Word.ws English Dictionary

Ismael

/ˈɪzmeɪ.əl/

Ismael is the obsolete form of Ishmael.

Meaning of Ishmael

Proper noun

Ishmael

  1. The eldest son of Abraham and his wife's handmaiden Hagar who were cast out after the birth of Isaac; traditionally the ancestor of the Arabs via the Ishmaelites.
    • And Hagar bare Abram a ſonne: and Abram called his ſonnes name, which Hagar bare, Iſhmael.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Genesis 16:15, column 1
  2. A male given name from Hebrew.
    • Call me Ishmael.1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “Loomings”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 1

See all 3 meanings of Ishmael

Origin of Ismael

Borrowed from Latin Ismael.

Words formed from Ismael

Questions about Ismael

What is Ismael the obsolete form of?
Ismael is the obsolete form of Ishmael.
How do you pronounce Ismael?
Ismael is pronounced /ˈɪzmeɪ.əl/.

Words near Ismael in the dictionary

  1. Islāmic
  2. ism
  3. Isma
  4. Isma'ili
  5. Isma'ilis
  6. Ismael
  7. Ismaeli
  8. Ismaelian
  9. Ismaelians
  10. Ismaelism
  11. Ismaelite

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Ismael (page history and authors); Ishmael (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: “Ismael.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/ismael. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.