אָדָם
man
‘man’ is one of 5 main senses fuller range ↓
Full lexicon entry — Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
From Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
Where this word appears
Grammar key — what these labels mean
Part of speech
- Noun
- A naming word — a person, place, thing, or idea.
Noun type
- Common
- A common noun — a general class of person, place, or thing (“king,” “city,” “water”), not a specific name.
State
- Absolute
- The independent form of a noun, not bound to a following word.
- Construct
- A noun bound to a following noun in a possessive / “of” relationship (the construct chain).
Gender
- Masculine
- Grammatically masculine.
Number
- Singular
- One.
Every verse where H120 appears in the Book of Genesis — 38 distinct verses. Click any verse to open its interlinear word-by-word view. Verse text shown in the World English Bible for context — . Each verse’s Hebrew form is shown with its reference; the English is not keyword-highlighted, since the data carries no word-level English alignment. Use “Compare translations” on any verse to read it across multiple English versions. This concordance covers the Hebrew Bible; Septuagint (Greek Old Testament) occurrences are not indexed here.
Genesis
- Genesis 1:26 אָדָ֛ם n c ms God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the sky, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth."
- Genesis 1:27 הָֽ/אָדָם֙ ptcl def.art + n c ms God created man in his own image. In God's image he created him; male and female he created them.
- Genesis 2:5 וְ/אָדָ֣ם conj + n c ms No plant of the field was yet in the earth, and no herb of the field had yet sprung up; for Yahweh God had not caused it to rain on the earth. There was not a man to till the ground,
- Genesis 2:7 הָֽ/אָדָ֗ם הָֽ/אָדָ֖ם ptcl def.art + n c ms ptcl def.art + n c ms Yahweh God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
- Genesis 2:8 הָֽ/אָדָ֖ם ptcl def.art + n c ms Yahweh God planted a garden eastward, in Eden, and there he put the man whom he had formed.
- Genesis 2:15 הָֽ/אָדָ֑ם ptcl def.art + n c ms Yahweh God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.
- Genesis 2:16 הָֽ/אָדָ֖ם ptcl def.art + n c ms Yahweh God commanded the man, saying, "Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat:
- Genesis 2:18 הָֽ/אָדָ֖ם ptcl def.art + n c ms Yahweh God said, "It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him."
- Genesis 2:19 הָ֣/אָדָ֔ם הָֽ/אָדָ֛ם ptcl def.art + n c ms ptcl def.art + n c ms Out of the ground Yahweh God formed every animal of the field, and every bird of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. Whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name.
- Genesis 2:20 הָֽ/אָדָ֜ם וּ/לְ/אָדָ֕ם ptcl def.art + n c ms conj + prep + n c ms The man gave names to all cattle, and to the birds of the sky, and to every animal of the field; but for man there was not found a helper suitable for him.
- Genesis 2:21 הָ/אָדָ֖ם ptcl def.art + n c ms Yahweh God caused a deep sleep to fall on the man, and he slept; and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place.
- Genesis 2:22 הָֽ/אָדָ֖ם הָֽ/אָדָֽם ptcl def.art + n c ms ptcl def.art + n c ms He made the rib, which Yahweh God had taken from the man, into a woman, and brought her to the man.
- Genesis 2:23 הָֽ/אָדָם֒ ptcl def.art + n c ms The man said, "This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh. She will be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man."
- Genesis 2:25 הָֽ/אָדָ֖ם ptcl def.art + n c ms They were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.
- Genesis 3:8 הָֽ/אָדָ֜ם ptcl def.art + n c ms They heard the voice of Yahweh God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of Yahweh God among the trees of the garden.
- Genesis 3:9 הָֽ/אָדָ֑ם ptcl def.art + n c ms Yahweh God called to the man, and said to him, "Where are you?"
- Genesis 3:12 הָֽ/אָדָ֑ם ptcl def.art + n c ms The man said, "The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate."
- Genesis 3:20 הָֽ/אָדָ֛ם ptcl def.art + n c ms The man called his wife Eve, because she was the mother of all living.
- Genesis 3:21 לְ/אָדָ֧ם prep + n c ms Yahweh God made coats of skins for Adam and for his wife, and clothed them.
