Word study
Woman
17 Hebrew and 4 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: woman, women. 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 “woman” 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)
- אִשָּׁה ishshâhwoman, wife, femaletranslated this way 280 times of its 711 uses · Strong’s H802Noun · Translated: wife 251, woman 172, wives 92, women 88Full study and all 638 verses →
Genesis 2:22 And from the rib that the LORD God had taken from the man, He made a woman and brought her to him.
Exodus 1:19 The midwives answered Pharaoh, “The Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women, for they are vigorous and give birth before a midwife arrives.”
- נַעֲרָה naărâhgirl, damseltranslated this way 17 times of its 56 uses · Strong’s H5291Noun · Translated: girl 11, young woman 8, girl's 5, servant girls 4Full study and all 52 verses →
Deuteronomy 22:24 you must take both of them out to the gate of that city and stone them to death— the young woman because she did not cry out in the city, and the man because he has violated his neighbor’s wife. So you must purge the evil from among you.
Ruth 2:5 And Boaz asked the foreman of his harvesters, “Whose young woman is this?”
- יָלַד yâladbear, bring forth, begettranslated this way 14 times of its 484 uses · Strong’s H3205Verb · Translated: father 111, born 57, bore 52, gave birth 44Full study and all 395 verses →
Exodus 1:16 “When you help the Hebrew women give birth, observe them on the birthstools. If the child is a son, kill him; but if it is a daughter, let her live.”
Leviticus 12:7 And the priest will present them before the LORD and make atonement for her; and she shall be ceremonially cleansed from her flow of blood. This is the law for a woman giving birth, whether to a male or to a female.
- בַּת bathdaughtertranslated this way 10 times of its 551 uses · Strong’s H1323Noun · Translated: daughter 255, daughters 218, villages 19, towns 6Full study and all 486 verses →
Genesis 27:46 Then Rebekah said to Isaac, “I am weary of my life because of these Hittite women. If Jacob takes a Hittite wife from among them, what good is my life?”
Exodus 2:1 Now a man of the house of Levi married a Levite woman,
- בְּתוּלָה bethûlâhvirgintranslated this way 9 times of its 50 uses · Strong’s H1330Noun · Translated: virgin 26, maidens 7, young women 5, virgins 3Full study and all 50 verses →
Deuteronomy 32:25 Outside, the sword will take their children, and inside, terror will strike the young man and the young woman, the infant and the gray-haired man.
Judges 21:12 So they found among the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead four hundred young women who had not had relations with a man, and they brought them to the camp at Shiloh in the land of Canaan.
- עָקָר âqârbarrentranslated this way 4 times of its 12 uses · Strong’s H6135Adjective · Translated: barren 7, barren woman 3, barren man 1, woman 1Full study and all 11 verses →
Deuteronomy 7:14 You will be blessed above all peoples; among you there will be no barren man or woman or livestock.
1 Samuel 2:5 The well-fed hire themselves out for food, but the starving hunger no more. The barren woman gives birth to seven, but she who has many sons pines away.
- אָמַר âmarutter, saytranslated this way 4 times of its 4,555 uses · Strong’s H559Verb · Translated: said 1,531, says 576, say 352, replied 341Full study and all 3,827 verses →
- אָמָה âmâhmaid, handmaidtranslated this way 3 times of its 53 uses · Strong’s H519Noun · Translated: maidservant 25, maidservants 13, servant 9, slave woman's 2Full study and all 49 verses →
Genesis 21:10 and she said to Abraham, “Expel the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with my son Isaac!”
- גָּרַשׁ gârashdrive out, cast outtranslated this way 3 times of its 46 uses · Strong’s H1644Verb · Translated: drive 14, drove 7, banished 4, driven 3Full study and all 45 verses →
Leviticus 21:14 He is not to marry a widow, a divorced woman, or one defiled by prostitution. He is to marry a virgin from his own people,
Numbers 30:9 Every vow a widow or divorced woman pledges to fulfill is binding on her.
- שׁוּנַמִּית ShûnammîthShunammitesstranslated this way 3 times of its 8 uses · Strong’s H7767Noun · Translated: Shunammite 5, Shunammite woman 3Full study and all 8 verses →
2 Kings 4:12 And he said to Gehazi his servant, “Call the Shunammite woman.” And when he had called her, she stood before him,
2 Kings 4:25 So she set out and went to the man of God at Mount Carmel. When the man of God saw her at a distance, he said to his servant Gehazi, “Look, there is the Shunammite woman.
