Word study

Almost

3 Hebrew and 3 Greek words behind this English word

The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with “almost”. English often uses one word where Hebrew or Greek has several, each with its own shade of meaning. Under each word are verses where it is translated this way; choose the word itself for its full study: every verse, how else it is translated, the forms it takes and what the dictionaries say.

At a glance

How often each original word is translated “almost” or one of its forms.

Compare the Hebrew words side by side Compare the Greek words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • מְעַט meaṭa little, fewness, a fewtranslated this way 2 times of its 92 uses · Strong’s H4592Adjective  ·  Translated: little 35, few 18, enough 10, soon 3

    Psalm 73:2 But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled; my steps had nearly slipped.

    Psalm 119:87 They almost wiped me from the earth, but I have not forsaken Your precepts.

    Full study and all 85 verses →
  • חָנָה chânâhdecline, bend down, encamptranslated this way 1 time of its 141 uses · Strong’s H2583Verb  ·  Translated: camped 90, camp 18, encamped 11, laid siege 4

    Judges 19:9 When the man got up to depart with his concubine and his servant, his father-in-law, the girl’s father, said to him, “Look, the day is drawing to a close. Please spend the night. See, the day is almost over. Spend the night here, that your heart may be merry. Then you can get up early tomorrow for your journey home.”

    Full study and all 135 verses →
  • מְאֹד meôdmuchness, force, abundance, exceedinglytranslated this way 1 time of its 195 uses · Strong’s H3966Adverb  ·  Translated: greatly 28, very 12, was very 8, exceedingly 8

    Judges 19:11 When they were near Jebus and the day was almost gone, the servant said to his master, “Please, let us stop at this Jebusite city and spend the night here.”

    Full study and all 186 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • κλίνω klínōI rest, recline, make to yieldtranslated this way 1 time of its 7 uses · Strong’s G2827Verb  ·  Translated: lay 2, neared its end 1, bowed 1, almost 1

    Luke 24:29 But they pleaded with Him, “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening and the day is almost over.” So He went in to stay with them.

    Full study and all 7 verses →
  • μέλλω méllōI am about totranslated this way 1 time of its 101 uses · Strong’s G3195Verb  ·  Translated: going 10, come 8, will 8, is about 7

    Acts 21:27 When the seven days were almost over, some Jews from the province of Asia saw Paul at the temple. They stirred up the whole crowd and seized him,

    Full study and all 99 verses →
  • ὡς hōsas, like as, how, while, so thattranslated this way 1 time of its 438 uses · Strong’s G5613Adverb  ·  Translated: as 161, like 124, when 31, just as 15

    Revelation 16:21 And great hailstones weighing almost a hundred pounds each rained down on them from above. And men cursed God for the plague of hail, because it was so horrendous.

    Full study and all 396 verses →
How to study a word well
  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. Look at how it is translated. A word rendered five different ways has a wider meaning than any one English word can carry.
  4. 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.
  5. See what it keeps company with. The words that appear beside it again and again show how the Bible itself connects ideas.
  6. Then read the dictionaries. They give the considered view of scholars, with their evidence.
  7. 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.

Scripture text and translation counts: Berean Standard Bible. Full entry: Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906, public domain), in the digital edition Brown-Driver-Briggs Enhanced by unfoldingWord (Joel Ruark, J. de Joode), based on data by Eliran Wong and Stephen Ku; its additions are used under CC BY 4.0. Strong’s Hebrew Dictionary: Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible Project, CC BY 4.0. Hebrew-to-English verse numbering: original work of the Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible available at https://github.com/openscriptures/morphhb, CC BY 4.0. We reformatted the data, linked the references to this site’s Bible text and left out words in other scripts that the source holds only as images. 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.