noun
daimon
DUH-ih-mohn
noun
1
A guardian spirit or divine influence believed in ancient Greek thought to guide a person's fate or conscience; a scholarly spelling used to distinguish this idea from the later, more sinister sense of "demon."
"Socrates famously described an inner daimon that warned him whenever he was about to make a mistake."
How to Use Daimon
Learner’s notesIn plain EnglishThe original, morally neutral Greek idea of a guiding spirit — not the same as an evil "demon."
Easily confused with
Word Forms
daimons plural, daimones plural
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Socrates famously described an inner _____ that warned him whenever he was about to make a mistake.
Etymology
A modern romanization of Greek daimon, "divider" or "tutelary spirit," kept distinct in spelling from "demon" to avoid the word's later evil connotations.