- Genesis 3:22 הָֽ/אָדָם֙ ptcl def.art + n c ms Yahweh God said, "Behold, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil. Now, lest he put forth his hand, and also take of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever..."
- Genesis 3:24 הָֽ/אָדָ֑ם ptcl def.art + n c ms So he drove out the man; and he placed Cherubs at the east of the garden of Eden, and the flame of a sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.
- Genesis 4:1 וְ/הָ֣/אָדָ֔ם conj + ptcl def.art + n c ms The man knew Eve his wife. She conceived, and gave birth to Cain, and said, "I have gotten a man with Yahweh's help."
- Genesis 5:1 אָדָ֔ם n c ms This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, he made him in God's likeness.
- Genesis 5:2 אָדָ֔ם n c ms He created them male and female, and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created.
- Genesis 6:1 הָֽ/אָדָ֔ם ptcl def.art + n c ms It happened, when men began to multiply on the surface of the ground, and daughters were born to them,
- Genesis 6:2 הָֽ/אָדָ֔ם ptcl def.art + n c ms that God's sons saw that men's daughters were beautiful, and they took for themselves wives of all that they chose.
- Genesis 6:3 בָֽ/אָדָם֙ prep det + n c ms Yahweh said, "My Spirit will not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; yet will his days be one hundred twenty years."
- Genesis 6:4 הָֽ/אָדָ֔ם ptcl def.art + n c ms The Nephilim were in the earth in those days, and also after that, when God's sons came to men's daughters. They bore children to them: the same were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.
- Genesis 6:5 הָ/אָדָ֖ם ptcl def.art + n c ms Yahweh saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
- Genesis 6:6 הָֽ/אָדָ֖ם ptcl def.art + n c ms Yahweh was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him in his heart.
- Genesis 6:7 הָ/אָדָ֤ם מֵֽ/אָדָם֙ ptcl def.art + n c ms prep + n c ms Yahweh said, "I will destroy man whom I have created from the surface of the ground; man, along with animals, creeping things, and birds of the sky; for I am sorry that I have made them."
- Genesis 7:21 הָ/אָדָֽם ptcl def.art + n c ms All flesh died that moved on the earth, including birds, cattle, animals, every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, and every man.
- Genesis 7:23 מֵ/אָדָ֤ם prep + n c ms Every living thing was destroyed that was on the surface of the ground, including man, cattle, creeping things, and birds of the sky. They were destroyed from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those who were with him in the ark.
- Genesis 8:21 הָֽ/אָדָ֔ם הָ/אָדָ֛ם ptcl def.art + n c ms ptcl def.art + n c ms Yahweh smelled the sweet savor. Yahweh said in his heart, "I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake, because the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; neither will I ever again strike everything living, as I have done.
- Genesis 9:5 הָֽ/אָדָ֗ם הָֽ/אָדָֽם ptcl def.art + n c ms ptcl def.art + n c ms I will surely require your blood of your lives. At the hand of every animal I will require it. At the hand of man, even at the hand of every man's brother, I will require the life of man.
- Genesis 9:6 הָֽ/אָדָ֔ם בָּֽ/אָדָ֖ם הָ/אָדָֽם ptcl def.art + n c ms prep det + n c ms ptcl def.art + n c ms Whoever sheds man's blood, by man will his blood be shed, for in the image of God made he man.
- Genesis 11:5 הָ/אָדָֽם ptcl def.art + n c ms Yahweh came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men built.
- Genesis 16:12 אָדָ֔ם n c ms He will be like a wild donkey among men. His hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him. He will live opposite all of his brothers."
About this entry
At a glance — auto-summarized from this page’s data, not written by a person. Every figure links to its source below. This summary describes the numbers; it doesn’t interpret them.
The Hebrew noun אדם centers on the idea of “man.” Its meaning spans more than one sense — see its full sense range. Spanning 526 verses in 33 books, it ranks among the most common words of the Hebrew Bible. Ezekiel dominates its distribution — 130 of 526 verses. Its earliest occurrence is Genesis 1:26. Each statement above links to its evidence; the full detail follows below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H120 catalogs a Hebrew word from the Hebrew Old Testament.
