English Reference

Word

moses

Phoneticsmoses

/ˈmoʊzəs/

Definitions

01biblical figure

B2 · Religion

n. a famous leader in the Bible and Quran who led the Israelites out of Egypt.

n. the prophet and lawgiver in the Abrahamic religions who led the Israelites out of Egyptian bondage.

“In the story, Moses parted the Red Sea so his people could escape.”

“The Ten Commandments were delivered to the Israelites by Moses after he descended from Mount Sinai.”

02given name or surname

B2

n. a common first name or family name for men.

n. a male given name or a surname of Hebrew origin.

“Robert Moses was a famous urban planner in New York City.”

“The professor introduced himself as Dr. Moses and began the lecture on ancient history.”

Etymology

From Latin Mōsēs, from Ancient Greek Μωσῆς (Mōsês), from earlier Μωυσῆς (Mōusês), from Biblical Hebrew מֹשֶׁה (mōšê). Further etymology is unclear, but it is sometimes conjectured to derive from Egyptian ms-s (msj, “to give birth to”), a common element in Egyptian names of the form ‘[name of deity] is the one who bore him’; or, alternatively, contains Egyptian N35A (mw, “water”).

Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

This entry

Level
B2 · Upper Intermediate
Frequency
Frequent
Updated

Scan code

englishreference.com/q/moses

English Reference