Deification or canonisation; becoming a net.demigod. Also can mean a deified ideal, or (loosely) the release from earthly life. Late Latin, from the Greek Apotheo make a god of (from theos God).

Ap`o*the"o*sis . [L., fr. Gr. , fr. to deify; from + to deify, a god.]

1.

The act of elevating a mortal to the rank of, and placing him among, "the gods;" deification.

2.

Glorification; exaltation.

"The apotheosis of chivalry."
Prescott.

"The noisy apotheosis of liberty and machinery."
F. Harrison.

© Webster 1913.