These counts are not copied from any lexicon or concordance. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged Hebrew Old Testament. What Lemma adds →
- 526
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 526 distinct verses.
- 33 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 33 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #91
- by frequency
- Top 100 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 91 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 526 occurrences in the concordance →
By section of the Old Testament
By traditional corpus
Conventional, traditional groupings — biblical authorship is debated, so this is a traditional corpus grouping, not an authorship claim. Each share is this word’s portion of its verses in that division of the Hebrew canon. Each figure is a share of the word’s 526 distinct verses.
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 238 verses · 45%
- Writings (Ketuvim) 193 verses · 37%
- Torah (Pentateuch) 95 verses · 18%
How translations render this word
Counts come from each version’s own published word-to-Strong’s tagging or interlinear alignment — an approximate guide to how each version renders this word, not a word-level alignment the data otherwise carries. Because each total is that version’s own tagged count, the per-version totals vary from one another and need not match the appearance or distinct-verse counts above. These counts may also differ from a printed concordance because Lemma counts each distinctly tagged rendering and does not collapse phrase taggings into a single head-word total. This is a fixed set of word-tagged versions (KJV, ASV, BSB, ULT) and does not change with the reading translation you choose elsewhere. Each version’s license is shown beside its name below (and on Sources).
- King James Version: Man 297×, Men 73×, Man's 13×
- American Standard Version: Man 235×, Men 85×, Son of man 49×
- Berean Standard Bible: Man 280×, Men 70×, Mankind 20×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Man 364×, Humanity 35×, Mankind 30×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H120 across 545 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 73 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings. Not rendered by a distinct English word in 7 further occurrences.
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders H120 across 545 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 79 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
Renders H120 across 508 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 46 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings. Not rendered by a distinct English word in 39 further occurrences.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H120 across 544 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 31 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
Senses in the full BDB
What do BDB’s symbols mean?
BDB uses these scholarly abbreviations:
| Symbol | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 𝔊 | the Septuagint (the ancient Greek translation, LXX) |
| 𝔙 | the Vulgate (the Latin translation) |
| 𝔖 | the Syriac version (the Peshitta) |
| 𝔗 | the Targum (the Aramaic translation) |
| ψ | the Psalms |
| √ | root (the underlying root or stem) |
| ‖ | parallel passage (a synonymous or contrasted parallel) |
