Word.ws English Dictionary

septuagint

Syllables: Sep·tu·a·gintUK/ˈsɛptjʊəd͡ʒɪnt/US/sɛpˈtuəd͡ʒənt/

septuagint noun: a group of 70 people or a collection of 70 things.

Noun

septuagint (plural septuagints)

  1. (archaic) A group of 70 people or a collection of 70 things.
    • This tenebrosity of the interior, he proceeded to say, hath not been illumined by the wit of the septuagint nor so much as mentioned for the Orient from on high which brake hell’s gates visited a darkness that was foraneous.1922 February 2, James Joyce, “[Episode 14: Oxen of the Sun]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company […], →OCLC, part II [Odyssey], page 376

Proper noun capitalized: Septuagint

US/sɛpˈtu.ə.d͡ʒənt/UK/ˈsɛp.tjʊ.ə.d͡ʒɪnt/

Septuagint (countable and uncountable, plural Septuagints)

  1. (archaic) The team of translators who produced the Septuagint.
    Synonyms:
    LXX
  2. An influential Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible produced in Alexandria in the 3rd and 2nd centuries BCE.
    • Traces of messianism in the Septuagint have occupied scholars for years; the Book of Ezekiel too has challenged attention in this specific domain of research.2006, Katrin Hauspie, Theodoret and Messianic Verses in the Septuagint version of Ezekiel, Michael Anthony Knibb (editor), The Septuagint and Messianism, Leuven University Press, Peeters Publishers...
    • The Septuagint originated, for the most part, as a translation of a source text. As such it represents a link—and a very important one—in the reception history of the Hebrew-Aramaic scriptures. But the Septuagint very soon turned into a literary and religious reference in its own right. […] The...2009, Jan Joosten, The Prayer of Azariah (DanLXX 3): Sources and Origin, Johann Cook (editor), Septuagint and Reception, BRILL, page 5

Synonyms of septuagint

Forms of septuagint

Noun
pluralseptuagints
Proper noun
pluralSeptuagints

Origin of septuagint

From Latin septuaginta (“seven tens, 70”), chiefly under the influence of the Septuagint and the story of its team of translators, q.v.

From Late Latin Septuaginta, lit. "The Seventy", a clipping of earlier descriptional names such as septuaginta translatio (“translation by the seventy”) and septuaginta interpretes (“the 70 interpreters”), calques of Koine Greek names such as οἱ ἐβδομήκοντα ἑρμηνευταί (hoi ebdomḗkonta hermēneutaí, “the 70 interpreters”) and οἱ Ο′ (hoi O′, “the LXX”), deriving from the popular (but probably mistaken) belief that its translation of the Torah had been produced in 72 days by a team of 72 Jewish scholars from Jerusalem (6 from each tribe) summoned to Alexandria during the reign of Ptolemy II.

Words formed from septuagint

Questions about septuagint

What does septuagint mean?
Septuagint means a group of 70 people or a collection of 70 things.
What part of speech is septuagint?
Septuagint can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce septuagint?
Septuagint is pronounced /sɛpˈtuəd͡ʒənt/ (US).
What is the plural of septuagint?
The plural of septuagint is septuagints.

Words near septuagint in the dictionary

  1. septuagenaries
  2. septuagenary
  3. Septuagesima
  4. Septuagesimae
  5. septuagesimal
  6. septuagint
  7. Septuagintal
  8. septuagintillion
  9. septuagintillions
  10. septuagints
  11. septuaries

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: septuagint (page history and authors); Septuagint (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)-Typheuss-Septuagint.wav.

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