- הָרֶה hârehpregnanttranslated this way 3 times of its 16 uses · Strong’s H2030Adjective · Translated: pregnant 7, conceive 2, pregnant women 2Full study and all 16 verses →
2 Kings 8:12 “Why is my lord weeping?” asked Hazael. “Because I know the evil you will do to the Israelites,” Elisha replied. “You will set fire to their fortresses, kill their young men with the sword, dash their little ones to pieces, and rip open their pregnant women.”
Isaiah 26:17 As a woman with child about to give birth writhes and cries out in pain, so were we in Your presence, O LORD.
- כְּנַעַנִי Kenaanîtrader, merchanttranslated this way 2 times of its 72 uses · Strong’s H3669Noun · Translated: Canaanites 56, Canaanite 10, Canaanite woman 2, merchants 2Full study and all 70 verses →
Genesis 46:10 The sons of Simeon: Jemuel, Jamin, Ohad, Jachin, Zohar, and Shaul the son of a Canaanite woman.
Exodus 6:15 The sons of Simeon were Jemuel, Jamin, Ohad, Jachin, Zohar, and Shaul, the son of a Canaanite woman. These were the clans of Simeon.
- טָמֵא ṭâmêuncleantranslated this way 2 times of its 85 uses · Strong’s H2931Adjective · Translated: unclean 67, defiled 6, unclean person 2, ceremonially unclean 2Full study and all 78 verses →
Leviticus 15:33 of a woman in her menstrual period, of any male or female who has a discharge, and of a man who lies with an unclean woman.’”
Ezekiel 22:10 In you they have uncovered the nakedness of their fathers; in you they violate women during their menstrual impurity.
- מִדְיָנִי MidyânîMidianitetranslated this way 2 times of its 7 uses · Strong’s H4084Noun · Translated: Midianite 3, Midianite woman 2, Midianites 2Full study and all 7 verses →
Numbers 25:6 Just then an Israelite man brought to his family a Midianite woman in the sight of Moses and the whole congregation of Israel while they were weeping at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.
Numbers 25:14 The name of the Israelite who was slain with the Midianite woman was Zimri son of Salu, the leader of a Simeonite family.
- אִישׁ îshmantranslated this way 2 times of its 1,399 uses · Strong’s H376Noun · Translated: man 650, men 198, one 79, each 79Full study and all 1,278 verses →
- עִבְרִי IbrîHebrewtranslated this way 2 times of its 34 uses · Strong’s H5680Noun · Translated: Hebrews 17, Hebrew 13, help the hebrew 1, Hebrew women 1Full study and all 32 verses →
Exodus 1:19 The midwives answered Pharaoh, “The Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women, for they are vigorous and give birth before a midwife arrives.”
Deuteronomy 15:12 If a fellow Hebrew, a man or a woman, is sold to you and serves you six years, then in the seventh year you must set him free.
- נְקֵבָה neqêbâhfemaletranslated this way 2 times of its 22 uses · Strong’s H5347Noun · Translated: female 18, daughter 1, female alike 1, women 1Full study and all 22 verses →
Numbers 31:15 “Have you spared all the women?” he asked them.
Jeremiah 31:22 How long will you wander, O faithless daughter? For the LORD has created a new thing in the land— a woman will shelter a man.”
Greek words (New Testament)
- γυνή gynḗa woman, wife, my ladytranslated this way 125 times of its 210 uses · Strong’s G1135Noun · Translated: woman 92, wife 66, women 32, wives 11Full study and all 192 verses →
Matthew 5:28 But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman to lust after her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
Mark 5:25 And a woman was there who had suffered from bleeding for twelve years.
- παιδίσκη paidískēa female slave, maidservant, maid.translated this way 4 times of its 13 uses · Strong’s G3814Noun · Translated: servant girl 5, slave woman 3Full study and all 12 verses →
Galatians 4:22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman.
Galatians 4:23 His son by the slave woman was born according to the flesh, but his son by the free woman was born through the promise.
- ἀπολύω apolýōI release, let go, send away, divorcetranslated this way 2 times of its 66 uses · Strong’s G630Verb · Translated: release 20, released 8, dismissed 7, divorces 6Full study and all 61 verses →
Matthew 5:32 But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, brings adultery upon her. And he who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.
Luke 16:18 Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery, and he who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.
- θῆλυς thēlysfemaletranslated this way 2 times of its 5 uses · Strong’s G2338Adjective · Translated: female 3, women 2Full study and all 5 verses →
Romans 1:26 For this reason God gave them over to dishonorable passions. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones.
Romans 1:27 Likewise, the men abandoned natural relations with women and burned with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.
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.