| † | the dagger: every passage where the word occurs is cited |
The 4 senses and sub-senses the full Brown-Driver-Briggs lexicon distinguishes for this word, in lexicon order (not ranked by frequency), with BDB’s own verbatim wording and sub-sense lettering. Shown in Hebrew script with BDB’s own scholarly abbreviations. The condensed entry is in the Lexicon Entry tab. See also the Forms in the corpus table below.
- 1. a man (= Ger. Mensch) = human being Gn 2:5, 7(×2), 8, 15, 16, 18 +, 16:12 (27 textual J) Lv 5:4 (‖ נֶפֶשׁ) 13:2, 9 (19 textual P) Ne 2:10 Is 13:12 (‖ אֱנוֹשׁ); הָאָ׳ הַגָּדוֹל Jos 14:15 (E); אָ׳ בְּלִיַּעַל Pr 6:12 (‖ אִישׁ אָוֶן cf. 1 S 25:25 & v. בליעל); = any one Lv 1:2 Nu 9:6, 7 Jb 20:29; 27:13 Pr 15:20; 21:16, 20; 24:30 Ec 7:20 + oft. WisdLt, Je 2:6; 4:25 Ne 2:12, cf. נֶפֶשׁ א׳ Nu 19:11, 13 +; seld. man opp. woman Gn 2:22(×2), 23, 25; 3:8, 12, 17, 20, 21 Ec 7:28. e.g. Genesis 2:5
- 2. coll. man, mankind Gn 1:26; 9:5, 6(×3) + (P 28 textual) 6:1, 5, 6, 7 (JE 24 textual) Dt 4:32 (D 6 textual) (on 2 S 7:19 cf. 1 Ch 17:17 v. DrSm); distinctly = men + women Gn 1:27; 5:1 Nu 5:6; given as name Gn 5:2; but = warriors Is 22:6 רֶכֶב א׳ (‖ פּרשׁים); ‖ beasts (41 textual) בְּהֵמָה Gn 6:7; 7:23 (J?) Ex 8:13, 14; 9:9, 10 (P) 9:19, 22, 25; 12:12; 13:2, 13, 15 (all J) +; late proph. Je 21:6; 31:27; 50:3; 51:62 Ez 14:13, 17, 19, 21; 25:13; 29:8, 11; 32:13 (del. Co) 36:11 Jon 3:8 Zp 1:3 Hg 1:11 Zc 2:8; 8:10; ‖ בָּקָר Ez 4:15; ‖ צֹאן, חֲמֹרִים, ב׳ Nu 31:28; ‖ id. + מִכָּל־הַבְּהֵמָה v 30 cf. Jon 3:7; ‖ חַיָּה Gn 9:5 (P) cf. Ez 1:5, 8, 10, 26, & descript. of כְּרוּבִים Ez 10:8, 14, 21 cf. 41:19; ‖ trees Dt 20:19 (rd. הֶאָדָם v. Di); opp. God 1 S 15:29; 16:7(×2) Is 31:3 Ez 28:2, 9 1 Ch 21:13; 29:1 2 Ch 6:18 Mal 3:8 cf. Ex 33:20 Dt 5:21; so בֶּן־א׳ Nu 23:19 (‖ אישׁ Ez 2:1, 3, 6, 8 (87 textual Ez, alw. addressed to proph.); בְּנֵי הָא׳ 1 S 26:19; made in God’s image Gn 1:26, 27; 9:6 cf. Ec 7:29; as feeble, earthly, mortal Nu 16:29(×2) Ps 82:7; 144:3, 4 Jb 5:7; 14:1, 10 cf. 25:6 (בֶּן־א׳) Ec 12:5; as sinful 1 K 8:46 2 Ch 6:36 Je 10:14 cf. Nu 5:6 Jb 31:33 Ho 6:7; of men in general, other men (opp. to particular ones) Ju 16:17 (cf. אַחַד הָא׳ v 7, 11) 18:7, 28 ψ 73:5 Je 32:20 +; ‖ אִישׁ Is 2:9, 11, 17; 5:15 cf. Ez 23:42 (del. Co Vrss); בְּנֵי א׳ 2 S 7:14 (‖ אֲנָשִׁים) Pr 8:4 (‖ אִישִׁים); ψ 49:3; 62:10 (both ‖ בְּנֵי אִישׁ) = men of low opp. men of high degree—so oft. Ph. and = vassal Sab. DHMZMG 1875, 680 cf. 686; נֶפֶשׁ א׳ coll. Nu 31:35, 40, 46 1 Ch 5:21 Ez 27:13. e.g. Genesis 1:26
- 3. n.pr.m. Adam, first man (without art. cf. שָׂטָן 1 Ch 21:1 over ag. הַשּׂ׳ Jb 1:6 etc.) Gn 4:25 (J) 5:1, 3, 4, 5 (P) 1 Ch 1:1. (Gn 2:20; 3:17, 21 rd. לָא׳ v. Di) e.g. 1 Chronicles 21:1
- 4. n.pr.loc. city in Jordan valley (as built? Jos 3:16. e.g. Joshua 3:16
Senses from the full Brown-Driver-Briggs lexicon (Brown, Driver, Briggs; Oxford 1906 — public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). Full attribution on Sources.
Word origin
n.m. Gn 1:27 man, mankind (Ph. אדם, Sab. id., CISiv. 1, 1. 4 al.; cf. As. admu, young (of bird) DlW, but NöZMG 1886, 722 identif. with Ar. أَذَامٌ coll. creatures)—Sg. abs. exc. cstr. Pr 6:12 cf. Thes; (בְּנֵי (הָ)א׳ oft. = pl. of א׳ Gn 11:5 + 39 textual, cf. בְּנוֹת הָא׳ Gn 6:2, 4)—
— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.
Derived from אדם (ʼâdam) (H119) — to be red.
