Deification is when a person is treated like a god. If you love your basketball coach so much that you build her an altar and bow whenever she walks by, that’s deification. And a little weird.
This word is a variation of deify which means to treat someone like a deity (a god). Deification is treating a mere mortal as someone godly. Often, this word is used negatively. For example, enthusiastic fans of someone could be accused of deification by non-fans. Someone must be considered extremely impressive to be the object of deification. This word is related to Latin deus (god).