Abraham

Syllables: A·bra·hamUK/ˈeɪ.bɹə.hæm//ˈeɪ.bɹəˌhæm/

Abraham proper noun: a prophet in the Old Testament, Qur'an and Aqdas; a Semitic patriarch son of Terah who practiced monotheism, father of the Jewish patriarch Isaac by Sarah and the Arab patriarch Ishmael by Hagar.

Image: Gustave Doré, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Proper noun

Abraham (plural Abrahams)

A prophet in the Old Testament, Qur'an and Aqdas; a Semitic patriarch son of Terah who practiced monotheism, father of the Jewish patriarch Isaac by Sarah and the Arab patriarch Ishmael by Hagar.
- Neither ſhall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name ſhall bee Abraham: for a father of many nations haue I made thee.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Genesis 17:5, column 2
- As one would expect of caravan people around 1900 B.C., the caravan people depicted in the Khnum-hotpe grave had donkeys, whereas the Bible says that Abraham and his people, who according to the traditional interpretation are supposed to have lived at the same period, already possessed camels.1980, Werner Keller, chapter 7, in William Neil, transl., The Bible as History, page 93
Synonyms:

Abram, Ibrahim
A male given name from Hebrew.
- "Lincoln wasn't a Jew, was he?" he said. "I'm sure not," I said. […] "The name Abraham is very suspicious, to say the least," said Goebbels. "I'm sure his parents didn't realize that it was a Jewish name," I said. "They must have just liked the sound of it. They were simple frontier people. If...1961, Kurt Vonnegut, Mother Night, Dell, published 1975, page 28
- Abraham Lincoln was clinically depressed. Some say he was gay. He guest-starred on a “Star Trek” episode and became a vampire slayer.2021 March 14, John Blake, “Did Black lives matter to Abraham Lincoln? It’s complicated”, in CNN, archived from the original on 12 Oct 2022
A surname originating as a patronymic.
- Farmer also happened to be just the kind of expert that Franck and his co-author Daniel Abraham needed to bring their novels to the screen.2019 December 22, Annalee Newitz, Cyrus Farivar, “Nick Farmer knows dozens of languages, so he invented one for The Expanse”, in Ars Technica, archived from the original on 25 Feb 2021
The 14th sura (chapter) of the Qur'an.

Noun

Abraham (plural Abrahams)

(British, London, archaic, slang) A shop selling cheap and low-quality clothes, especially in the East End of London.

Synonyms:

slopshop

Abraham meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

Abraham in Hindi

surname: अब्राहम abrāham, इब्राहीम ibrāhīm
prophet in the Old Testament: इब्राहीम ibrāhīm
male given name: अब्राहम abrāham, इब्राहीम ibrāhīm
14th sura of the Qur'an: इब्राहीम ibrāhīm

Abraham in Tamil

prophet in the Old Testament: ஆபிரகாம் āpirakām, இப்ராஹிம் iprāhim
male given name: ஆபிரகாம் āpirakām, இப்ராஹிம் iprāhim
14th sura of the Qur'an: இப்ராஹீம் iprāhīm

Abraham in Marathi

surname: अब्राहम abrāham
prophet in the Old Testament: अब्राहम abrāham
male given name: अब्राहम abrāham, इब्राहिम ibrāhim

Abraham in Urdu

prophet in the Old Testament: ابراہیم ibrāhīm
male given name: ابراہیم ibrahim

More languagesFewer languages

Abraham in Bengali: ইব্রাহীম ibrahim
Abraham in Telugu: అబ్రహం abrahaṁ, ఇబ్రహీం ibrahīṁ
Abraham in Malayalam: അബ്രാഹാം abrāhāṁ, ഇബ്രാഹിം ibrāhiṁ
Abraham in Kannada: ಅಬ್ರಹಾಂ abrahāṃ, ಇಬ್ರಾಹಿಂ ibrāhiṃ
Abraham in Punjabi: ਅਬਰਾਹਮ abarāham, ਅਬਰਾਹਾਮ abarāhām, ਇਬਰਾਹਿਮ ibarāhim
Abraham in Sanskrit: अब्राहाम abrāhāma
Abraham in Sinhala: ආබ්රහම් ābraham, ඊබ්රාහිම් ībrāhim
Abraham in Nepali: अब्राहाम abrāhām, इब्राहिम ibrāhim
Abraham in Pashto: ابراهيم ebrāhím
Abraham in Arabic: إِبْرَاهِيم ʔibrāhīm, أَبْرَاهَام ʔabrāhām
Abraham in Malay: Ibrahim, Abraham
Abraham in Indonesian: Ibrahim, Abraham
Abraham in Persian: ابراهیم ebrâhim, پرهام parhâm
Abraham in Thai: อับราฮัม àp-raa-ham, อิบราฮิม
Abraham in Myanmar: အာဗြဟံသည် abra.hamsany, အီဘရာဟင် ibha.rahang
Sindhi: ابراھيم ābrāhem
Dhivehi: އިބްރާހީމް ibrāhīm̊

Synonyms of Abraham

Forms of Abraham

Proper noun
plural	Abrahams
Noun
plural	Abrahams

Origin of Abraham

From Middle English Abraham, from Old English Abraham, from Late Latin Ābrahām, from Ancient Greek Ἀβρᾱᾱ́μ (Abrāā́m), from Hebrew אַבְרָהָם ('aḇrāhām, “Abraham”). Thomas L. Thompson suggests that the meaning of the name in Genesis was forgotten due to its age and that its original meaning was "Father is exalted." Glossed as אַב (aḇ, “father of”) + הֲמוֹן (hăˈmōn, “multitude of”) in Genesis 17:4–5; or from Hebrew אַבְרָם ('aḇrām, “Abram”). Doublet of Ibrahim, Avraham, Abramo, and Abrahan.

Words formed from Abraham

Phrases with Abraham

1 more phrasesFewer phrases

Abraham Lincoln hats

Questions about Abraham

What does Abraham mean?: Abraham means a prophet in the Old Testament, Qur'an and Aqdas; a Semitic patriarch son of Terah who practiced monotheism, father of the Jewish patriarch Isaac by Sarah and the Arab patriarch Ishmael by Hagar.
What is Abraham in Hindi?: Abraham in Hindi is अब्राहम (abrāham), इब्राहीम (ibrāhīm). See Abraham meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is Abraham?: Abraham can be a proper noun or a noun.
How do you pronounce Abraham?: Abraham is pronounced /ˈeɪ.bɹə.hæm/ (UK).

Words near Abraham in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: Abraham (page history and authors); अब्राहाम (Sanskrit) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-Abraham.ogg.

Cite this entry: “Abraham.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/abraham. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.