Word study

Similar

6 Hebrew words behind this English word

The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with “similar”. 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 “similar” or one of its forms.

Compare the Hebrew words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • אֵלֶּה êl-lehthesetranslated this way 2 times of its 693 uses · Strong’s H428Pronoun  ·  Translated: these 377, things 36, of these 28, this 25

    2 Kings 25:17 Each pillar was eighteen cubits tall. The bronze capital atop one pillar was three cubits high, with a network of bronze pomegranates all around. The second pillar, with its network, was similar.

    Full study and all 655 verses →
  • זֶה zehthis, thattranslated this way 1 time of its 984 uses · Strong’s H2088Pronoun  ·  Translated: this 478, in this 42, these 39, of this 27

    1 Kings 7:8 And the palace where Solomon would live, set further back, was of similar construction. He also made a palace like this hall for Pharaoh’s daughter, whom he had married.

    Full study and all 913 verses →
  • עוֹד ôda going round, continuancetranslated this way 1 time of its 390 uses · Strong’s H5750Adverb  ·  Translated: longer 80, still 63, again 52, more 38

    Jeremiah 36:32 Then Jeremiah took another scroll and gave it to the scribe Baruch son of Neriah, and at Jeremiah’s dictation he wrote on it all the words of the scroll that Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned in the fire. And many similar words were added to them.

    Full study and all 372 verses →
  • מַרְאֶה marehsight, appearance, visiontranslated this way 1 time of its 76 uses · Strong’s H4758Noun  ·  Translated: appearance 16, vision 8, appear 6, sight 5

    Ezekiel 41:21 The outer sanctuary had a rectangular doorframe, and the doorframe of the sanctuary was similar.

    Full study and all 63 verses →
  • כֹּל kôlthe whole, alltranslated this way 1 time of its 5,107 uses · Strong’s H3605Noun  ·  Translated: all 1,589, and all 471, whole 223, every 196Full study and all 4,112 verses →
  • כֵּן kênright, veritable, honesttranslated this way 1 time of its 461 uses · Strong’s H3651Adverb  ·  Translated: Therefore 159, so 111, this 24, way 13Full study and all 451 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.