Jastrow Dictionary
A second Hebrew/Aramaic lexicon for comparison, covering Aramaic and post-biblical (Talmudic, Targumic, Midrashic) usage that the biblical-Hebrew BDB does not. Matched by lemma rather than by Strong’s number, so a lemma may carry more than one Jastrow headword (shown separately below), and the entries cover usage well beyond the Bible.
אֲדַם
- , v. הֲדַם. [v. Rabb. D. S. to Ab. Zar. 38ᵇ, Bets. 24ᵇ, note.]
אָדַם
- , v. דמם) [to be viscous, thick, dark] to be red, grow red.
- to redden, make red. Y. Sabb. VII, 10ᶜ top המְאַדֵּם אודם he who produces a red spot (congestion of blood, on a Sabbath).
- 1. (b. h.) (b. h.) to be, grow red. Num. R. s. 9 (p. 231ᵇ ed. Amst.) מַאֲדֶמֶת (היתה) if she was red-faced. Ḥull. 53ᵇ; a. fr.
- 2. to cause to blush, put to shame (usu. הלבין). Num. R. s. 4 (p. 218ᵈ ed. Amst.) (play on עובד אדום).—Part. מַאֲדִים the planet Mars. Sabb. 156ᵃ.—Part. Hof. מְאָדָּם, מְאוּדָּם. Y. Sabb. VII, 10ᶜ top מְאָדָּמִים dyed red.
אָדָם
- m. (b. h.) man, pr. n. m. Adam, frequ. א׳ הראשון (abbr. אה"ר). Gen. R. s. 17; a. fr.—ספרו של, ספרא דאה"ר אה"ר the (allegorical) book of Adam containing all generations and their leaders from beginning to resurrection, i.e. destinies of humanity. Ex. R. s. 40 beg. B. Mets. 85ᵇ bot.
אֲדָם
- (= דָּם, דְּמָא) blood. Targ. I Chron. XXII, 7; a. e.—Y. Maas. Sh. V, 56ᵈ top מגבלא אַדְמֵיה to mix its (the bird’s) blood. Git. 47ᵃ; v. חוּל II. Pl. אַדְמִין. Targ. I Chr. l. c.; a. e.
A Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic Literature (Marcus Jastrow; London, Luzac, 1903) — Public Domain. Digitized via Sefaria. Digitized via Sefaria. Full attribution on Sources.
Forms in the corpus
The 107 distinct written forms H120 takes in the Hebrew Bible, most frequent first — each parse links to that state’s occurrences in the concordance. Hebrew forms include their vowel points and cantillation, so a single lemma takes many written forms.
The 60 most common forms are shown; 47 rarer forms follow in the full concordance.
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H120, grouped by Strong’s listed origin. These share a root / origin per the lexicon — not necessarily a shared meaning. Each links to that word’s own entry.
Derives from
Shares the same root
- אדם ʼâdôm H122 red
- אדם ʼôdem H124 ruby
- אדמדם ʼădamdâm H125 reddish
- אדמה ʼădâmâh H127 ground
- אדמני ʼadmônîy H132 red
Proper names from this root
People and places named from this root — a name, not an additional meaning of the word.
Compare all same-root words → Showing 4 of 8 — not the complete family. 1 of the same-root words is a proper name (a person or place). They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.
Septuagint verse parallels
This word appears in 498 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 526 Hebrew verses it occurs in. You can read those verses in Greek by switching the Old Testament edition to the Septuagint.
Read these verses in the Septuagint
- Genesis 1:26
- Exodus 4:11
- Leviticus 1:2
- Numbers 3:13
- Deuteronomy 4:28
- Joshua 11:14
- Judges 16:7
- 1 Samuel 15:29
- 2 Samuel 7:14
- 1 Kings 8:38
- 2 Kings 7:10
- 1 Chronicles 5:21
This is a verse-level parallel only — the same verses exist in both the Hebrew and Greek Old Testaments. No word-level Hebrew↔Greek correspondence is claimed: the data carries no such alignment, so no Greek word is shown as this Hebrew word’s translation. Coverage is not total — the Septuagint omits the deuterocanon and renumbers the Psalms, so some Hebrew verses have no direct Greek parallel.
