Word study

Period

6 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word

The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: period, periods. 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 “period” or one of its forms.

Compare the Hebrew words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • נִדָּה niddâhimpuritytranslated this way 5 times of its 26 uses · Strong’s H5079Noun  ·  Translated: menstruation 4, menstrual period 3, purification 3, of 3

    Leviticus 15:25 When a woman has a discharge of her blood for many days at a time other than her menstrual period, or if it continues beyond her period, she will be unclean all the days of her unclean discharge, just as she is during the days of her menstruation.

    Ezekiel 18:6 He does not eat at the mountain or look to the idols of the house of Israel. He does not defile his neighbor’s wife or approach a woman during her period.

    Full study and all 22 verses →
  • דֶּרֶךְ derekway, road, distance, journey, mannertranslated this way 1 time of its 653 uses · Strong’s H1870Noun  ·  Translated: way 204, ways 166, road 54, journey 35

    Genesis 31:35 Rachel said to her father, “Sir, do not be angry that I cannot stand up before you; for I am having my period.” So Laban searched but could not find the household idols.

    Full study and all 595 verses →
  • טֻמְאָה ṭumâhuncleannesstranslated this way 1 time of its 32 uses · Strong’s H2932Noun  ·  Translated: uncleanness 15, unclean 5, impurities 3, impurity 2

    Leviticus 15:26 Any bed on which she lies or any furniture on which she sits during the days of her discharge will be unclean, like her bed during her menstrual period.

    Full study and all 29 verses →
  • יוֹם yômdaytranslated this way 1 time of its 2,013 uses · Strong’s H3117Noun  ·  Translated: day 1,009, days 524, today 141, time 72

    Numbers 6:5 For the entire period of his vow of separation, no razor shall touch his head. He must be holy until the time of his separation to the LORD is complete; he must let the hair of his head grow long.

    Full study and all 1,744 verses →
  • רַב rabmuch, many, greattranslated this way 1 time of its 445 uses · Strong’s H7227Adjective  ·  Translated: many 171, great 65, captain 24, long 14

    Joshua 11:18 Joshua waged war against all these kings for a long period of time.

    Full study and all 426 verses →
  • שֶׁבַע shebaseventranslated this way 1 time of its 333 uses · Strong’s H7651Number  ·  Translated: seven 257, seventh 9, seventeenth 6, seventeen 5

    1 Chronicles 9:25 Their relatives came from their villages at fixed times to serve with them for seven-day periods.

    Full study and all 297 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • χρόνος chrónostime, a particular time, seasontranslated this way 1 time of its 45 uses · Strong’s G5550Noun  ·  Translated: time 31, times 6, longer 2

    Revelation 20:3 And he threw him into the Abyss, shut it, and sealed it over him, so that he could not deceive the nations until the thousand years were complete. After that, he must be released for a brief period of time.

    Full study and all 45 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.