κακός
kakós · G2556 · Greek · 50 occurrences
Meanings
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bad, evil, harmful, harshly
Pertaining to being bad, with the implication of harmful and damaging
ExamplesMatthew 21:41 They said to Him, “He will bring those wretches to a wretched end and lease the vineyard to other vine-growers, who will pay him the fruit in the proper seasons.”
Matthew 24:48 “But if that evil slave says in his heart, ‘My master is not coming for a long time,’
Matthew 27:23 But he said, “Why, what evil has He done?” Yet they kept shouting all the more, saying, “Crucify Him!”
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bad, harsh, difficult
Pertaining to being harsh and difficult
ExamplesLuke 16:25 “But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that during your life you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus bad things; but now he is being comforted here, and you are in agony.
1 Corinthians 13:5 It does not act disgracefully, it does not seek its own benefit; it is not provoked, does not keep an account of a wrong suffered,
2 Timothy 4:14 Alexander the coppersmith did me great harm; the Lord will repay him according to his deeds.
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harmed, harm, injured
Pertaining to having experienced harm
ExamplesActs 16:28 But Paul called out with a loud voice, saying, “Do not harm yourself, for we are all here!”
Acts 28:5 However, Paul shook the creature off into the fire and suffered no harm.
Romans 12:17 Never repay evil for evil to anyone. Respect what is right in the sight of all people.
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incorrect, wrong
Pertaining to being incorrect or inaccurate, with the possible implication of also being reprehensible
ExamplesJohn 18:23 Jesus answered him, “If I have spoken wrongly, testify of the wrong; but if rightly, why do you strike Me?”
How it’s used In 6 roles
Every occurrence, grouped by the words it is grammatically related to.
the word studied the word it goes with
Words describing itAdjectives, demonstratives, participles
6 occurrences in 5 groups
- μηδείςno one 2
- ὅσοςas many as, as much as 1
- οὐδείςno one 1
- πολύςmany 1
- τίςwho? what?, why? for what reason? 1
Named alongside itApposition
1 occurrences in 1 groups
- θέλωto want, to wish, to desire 1
What it doesIt is the subject
1 occurrences in 1 groups
- παράκειμαιto be present 1
What is done to itIt is the object
20 occurrences in 12 groups
- ποιέωto do, to make 6
- ἀποδίδωμιto give back, to pay, to repay 3
- Other words · 10 groups that occur once or twice (11) 11
After prepositionsPrepositional phrases
8 occurrences in 5 groups
- ἀντίfor, instead of 6
- ἀπόfrom 4
- περίconcerning, about, for 2
- ὑπόby, under 2
- εἰςto 1
In phrases “… of it”It is the genitive
4 occurrences in 4 groups
- διάκρισιςdiscernment, ability to judge 1
- ἐπιθυμητήςone who greatly desires 1
- ἐφευρετήςcontriver 1
- ῥίζαroot 1
When two words share a role, as in “Paul and Barnabas said”, the verse appears under each, so a section’s counts can add up to more than the number of occurrences.
MACULA Greek Linguistic Datasets, available at https://github.com/Clear-Bible/macula-greek/, licensed CC BY 4.0; MACULA Hebrew Linguistic Datasets © 2022-2024 by Biblica, Inc., CC BY 4.0. Westminster Leningrad Codex (tanach.us). OpenScriptures Hebrew Bible morphology (hb.openscriptures.org), CC BY 4.0.
Contrasting words 1 word
- ἀγαθός agathós · G18 · good, goodness, good act
- The target term, denoting badness, harm, and wrongness, and ἀγαθός, denoting goodness and benefit, sit at opposing poles across parallel ethical and experiential dimensions — harm versus benefit, bad versus good, wrong versus right — constituting genuine lexical antonymy, the foundational positive/negative polarity in Greek ethical vocabulary.
In the other Testament 1 word
- רַע raʻ · H7451 · bad, evil, wicked
- κακός (kakós, G2556) κακός and רַע (raʻ, H7451) רַע share core semantic overlap denoting moral depravity, harmful effects, and intrinsic badness, with κακός emphasizing intrinsic worthlessness versus πονηρός's emphasis on active malice, while רַע encompasses both moral evil and physical/circumstantial adversity across the Hebrew semantic range that Greek lexicalizes into multiple distinct terms.
Semantic domains 4 entries
- Harmed, harm, injured20.18
- In Acts 16:28, when the jailer is about to kill himself, Paul cries out, “Do not harm yourself, for we are all here!” using this word for injury inflicted on a person.
