teotl.

Headword: 
teotl.
Principal English Translation: 

a divine or sacred force; a deity; divinity; God; something blessed, something divine (see Molina, Karttunen, and attestations)

Orthographic Variants: 
teutl, theu, theou, teyotl
IPAspelling: 
teoːtɬ
Alonso de Molina: 

teotl. dios.
Alonso de Molina, Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana y mexicana y castellana, 1571, part 2, Nahuatl to Spanish, f. 101r. col. 2. Thanks to Joe Campbell for providing the transcription.

teutl. dios.
Alonso de Molina, Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana y mexicana y castellana, 1571, part 2, Nahuatl to Spanish, f. 112r. col. 2. Thanks to Joe Campbell for providing the transcription.

Frances Karttunen: 

TEŌ-TL pl: TĒTEOH god / dios (M) Z has the variant TIŌ-TL.
Frances Karttunen, An Analytical Dictionary of Nahuatl (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992), 228.

Lockhart’s Nahuatl as Written: 

abs. pl. tēteoh. combining form most often teō-, sometimes teoh; combined form can mean fine, fancy, large, etc. 234
James Lockhart, Nahuatl as Written: Lessons in Older Written Nahuatl, with Copious Examples and Texts (Stanford: Stanford University Press and UCLA Latin American Studies, 2001), 234.

Attestations from sources in English: 

iceltzin teotl = only god -- Isabel Laack explains how this is a Christian monotheistic expression in Nahuatl created by the missionaries
Isabel Laack, Aztec Religion and Art of Writing (Leiden: Brill, 2019), 116.

icel teutl dios = the only Deity, God (central Mexico, early seventeenth century)
Codex Chimalpahin: Society and Politics in Mexico Tenochtitlan, Tlatelolco, Culhuacan, and Other Nahuatl Altepetl in Central Mexico; The Nahuatl and Spanish Annals and Accounts Collected and Recorded by don Domingo de San Antón Muñón Chimalpahin Quauhtlehuanitzin, eds. and transl. Arthur J. O. Anderson and Susan Schroeder (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1997), vol. 2, 130–131.

In the sermon of Juan Bautista of perhaps 1599 or the early seventeenth century, teotl is only used in reference to the Christian God when combined with tlatoani or Dios.
Susanne Klaus, Uprooted Christianity: The Preaching of the Christian Doctrine in Mexico, Based on Franciscan Sermons of the 16th Century Written in Nahuatl (Bonn: Bonner Amerikanistische Studien e. V. c/o Seminar für Völkerkunde, Universität Bonn, 1999), 144.

huítzilin, Yhuá Pizíetl Co pallí , Xochí ocotzotl. âhuí altic, totoch tin coamê, Zolimê; camochí ynin cenca míec quin míctiaya .y huá Yxpan qui hue n manaya ynin theoû Camaxtle = hummingbird, and tobacco incense, liquid nectar, rabbits, snakes, and quails--for they killed all these together and spread the offerings out before their god Camaxtli
Anónimo mexicano, ed. Richley H. Crapo and Bonnie Glass-Coffin (Logan, UT: Utah State University Press, 2005), 37.

amo quimatia cah in intheuh, Camaxtli catca Yzlacatiní, tlahueli loca theotl = they did not know that their god Camaxtli was an impostor, a villain god.
Anónimo mexicano, ed. Richley H. Crapo and Bonnie Glass-Coffin (Logan, UT: Utah State University Press, 2005), 35.

Yn yehuantín huel yn cen yolo Pachiuhticatca ynoquímílhuyaia ynin theû- Camaxtle = They themselves were very satisfied, with their whole heard, that they were strengthened by their god Camaxtli.
Anónimo mexicano, ed. Richley H. Crapo and Bonnie Glass-Coffin (Logan, UT: Utah State University Press, 2005), 32.

inTeuoan catca = their former gods (central Mexico, sixteenth century)
James Lockhart, We People Here: Nahuatl Accounts of the Conquest of Mexico, Repertorium Columbianum v. 1 (Los Angeles: UCLA Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 1993), 214.

yeititzintzin teotlaCatzintzinti personas Ca san Se huel neli teol dios = three divine persons but one very true deity God (Santa María de la Asunción, Toluca Valley, 1762)
Caterina Pizzigoni, ed., Testaments of Toluca (Stanford: Stanford University Press and UCLA Latin American Center Publications, 2007), 177.

innenonotzal, inic quinamicque, inic quītlatlauhtique in capitan in teutl, yoan in ie mochintin teteu = agreement to meet with and address the Captain, the god and all the gods (Mexico City, sixteenth century)
James Lockhart, We People Here: Nahuatl Accounts of the Conquest of Mexico, Repertorium Columbianum v. 1 (Los Angeles: UCLA Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 1993), 166.

