λευκός
leukós · G3022 · Greek · 25 occurrences
Meanings
-
white, light color
Pertaining to being white or very light in color; applies to (parts of) the human body, animals, plants, inanimate objects
ExamplesMatthew 5:36 “Nor shall you take an oath by your head, for you cannot make a single hair white or black.
Matthew 28:3 And his appearance was like lightning, and his clothing as white as snow.
Mark 16:5 And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting at the right, wearing a white robe; and they were amazed.
-
bright, shining, radiant
Pertaining to being bright or shining, either of a source or of an object which is illuminated by a source
ExamplesMatthew 17:2 And He was transfigured before them; and His face shone like the sun, and His garments became as white as light.
Mark 9:3 and His garments became radiant and exceedingly white, as no launderer on earth can whiten them.
Luke 9:29 And while He was praying, the appearance of His face became different, and His clothing became white and gleaming.
How it’s used In 3 roles
Every occurrence, grouped by the words it is grammatically related to.
the word studied the word it goes with
Second object ofSecond object
1 occurrences in 1 groups
- ποιέωto do, to make 1
What is said to be itIt is the predicate
5 occurrences in 6 groups
- ἔνδυμαclothing 1
- ἔριονwool 1
- θρίξhair 1
- ἱμάτιονclothing 1
- ἱματισμόςclothing 1
- κεφαλήhead 1
After prepositionsPrepositional phrases
2 occurrences in 1 groups
- ἐνin 3
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.
Near synonyms 1 word
- λαμπρός lamprós · G2986 · bright, shining, radiant
- Both adjectives converge on the sense of brightness or radiance. λευκός's other core sense is the color white, while λαμπρός's other senses concern splendor or glamour — the distinction between color-whiteness and radiant splendor is a specific, real nuance, but both remain genuine near synonyms in the shared sense of brightness.
In the other Testament 1 word
- לָבָן lâbân · H3836 · white
- Hebrew לָבָן and Greek λευκός both denote the color white, with direct translation equivalence across contexts describing white garments, white hair, white stone, and similar physical whiteness.
Semantic domains 2 entries
- Bright, shining, radiant14.50
- λευκός can describe a dazzling, radiant brightness. Matthew 17:2 recounts that at the transfiguration, Jesus' “face shone like the sun, and His garments became as white as light,” the λευκὰ naming this radiant brightness of His transfigured garments.
- White, light color79.27
- The same word more commonly describes the ordinary color white. Matthew 5:36 has Jesus teaching, “you cannot make a single hair white or black,” the λευκὴν naming this simple color a person cannot change by oath or effort.
Word family 4 words
Words formed from the same root. They share a form, not always a meaning.
Thayer's Greek-English Lexicon λευκή, λευκόν (λεύσσω to see, behold, look at; akin to Latinluceo, German leuchten; cf.…
1. light, bright, brilliant: τά ἱμάτια... λευκά ὡς τό φῶς, Mt 17:2; especially bright or brilliant from whiteness, (dazzling) white: spoken of the garments of angels, and of those exalted to the splendor of the heavenly state, Mk 16:5; Lk 9:29; Acts 1:10; Rev 3:5; Rev 4:4; Rev 6:11; Rev 7:9, Rev 7:13; Rev 19:14 (shining or white garments were worn on festive and state occasions, Eccl 9:8; cf. Heindorf on Horace sat. 2, 2, 61); with ὡσεί or ὡς ὁ χιών added: Mk 9:3 R L; Mt 28:3 (ἵπποι λευκοτεροι χιόνος, Homer, Iliad 10, 437); ἐν λευκοῖς namely, ἱματίοις (added in Rev 3:5; Rev 4:4), Jn 20:12; Rev 3:4; cf. Winers Grammar, 591 (550); (Buttmann, 82 (72)); used of white garments as the sign of innocence and purity of soul, Rev 3:18; of the heavenly throne, Rev 20:11.
2. (dead) white: Mt 5:36 (opposed to μέλας); Rev 1:14; Rev 2:17; Rev 4:4; Rev 6:2; Rev 14:14; Rev 19:11; spoken of the whitening color of ripening grain, Jn 4:35.
Thayer's Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament (1889), public domain
Topical studies with this word 2 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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