- Bad, harsh, difficult65.26
- In Romans 14:20, Paul teaches, “all things indeed are clean, but they are evil for the person who eats and causes offense,” using this word for something harsh or harmful in its effect on another.
- Incorrect, wrong72.22
- In Romans 7:19, Paul laments, “the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want,” using this word for what is morally wrong or incorrect.
- Bad, evil, harmful, harshly88.106
- In Matthew 24:48, Jesus warns of “that evil slave” who says in his heart that his master delays, using this word for a person or deed marked by badness or wickedness.
Word family 21 words
Words formed from the same root. They share a form, not always a meaning.
Also from the root κακός
Thayer's Greek-English Lexicon κακῇ, κακόν, the Sept. for רָע (from Homer down), bad (A. V. (almost uniformly) evil); 1.…
1. universally, of a bad nature; not such as it ought to be.
2. (morally, i. e.) of a mode of thinking, feeling, acting; base, wrong, wicked: of persons, Mt 21:41 (cf. Winers Grammar, 637 (592); also Buttmann, 143 (126)); ; Phm 3:2; Rev 2:2. διαλογισμοί;, Mk 7:21; ὁμιλίαι, 1 Cor 15:33; ἐπιθυμία, Col 3:5 (Prov 12:12); ἔργα (better ἔργον), Rom 13:3. neuter κακόν, τό κακόν, evil i. e. what is contrary to law, either divine or human, wrong, crime: (Jn 18:23); Acts 23:9; Rom 7:21; Rom 14:20; Rom 16:19; 1 Cor 13:5; Heb 5:14; 1 Pet 3:10; 3 Jn 1:11; plural (evil things): Rom 1:30; 1 Cor 10:6; 1 Tim 6:10 (πάντα τά κακά all kinds of evil); Jas 1:13 (Winers Grammar, § 30, 4; Buttmann, § 132, 24); κακόν ποιεῖν, to do, commit evil: Mt 27:23; Mk 15:14; Lk 23:22; 2 Cor 13:7; 1 Pet 3:12; τό κακόν, Rom 13:4; τά κακά, ; κακόν, τό κακόν πράσσειν, Rom 7:19; Rom 9:11. (Rec.); ; (2 Cor 5:10 R G L Tr marginal reading); τό κακόν κατεργάζεσθαι, Rom 2:9. specifically of wrongs inflicted: Rom 12:21; κακόν ἐργάζομαι τίνι (to work ill to one), Rom 13:10; ἐνδείκνυμι, 2 Tim 4:14; ποιῶ, Acts 9:13; ἀποδίδωμι κακόν ἀντί κακοῦ, Rom 12:17; 1 Thess 5:15; 1 Pet 3:9.
3. troublesome, injurious, pernicious, destructive, baneful: neuter κακόν, an evil, that which injures, Jas 3:8 (Winers Grammar, § 59, 8 b.; Buttmann, 79 (69)); with the suggestion of wildness and ferocity, θηρία, Tit 1:12; substantially equivalent to bad, i. e. distressing, whether to mind or to body: ἕλκος κακόν καί πονηρόν (A. V. a noisome and grievous sore), Rev 16:2; κακόν πράσσω ἐμαυτῷ, Latinvim mihi infero, to do harm to oneself, Acts 16:28; κακόν τί πάσχω, to suffer some harm, Acts 28:5; τά κακά, evil things, the discomforts which plague one, Lk 16:25 (opposed to τά ἀγαθά, the good things, from which pleasure is derived). (Synonym: cf. κακία.)
Thayer's Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament (1889), public domain
Topical studies with this word 4 entries
Meanings adapted from the UBS Dictionary of the Greek New Testament, © United Bible Societies, CC BY-SA 4.0 and the UBS Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew (from the Semantic Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew), © United Bible Societies, CC BY-SA 4.0; MACULA Greek Linguistic Datasets, available at https://github.com/Clear-Bible/macula-greek/, licensed CC BY 4.0; MACULA Hebrew Linguistic Datasets © 2022-2024 by Biblica, Inc., CC BY 4.0. Westminster Leningrad Codex (tanach.us). OpenScriptures Hebrew Bible morphology (hb.openscriptures.org), CC BY 4.0.
Sources
eRhema lexical overview, based on the UBS Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew and the UBS Dictionary of the Greek New Testament (© United Bible Societies, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Macula Hebrew and Greek (Clear Bible, CC BY 4.0); released under CC BY-SA 4.0
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