Word.ws English Dictionary

Rahab

Rahab proper noun: a prostitute of Jericho who, in the Torah, helped Israelite spies.

Proper noun (1)

Rahab

  1. A prostitute of Jericho who, in the Torah, helped Israelite spies.
    • And Joshua saved Rahab the harlot alive, and her father's household, and all that she had; and she dwelleth in Israel even unto this day; because she hid the messengers, which Joshua sent to spy out Jericho.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Joshua 6:25
  2. (rare) A female given name from Hebrew.
    • Wycherly reflected that any woman raised by a clergyman who named her daughter Rahab was probably making something in the nature of a personal statement.1997, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Gravelight, →ISBN, page 173

Proper noun (2)

Rahab

  1. A sea monster in Levantine mythology similar to Tannin and Leviathan

Origin of Rahab

Hebrew רָחָב (racháv, “Rahab”).

Hebrew רַהַב (ráhav, “Rahab”).

Questions about Rahab

What does Rahab mean?
Rahab means a prostitute of Jericho who, in the Torah, helped Israelite spies.
What part of speech is Rahab?
Rahab is a proper noun.

Words near Rahab in the dictionary

  1. rah-rah skirt
  2. rah-rah skirts
  3. rah-rahed
  4. rah-rahing
  5. rah-rahs
  6. Rahab
  7. Rahaim
  8. Rahal
  9. Rahals
  10. Rahaman
  11. Rahamans

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Rahab (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:

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