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Words that appear only once in scripture -- rare terms carrying unique significance across five volumes.
A hapax legomenon is a word that occurs only once in an entire body of text. These linguistic fingerprints preserve meanings, cultural contexts, and theological concepts found nowhere else in scripture. From the mysterious “gopher wood” of Noah’s ark to the “God-breathed” inspiration Paul described, each hapax legomenon is a window into the ancient world. Below is a sampling of 8 entries from our full dataset of 127.
liyliyth
“The wild beasts of the desert shall also meet with the wild beasts of the island, and the satyr shall cry to his fellow; the screech owl also shall rest there,...”
This word appears only here in the entire Hebrew Bible. Variously translated as 'screech owl,' 'night creature,' or left untranslated as a proper noun, it has generated centuries of interpretive debat...
gopher
“Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch.”
The wood Noah was commanded to use for the ark is mentioned nowhere else in scripture. Its identity remains unknown -- cypress, cedar, and acacia have all been proposed, but the Hebrew term is a true...
epiousios
“Give us this day our daily bread.”
Translated as 'daily' in the Lord's Prayer, this word exists nowhere else in surviving Greek literature. Origen noted it may have been coined by the Gospel writers themselves. Its meaning has occupied...
theopneustos
“All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.”
Paul's compound of theos (God) and pneo (breathe) -- literally 'God-breathed' -- appears only here. This single word became the foundation of the Christian doctrine of scriptural inspiration.
“And they also had horses, and asses, and there were elephants and cureloms and cumoms; all of which were useful unto man.”
An animal name that Joseph Smith left untranslated, appearing only in the Jaredite record. The deliberate preservation of this foreign term suggests the translator encountered an animal with no Englis...
“And now, my son, I have somewhat to say concerning the thing which our fathers call a ball, or director -- or our fathers called it Liahona, which is, being int...”
The name of Lehi's miraculous compass. Proposed Hebrew etymologies include 'to God is the whither' (la-Yah-hona). The word encodes a theology of divine guidance -- the instrument only worked according...
“And again, we saw the glory of the telestial, which glory is that of the lesser, even as the glory of the stars differs from that of the glory of the moon in th...”
A word found nowhere in the Bible or any prior Christian text. Coined to describe the lowest of three degrees of glory, it may derive from the Greek 'telos' (end). This unique term encapsulates a theo...
“And the Lord said unto me: These are the governing ones; and the name of the great one is Kolob, because it is near unto me.”
The star or planet nearest to God's throne, governing all celestial bodies of the same order. Some scholars connect it to the Semitic root qlb meaning 'heart' or 'center.' It anchors Abraham's cosmolo...
FAQ
A hapax legomenon (plural: hapax legomena) is a word that appears only once in an entire body of text. In biblical studies, it refers to words that occur only once in the Hebrew Bible, the Greek New Testament, or other scriptural volumes. These rare words are significant because their meaning must often be deduced from context alone, without the benefit of comparing other usages. The term comes from the Greek for 'something said only once.'
Hapax legomena are linguistic fingerprints -- rare terms that reveal unique aspects of an author's vocabulary, the cultural context of a passage, or theological concepts that required new words to express. For example, Paul coined 'theopneustos' (God-breathed) in 2 Timothy 3:16 because no existing Greek word captured his doctrine of scriptural inspiration. In the Book of Mormon, untranslated words like 'cureloms' and 'neas' suggest the translator encountered concepts with no English equivalent.
Across the Old Testament, New Testament, Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, and Pearl of Great Price, there are approximately 127 identified hapax legomena in our dataset. The Old Testament contributes the most due to the vast vocabulary of ancient Hebrew. The Book of Mormon contains unique terms from Reformed Egyptian. The Pearl of Great Price includes rare astronomical vocabulary from the Book of Abraham, such as Kolob, Shinehah, and Kokaubeam.
Search, filter by volume and language, view full verse texts and detailed scholarly significance for every hapax legomenon across five volumes of scripture.
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