bible

See also Bible

English

Wikipedia

Etymology

English from the 14th century, from Middle Latin biblia (“book”) (reinterpreted as a feminine from earlier Latin neuter plural biblia (“books”)), from Ancient Greek βιβλία (biblia, “books”), plural of βιβλίον (biblion, “small book”), originally a diminutive of βίβλος (biblos, “book”), from βύβλος (bublos, “papyrus”) (from the ancient Phoenician city of Byblos which exported this writing material).

Old English used biblioðece (from βιβλιοθήκη) for "the Scriptures".

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA: /ˈbaɪbəl/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪbəl

Noun

bible (plural bibles)

1. A comprehensive manual that describes something. (e.g., handyman’s bible).
   • 1995, Gary Wolf, "The Curse of Xanadu", Wired Magazine

     Computer Lib was written as a popular primer, but its most profound effect was on computer programmers, who needed little persuasion about the value of computers. Its tone – energetic, optimistic, inexhaustible, confused – matched theirs exactly. Having set out to appeal to the general public, Nelson managed to publish an insider's bible and highly intimate guide to hacker culture.

2. (nautical) A holystone.

Translations

comprehensive manual

• Afrikaans: Bybel (af)
• Albanian: Bibël (sq) f
• Arabic: الكتاب المقدس (ar)
• Azeri: bible (az)
• Bulgarian: библия (bg) (biblija)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 圣经 (cmn) (shèngjīng)

• Czech: bible (cs) f
• Dutch: bijbel (nl)
• Esperanto: Biblio (eo)
• Estonian: piibel (et)
• Finnish: raamattu (fi)
• French: Bible (fr) f
• German: Bibel (de) f
• Greek: βίβλος (el) (vívlοs) f
• Hungarian: biblia (hu)
• Indonesian: Alkitab (id)
• Interlingua: biblia
• Irish: bíobla (ga) f

• Japanese: 虎の巻 (tora no maki)
• Korean: 성경 (seonggyeong), 성서 (seongso)
• Latvian: Bībele (lv) f
• Lithuanian: Biblija (lt) f
• Malay: Alkitab (ms)
• Polish: Biblia (pl) f
• Portuguese: Bíblia (pt) f
• Romanian: Biblie (ro) f
• Russian: библия (ru) (bíblija) f
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: Библија (sh) f, Свето Писмо (sh) n

  Roman: Biblija f, Sveto Pismo n

• Swedish: bibel (sv) c
• Thai: คัมภีร์ไบเบิล (th) (Khạmp̣hīr̒ bịbeil)
• Turkish: İncil (tr)
• Welsh: Beibl (cy)

Related terms

• biblical

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Czech

Proper noun

bible f

1. Bible

Derived terms

• biblický

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French

Noun

bible f (plural bibles)

1. bible (comprehensive text)

Derived terms

• biblique
• bibliste