Word study
Dead
9 Hebrew and 4 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with “dead”. 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 “dead” 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)
- מוּת mûthdietranslated this way 100 times of its 771 uses · Strong’s H4191Verb · Translated: die 198, died 152, dead 89, put to death 47Full study and all 694 verses →
Genesis 20:3 One night, however, God came to Abimelech in a dream and told him, “You are as good as dead because of the woman you have taken, for she is a married woman.”
Exodus 4:19 Now the LORD had said to Moses in Midian, “Go back to Egypt, for all the men who sought to kill you are dead.”
- נֶפֶשׁ nepheshsoul, living being, life, self, person, desire, appetite, emotion, and passiontranslated this way 6 times of its 666 uses · Strong’s H5315Noun · Translated: soul 178, life 119, lives 30, person 22Full study and all 622 verses →
Leviticus 19:28 You must not make any cuts in your bodies for the dead or put tattoo marks on yourselves. I am the LORD.
Numbers 5:2 “Command the Israelites to send away from the camp anyone with a skin disease, anyone who has a bodily discharge, and anyone who is defiled by a dead body.
- חָלָל châlâlpiercedtranslated this way 6 times of its 93 uses · Strong’s H2491Noun · Translated: slain 53, dead 6, killed 6, wounded 5Full study and all 84 verses →
Numbers 31:19 All of you who have killed a person or touched the dead are to remain outside the camp for seven days. On the third day and the seventh day you are to purify both yourselves and your captives.
Judges 16:24 And when the people saw him, they praised their god, saying: “Our god has delivered into our hands our enemy who destroyed our land and multiplied our dead.”
- נְבֵלָה nebêlâhcarcass, corpsetranslated this way 5 times of its 44 uses · Strong’s H5038Noun · Translated: body 11, carcass 10, carcasses 8, corpses 7Full study and all 41 verses →
Leviticus 7:24 The fat of an animal found dead or mauled by wild beasts may be used for any other purpose, but you must not eat it.
Ezekiel 4:14 “Ah, Lord GOD,” I said, “I have never defiled myself. From my youth until now I have not eaten anything found dead or mauled by wild beasts. No unclean meat has ever entered my mouth.”
- רָפָא râphâlax, ghost, deadtranslated this way 5 times of its 8 uses · Strong’s H7496Noun · Translated: dead 4, departed spirits 3, spirits of the dead 1Full study and all 8 verses →
Job 26:5 The dead tremble — those beneath the waters and those who dwell in them.
Proverbs 9:18 But they do not know that the dead are there, that her guests are in the depths of Sheol.
- גְּוִיָּה gevîâhbody, corpsetranslated this way 3 times of its 12 uses · Strong’s H1472Noun · Translated: body 4, bodies 3, dead 2, and in 1Full study and all 11 verses →
Psalm 110:6 He will judge the nations, heaping up the dead; He will crush the leaders far and wide.
Nahum 3:3 Charging horseman, flashing sword, shining spear; heaps of slain, mounds of corpses, dead bodies without end— they stumble over their dead—
- נָפַל nâphalfall, lietranslated this way 2 times of its 432 uses · Strong’s H5307Verb · Translated: fall 104, fell 77, fallen 54, falls 21Full study and all 403 verses →
Exodus 32:28 The Levites did as Moses commanded, and that day about three thousand of the people fell dead.
1 Chronicles 21:14 So the LORD sent a plague upon Israel, and seventy thousand men of Israel fell dead.
- מָוֶת mâvethdeathtranslated this way 2 times of its 153 uses · Strong’s H4194Noun · Translated: death 108, die 7, died 7, dies 6Full study and all 148 verses →
Leviticus 11:31 These animals are unclean for you among all the crawling creatures. Whoever touches them when they are dead shall be unclean until evening.
Ecclesiastes 10:1 As dead flies bring a stench to the perfumer’s oil, so a little folly outweighs wisdom and honor.
- אָדָם âdâmman, mankindtranslated this way 2 times of its 509 uses · Strong’s H120Noun · Translated: man 311, men 75, mankind 21, human 18Full study and all 489 verses →
Numbers 9:6 But there were some men who were unclean due to a dead body, so they could not observe the Passover on that day. And they came before Moses and Aaron that same day
Numbers 9:7 and said to Moses, “We are unclean because of a dead body, but why should we be excluded from presenting the LORD’s offering with the other Israelites at the appointed time?”
Greek words (New Testament)
- νεκρός nekrósdead, a corpsetranslated this way 110 times of its 126 uses · Strong’s G3498Adjective · Translated: dead 110, of 11, death 2, corpse 1Full study and all 118 verses →
Matthew 8:22 But Jesus told him, “Follow Me, and let the dead bury their own dead.”
Mark 6:14 Now King Herod heard about this, for Jesus’ name had become well known, and people were saying, “John the Baptist has risen from the dead! That is why miraculous powers are at work in him.”
- θνήσκω thnḗskōI am dying, am deadtranslated this way 8 times of its 9 uses · Strong’s G2348Verb · Translated: dead 6, already dead 1, dead man 1, died 1Full study and all 9 verses →
Matthew 2:20 “Get up!” he said. “Take the Child and His mother and go to the land of Israel, for those seeking the Child’s life are now dead.”
Mark 15:44 Pilate was surprised to hear that Jesus was already dead, so he summoned the centurion to ask if this was so.
- ἀποθνήσκω apothnḗskōI am dying, am about to dietranslated this way 8 times of its 107 uses · Strong’s G599Verb · Translated: died 48, die 31, dies 11, dead 8Full study and all 97 verses →
Mark 5:35 While He was still speaking, messengers from the house of Jairus arrived and said, “Your daughter is dead; why bother the Teacher anymore?”
Luke 8:52 Meanwhile, everyone was weeping and mourning for her. But Jesus said, “Stop weeping; she is not dead but asleep.”
- ἀνίστημι anístēmiI raise up, set up, rise fromtranslated this way 2 times of its 107 uses · Strong’s G450Verb · Translated: got 20, Get 16, rise 14, stood 11Full study and all 106 verses →
Mark 12:25 When the dead rise, they will neither marry nor be given in marriage. Instead, they will be like the angels in heaven.
Acts 2:24 But God raised Him from the dead, releasing Him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep Him in its grip.
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.
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.