God is elohenu which has "our" as a suffix (-enu?). - Jubilado, Sep 5, 2015

Although I say I'm not a Christian, I did take optional courses in religion throughout school & studied the history and theology of it until leaving year... - Faldaesque, Sep 5, 2015

We analysed the notion of 'transcendency', i.e. the almighty's amorphous omnipresence, so maybe pluralisation is an attempt to reflect this... - Faldaesque, Sep 5, 2015

Of course, some older languages have more complex & versatile plural options (e.g. some languages let you differentiate between one of/two of/more than two of). Not sure how Hebrew works, but a plural doesn't necessarily mean simply more than one... - Faldaesque, Sep 5, 2015

Right! Thanks for all your thoughts on this. - Jubilado, Sep 5, 2015

This entry and the discussion is an appropriate use of talking about religion. It's about language and has nothing to do with proselytizing. It's amazing that the 2 people on this site who are shoving Jesus down my throat are getting away with it. - Sassette, Sep 5, 2015

This 5 year old question still has merit as the Church teaches that GOD exist in a trinity in a plural form and therefore not in a singular form. Yes, the Almighty has a right and a left hand depicted by Jesus (the Right) and Satan (the Left). - brianshouse, Sep 18, 2015

Answer 2

Speaking linguistically and not theologically, the Spanish word "Dios" or even "dios" is singular just as "país" and "autobús" are singular. To make all three plural except for "Dios" with the capital letter which suggests a name, they would be as follows:

dioses

países

autobuses.

Bummer! I was fooled into answering a five year old question--A G A I N!!! Ay! - Daniela2041, Sep 6, 2015

Answer 3

For many religions, it would be sacrilege to suggest there could be two!

Presumably, not including Judaism & Christianity, otherwise, the injunction/commandment "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." would simply be nonsense. Even if rewritten to use the singular form ("god"), the presence of the word "other" implies a plurality.

Answer 4

We are plural !!

Answer 5

Dios is singular.

For many religions, it would be sacrilege to suggest there could be two!

Brian, welcome to the forum. Please try to answer questions by using the tools on the site, for example you can enter dios into the dictionary and discover the answer for yourself. If you get stuck, please post a question which many will respond to.

Best,

J

I did take a look in the dictionary under GOD and gods first. But, someone on this side thinks that I should use DIO to make sure it is singular. Would you understand if you were reading a text that used DIO instead of DIOS? - brianshouse, Sep 21, 2010

No - dio is not a noun. The plural of dios is dioses. :) - Jeremias, Sep 21, 2010

Answer 6

I mmeant "Los dioses griegos"

Answer 7

In a particular religion is singular but if you are talking about Greece, you could say "ls dioses griegos" which is plural bye