Word.ws English Dictionary

Edom

Syllables: E·dom/ˈi.dəm/

Edom proper noun: the name given to Esau in the Hebrew Bible.

Proper noun

Edom

  1. The name given to Esau in the Hebrew Bible.
    Synonyms:
    Esau
  2. (historical) A region whose inhabitants, the Edomites, traditionally traced their ancestry to Esau.
  3. (Judaism, collective, derogatory, historical) Rome, the Roman Empire.
  4. (Judaism, collective, derogatory, historical) Christianity; Christendom, the Christian countries.

Synonyms of Edom

Origin of Edom

From Late Latin Edōm from Koine Greek Ἐδώμ (Edṓm) from Biblical Hebrew אֱדוֹם (ʾĔḏōm). The medieval Jewish use of Edom to refer to Christians referred to their view of Christianity as a heresy that originated from Judaism, comparing Christians to Esau as a relative who was hostile to Jacob (who represented the Jewish people). It originated from Jewish writings that compared the Roman authorities to Edom for their persecution of Jewish people, which was later applied to Christianity when the latter became the state religion of the Roman Empire.

Words formed from Edom

Words that rhyme with Edom

Questions about Edom

What does Edom mean?
Edom means the name given to Esau in the Hebrew Bible.
What part of speech is Edom?
Edom is a proper noun.
How do you pronounce Edom?
Edom is pronounced /ˈi.dəm/.

Words near Edom in the dictionary

  1. EDODRAMs
  2. Edogawa
  3. edogestrone
  4. Edoid
  5. Edolene
  6. Edom
  7. Edomae
  8. Edomex
  9. Edomite
  10. Edomites
  11. Edomitic

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Edom (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-Edom.wav.

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