Word.ws English Dictionary

brehon

brehon noun: a judge or lawgiver in ancient Celtic Ireland.

Noun

brehon (plural brehons)

  1. (Ireland, historical) A judge or lawgiver in ancient Celtic Ireland.
    • [T]he brehon handed him a hilted weapon,
      a rare and ancient sword named Hrunting.1999, Seamus Heaney, Beowulf, London: Faber and Faber, page 48

Forms of brehon

pluralbrehons

Origin of brehon

From an Anglicized oblique form (such as genitive singular breitheamhan or dative singular breitheamhain) of Irish breitheamh, from Old Irish brithem, from breth (“judgment”).

Words formed from brehon

Questions about brehon

What does brehon mean?
Brehon means a judge or lawgiver in ancient Celtic Ireland.
What part of speech is brehon?
Brehon is a noun.
What is the plural of brehon?
The plural of brehon is brehons.

Words near brehon in the dictionary

  1. Brehm's ground parrots
  2. Brehm's tiger parrot
  3. Brehm's tiger parrots
  4. Brehmer
  5. Brehms
  6. brehon
  7. brehons
  8. brehonship
  9. brehs
  10. Breich
  11. Breier

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: brehon (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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