quinteuma, teteu impan quinma quinteutocac: ic notzaloque, ic tocaiotiloque, teteu ilhuicac vitze = He took them for gods, considered them gods, worshiped them as gods. They were called and given the name of gods who have come from heaven. (central Mexico, sixteenth century)
James Lockhart, We People Here: Nahuatl Accounts of the Conquest of Mexico, Repertorium Columbianum v. 1 (Los Angeles: UCLA Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 1993), 82.

teotl = "the Nahuatl word for sacred powers, which was used as a translation for 'god' even though native divinities were more diffuse and less personalized than the Old World concept denotes" -- this term was used in the play for the Nahuatl Christ. (central Mexico, sixteenth century)
Louise M. Burkhart, Holy Wednesday: A Nahua Drama from Early Colonial Mexico (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1996), 169.

quihtoque yn chichimeca pipiltin ye quimilhuia. ȳ mexica aquin amoteoouh niman quitlanque ȳyn cihuatl. yn Mexica quimilhuique ma xitechmaca ce mochpoch ypampa tamechititizque yn toteouh = The Chichimeca noblemen spoke; they said to the Mexica: Who is your god? Then the Mexica asked for this woman. They said to them: Give us one of your daughters so that we may show you our god. (Mexico City, late sixteenth to early seventeenth century)
Codex Chimalpahin: Society and Politics in Mexico Tenochtitlan, Tlatelolco, Culhuacan, and Other Nahuatl Altepetl in Central Mexico; The Nahuatl and Spanish Annals and Accounts Collected and Recorded by don Domingo de San Antón Muñón Chimalpahin Quauhtlehuanitzin, eds. and transl. Arthur J. O. Anderson and Susan Schroeder (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1997), vol. 1, 220, 221.

yn totecuiyo Jesu cristo nelli teotl. Yhuan oquichtli yuh nitlaneltoca = Our lord Jesus Christ is a true divinity. And he is a man. So do I believe. (early seventeenth century, Central Mexico)
Louise M. Burkhart, Before Guadalupe: The Virgin Mary in Early Colonial Nahuatl Literature, Institute for Mesoamerican Studies Monograph 13 (Albany: University at Albany, 2001), 58.

yntlacamo quimilhuilliani Ca hamõ teutl çan itlaçotlachihualtzin. yn dios. quiteotocazquia = if he had not told him that she was not a divinity, only a precious creation of God, he would have taken her as divinity (early seventeenth century, Central Mexico)
Louise M. Burkhart, Before Guadalupe: The Virgin Mary in Early Colonial Nahuatl Literature, Institute for Mesoamerican Studies Monograph 13 (Albany: University at Albany, 2001), 103.

ynic mopolihuiltia eilhuitl teotl dios Jesus. piltzintli = the Child Jesus, the deity and god who was lost for three days (central Mexico, 1613)
Annals of His Time: Don Domingo de San Antón Muñón Chimalpahin Quauhtlehuanitzin, James Lockhart, Susan Schroeder, and Doris Namala, eds. and transl. (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2006), 242–3.

ce huel neli teutzitli Dios = one very true deity God (Toluca valley, 1822)
Miriam Melton-Villanueva, The Aztecs at Independence: Nahua Culture Makers in Central Mexico, 1799–1832 (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2016), 175–176.

The "o" in teotl was pronounced much like a "u," especially by the men.
Joseph Augustin de Aldama y Guevara, Arte de la lengua mexicana (Mexico: BIbliotheca Mexicana, 1754), 25.

Attestations from sources in Spanish: 

yn Dios Detazin yhuan yn Dios Tepiltzin yhuan yn Dios Espirito Sancto yn eyn perçonan çan ce yhuel neli teotl = Dios padre y de Dios hijo y Dios Espíritu Santo, tres personas y un solo Dios verdadero (Santa Ana Acoltzinco, 1673)
Vidas y bienes olvidados: Testamentos indígenas novohispanos, vol. 1, Testamentos en castellano del siglo XVI y en náhuatl y castellano de Ocotelulco de los siglos XVI y XVII, eds. Teresa Rojas Rabiela, Elsa Leticia Rea López, y Constantino Medina Lima (Mexico: CIESAS, 1999), 192–193.

ca moteouh, ca motlahtocatzin, ca motemaquixticatzin = porque es tu Dios, porque es tu Señor, porque es tu Redentor
Huehuehtlahtolli. Testimonios de la antigua palabra, ed. Librado Silva Galeana y un estudio introductorio por Miguel León-Portilla (México: Secretaría de Educación Pública, Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1991), 52–53.

teotl = dios; moteuh = tu dios
Rémi Siméon, Diccionario de la lengua náhuatl o mexicana (Mexico: Siglo XXI, 1988), xlii.