(or 'Il, written aleph-lamed, e.g. , , , , or , cognate to ) is a Northwest Semitic word meaning "god" or "deity", or referring (as a proper name) to any one of multiple major Ancient Near East deities. A rarer spelling, "'ila", represents the predicate form in Old Akkadian and in Amorite. The word is derived from the Proto-Semitic archaic biliteral , meaning "god".