Word.ws English Dictionary

Bethlehem

/ˈbɛθ.lə.hɛm/

Bethlehem proper noun: a city in the West Bank, Palestine, believed to be the birthplace of Jesus.

Proper noun

Bethlehem

  1. A city in the West Bank, Palestine, believed to be the birthplace of Jesus.
    • Now when Ieſus was boꝛne in Bethlehem of Iudea, in the dayes of Herod the king, behold, there came Wiſe men from the Eaſt to Hierusalem,1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Matthew 2:1
  2. A hamlet near Rottum, Groningen province, Netherlands.
  3. A settlement just west of Tauranga, Bay of Plenty, New Zealand.
  4. A town in the Free State province, South Africa.
  5. A quarter of Bümpliz-Oberbottigen, city of Bern, Switzerland.
  6. A small village in Llangadog community, Carmarthenshire, Wales (OS grid ref SN6825).
  7. A hamlet in Rudbaxton community, Pembrokeshire, Wales (OS grid ref SM9820).
  8. A town in Litchfield County, Connecticut.
  9. An unincorporated community in Holmes County, Florida.
  10. A town in Barrow County, Georgia.
  11. A township and unincorporated community therein, in Clark County, Indiana.
  12. An unincorporated community in Henry County, Kentucky.
Show 13 more meaningsShow fewer meanings
  1. An unincorporated community in Winn Parish, Louisiana.
  2. An unincorporated community in Caroline County, Maryland.
  3. A census-designated place in Marshall County, Mississippi.
  4. A town and census-designated place therein, in Grafton County, New Hampshire.
  5. A town in Albany County, New York.
  6. A census-designated place in Alexander County, North Carolina.
  7. A ghost town in Marion County, Ohio.
  8. An unincorporated community in Richland County, Ohio.
  9. A city in Northampton County and Lehigh County, Pennsylvania.
  10. An unincorporated community in Wayne County, Tennessee.
  11. An unincorporated community in Harrison County, West Virginia.
  12. A village in Ohio County, West Virginia.
  13. A number of other townships in the United States, listed under Bethlehem Township

Noun

Bethlehem (plural Bethlehems)

  1. (obsolete) A lunatic asylum.
  2. In the Ethiopic church, a small building attached to a church edifice, in which the bread for the Eucharist is made.
    • […] to the Hebrew and Arabic word “korban” as now used in the Abyssinian Church to denote the sacramental bread specially prepared in the “Bethlehem,” or “House of Bread.”1869, John Baron, Anglosaxon witness on four alleged requisites for holy communion
    • A small building, attached to Ethiopic churches, usually at the eastern end of the sacrarium, in which the deacon prepares and bakes the bread for use in the eucharist. This building is called the Bethlehem, or “house of bread.”1882, William Audsley, George Ashdown Audsley, Popular Dictionary of Architecture and the Allied Arts, page 200

Bethlehem meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

Bethlehem in Hindi

city
बेथलहम bethalham, बैतलहम baitalham

Bethlehem in Tamil

city
பெத்லகேம் petlakēm

Bethlehem in Marathi

city
बेथलेहेम bethlehem

Bethlehem in Urdu

city
بَیْت اَلْلَحَم, بیت لحم
More languagesFewer languages
Bethlehem in Bengali
বেথেলহাম betheloham, বাইত লাহাম
Bethlehem in Tagalog
Belen, Bethlehem
Bethlehem in Arabic
بَيْت لَحْم bayt laḥm
Bethlehem in Malay
Baitul Laham, Baitullaham, Betlehem
Bethlehem in Indonesian
Betlehem
Bethlehem in Persian
بیت لحم Beyt-e lahm
Bethlehem in Thai
เบธเลเฮม betlehem
Bethlehem in Vietnamese
Belem
Bethlehem in Myanmar
ဗက်လင် baklang

Examples of Bethlehem in a sentence

  • The deacon rings a bell when bread is brought from the bethlehem to the maqdas and at other liturgical times2006, Geoffrey Wainwright, Robert Earl Cushman, Karen B. Westerfield Tucker, The Oxford History of Christian Worship, page 143:
  • The priests and deacons assigned to the service wash their feet and hands, usually near the 'Bethlehem'.2014, Bryan D. Spinks, Do this in Remembrance of Me, page 174:

Forms of Bethlehem

pluralBethlehems

Origin of Bethlehem

Inherited from Middle English Bethleem, from Old French Bethleem and Old English Bethleem, from Latin Bēthlehēmum, from Ancient Greek Βηθλεέμ (Bēthleém), from Hebrew בֵּית לֶחֶם (bēṯ lɛ́ḥɛm, literally “house of bread”). Doublet of bedlam and Belém.

Words formed from Bethlehem

Phrases with Bethlehem

Questions about Bethlehem

What does Bethlehem mean?
Bethlehem means a city in the West Bank, Palestine, believed to be the birthplace of Jesus.
What is Bethlehem in Hindi?
Bethlehem in Hindi is बेथलहम (bethalham), बैतलहम (baitalham). See Bethlehem meaning in Hindi.
How do you use Bethlehem in a sentence?
The deacon rings a bell when bread is brought from the bethlehem to the maqdas and at other liturgical times
What part of speech is Bethlehem?
Bethlehem can be a proper noun or a noun.
How do you pronounce Bethlehem?
Bethlehem is pronounced /ˈbɛθ.lə.hɛm/.

Words near Bethlehem in the dictionary

  1. bethinking
  2. bethinkings
  3. bethinks
  4. Bethke
  5. Bethkes
  6. Bethlehem
  7. Bethlehem lungwort
  8. Bethlehem sage
  9. Bethlehemic
  10. Bethlehemite
  11. Bethlehemites

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Bethlehem (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:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-Bethlehem.wav, En-us-Bethlehem.oga.

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