Word.ws English Dictionary

akh

/ɑːk/

akh noun: in Egyptian mythology, (roughly) a spirit of the dead that has successfully completed its transition to the afterlife.

Noun (1)

akh (plural akhs)

  1. In Egyptian mythology, (roughly) a spirit of the dead that has successfully completed its transition to the afterlife.
    • Their abode is heaven; and the Akh, by contrast with the Ba, does not retain any relation to the body.… It is a deceased, a transcendent being, without earthly or material ties; and, as such, it is the most spiritualized of the various concepts of the dead.1948, Henri Frankfort, Kingship and the Gods: A Study of Ancient Near Eastern Religion as the Integration of Society and Nature, page 64
    • After spending the night asleep in their tombs, the akhs would wake each morning at sunrise and “come forth from the necropolis” to enjoy an ideal life, free from the cares of physical existence.2000, James P. Allen, Middle Egyptian: An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs, page 33

Noun (2)

IPA/æk/

akh (plural akhs)

  1. (Multicultural-London-English, slang) Brother; a close male friend or associate.

Examples of akh in a sentence

  • The akh would later become the state achieved when the ba and ka are rejoined.2005, Gary A. Stillwell, Afterlife: Post-Mortem Judgments in Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greece, page 118:
  • If a person’s ka and ba were not reunited and akh failed to develop, then everlasting life would not occur.2009, Janet Balk, “Egyptian Perceptions of Death in Antiquity”, in Clifton D. Bryant, Dennis L. Peck, editors, Encyclopedia of Death and...

Forms of akh

pluralakhs
alternative formakhi

Origin of akh

Borrowed from Egyptian ꜣḫ. Doublet of khu, which derives from an inaccurate older reading of the same word.

Borrowed from Arabic أَخ (ʔaḵ, “brother”). Doublet of ock.

Words formed from akh

Words that rhyme with akh

1 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about akh

What does akh mean?
Akh means in Egyptian mythology, (roughly) a spirit of the dead that has successfully completed its transition to the afterlife.
How do you use akh in a sentence?
The akh would later become the state achieved when the ba and ka are rejoined.
What part of speech is akh?
Akh is a noun.
How do you pronounce akh?
Akh is pronounced /ɑːk/.
What is the plural of akh?
The plural of akh is akhs.

Words near akh in the dictionary

  1. Akeu
  2. Akey
  3. Akeys
  4. AKF
  5. akgae
  6. akh
  7. akh-right
  8. Akha
  9. Akhaian
  10. Akhaians
  11. Akhaioi

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: akh (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.

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