Hebrew and Greek

Word study

See the original words behind the English, what they mean and where they appear.

Look up an English word to see every Hebrew and Greek word behind it, what each one means, and every verse that uses it. You can also type a word in the search field above: an English word such as love, an original word in English letters such as agape or hesed, or a Strong’s number such as G26.

Words people study most

How to study a word well

Start from the verse, not the dictionary. Find which Hebrew or Greek word stands in the verse you are studying. One English word often translates several different original words.
Read every place the word is used. A word means what its writers used it to mean. The list of verses and the count by book show its range, and who uses it most.
Look at how it is translated. A word rendered five different ways has a wider meaning than any one English word can carry.
Notice the form. A command is not a statement, and a passive verb is something done to the subject. The form in your verse is part of the meaning.
See what it keeps company with. The words that appear beside it again and again show how the Bible itself connects ideas.
Then read the dictionaries. They give the considered view of scholars, with their evidence.
Come back to the verse. Context decides. A word does not carry every one of its meanings into every verse, and where a word came from does not settle what it means in a sentence written centuries later.

Every English word, A to Z

Scripture text and translation counts: Berean Standard Bible. Short definition: Dodson Greek Lexicon (2010, public domain). Full entry: G. Abbott-Smith, A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament (1922, public domain). Strong’s Greek Dictionary (1890) in the edition by Ulrik Sandborg-Petersen (CC0). These are historical reference works; an entry gives its authors’ view, and a word’s meaning in any verse depends on how it is used there.