Deliverance
n.hopeful, resilientliterary
What it means
Rescue or release from danger, oppression, confinement, or severe hardship.
Reach for it when naming a profound escape when ordinary relief would understate the stakes
The arrival of the icebreaker brought deliverance to the stranded crews.
Choose between these
6- everyday
when removal from immediate danger is the concrete event
not when Rescue is less likely to suggest lasting freedom from oppression.
- warm
when suffering eases without a full escape
not when Relief understates rescue from a mortal or oppressive condition.
- professional
release
when confinement or obligation ends
not when Release can be routine and lacks deliverance's grave emotional weight.
- formal
emancipation
when legal or social bondage is ended
not when Emancipation is historically specific and too narrow for physical rescue.
- formal
when release from control or occupation is central
not when Liberation is political and may not suit escape from natural danger.
- literary
when spiritual rescue or preservation from ruin is intended
not when Salvation makes a theological or ultimate claim that deliverance need not.
Said against
3- captivity
- peril
- oppression
It naturally appears in
3- deliverance from
The court ruling offered deliverance from years of unlawful debt.
- hope of deliverance
A radio signal renewed the crew's hope of deliverance.
- long-awaited deliverance
Long-awaited deliverance came when the border gates reopened.
Where this comes from
- Wiktionary, English noun: act of being rescued or set free opens in a new tab · retrieved 2026-07-26
The definition and the example on this page are written here. The dictionaries above ground which meaning is being described, not the wording.