Jacob

/ˈd͡ʒeɪkəb/

Jacob proper noun: a male given name from Hebrew.

Proper noun

Jacob

A male given name from Hebrew.
- "Georgette. How are you called?" "Jacob." "That's a Flemish name." "American too." "You're not a Flamand?" "No, American." "Good, I detest Flamands." - - -
- Brett smiled at him. "I've promised to dance this with Jacob," she laughed. "You've a hell of a biblical name, Jake."1927, Ernest Hemingway, chapter III, in The Sun Also Rises
1. One of the sons of Isaac and Rebecca, and twin brother of Esau; father of the Israelites (Jews and Samaritans) by 12 sons by 4 consorts, most famously Judah and Joseph who fathered Manasseh.
  - And the boyes grew; and Eſau was a cunning hunter, a man of the fielde: and Iacob was a plaine man, dwelling in tents.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Genesis 25:27, column 2
2. (Mormonism) The fifth son of Lehi and one of the younger brothers of Nephi, author of one of the books in the Book of Mormon.

Noun

Jacob (plural Jacobs)

A breed of multihorned sheep.
(UK, obsolete, slang) A ladder.
- Where's the Jacob? — the what, sir? — the Jacob! the ladder ye fool!1825, M. Egerton, Airy Nothings; Or, Scraps and Naughts, and Odd-cum-shorts, page 26

Jacob meaning in Hindi, Marathi, Bengali and Malayalam

Jacob in Hindi

male given name (the standard form): जेकब jekab
one of the sons of Isaac and Rebecca: याक़ूब yāqūb

Jacob in Marathi

male given name (the standard form): जेकब jekab

Jacob in Bengali

male given name (the standard form): ইয়াকুব yaqub
one of the sons of Isaac and Rebecca: ইয়াকুব yaqub

Jacob in Malayalam

male given name (the standard form): ചാക്കോ cākkō, യാക്കോബ് yākkōbŭ

More languagesFewer languages

Jacob in Gujarati: યાકૂબ yākūb
Jacob in Arabic: يَعْقُوب yaʕqūb
Jacob in Malay: Yaakub, Yakub
Jacob in Indonesian: Yakub
Jacob in Persian: جاکوب jâkub, یعقوب ya'qub
Jacob in Thai: ยาโคบ yaa-kôhp
Jacob in Vietnamese: Giacóp, Giacôbê, Giacôbe, Giacơ

Synonyms of Jacob

Forms of Jacob

plural	Jacobs

Origin of Jacob

From Middle English Iacob, from Late Latin Iācōbus, from Ancient Greek Ἰάκωβος (Iákōbos), from Biblical Hebrew יַעֲקֹב (yaʿăqōḇ, literally “May He Heel”), from the third-person singular masculine imperfective form of the Semitic verb "to heel" (with various meanings), in turn from עָקֵב (ʿāqēḇ, “heel of the foot”). Doublet of James, Yaakov, and Yakub.

Words formed from Jacob

Phrases with Jacob

Questions about Jacob

What does Jacob mean?: Jacob means a male given name from Hebrew.
What is Jacob in Hindi?: Jacob in Hindi is जेकब (jekab), याक़ूब (yāqūb). See Jacob meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is Jacob?: Jacob can be a proper noun or a noun.
How do you pronounce Jacob?: Jacob is pronounced /ˈd͡ʒeɪkəb/.

Words near Jacob in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: Jacob (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: 2026-09-02

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

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