ushabti
UK/uːˈʃabti/
ushabti noun: in Ancient Egypt, a figurine of a dead person, placed in their tomb to do their work for them in the afterlife.
Noun
ushabti (plural ushabtiu or ushabtis)
- In Ancient Egypt, a figurine of a dead person, placed in their tomb to do their work for them in the afterlife.
- These little images were called in Egyptian “Ushabti,” or “Respondents,” and were in fact supposed to act as servants of the deceased, it being their duty to answer for him and serve as his substitutes when called upon to do labourer's work [...].1886 September 1, The Times, p.13 col. A
- The air was all at once full of Egyptian and Greek tear-bottles, Ushabti, and Sèvres.1957, Lawrence Durrell, Justine
Forms of ushabti
| plural | ushabtiu |
|---|---|
| plural | ushabtis |
| alternative form | shabti |
| alternative form | shawabti |
Origin of ushabti
Borrowed from Egyptian w-S-b-t:y-A53 (wšbtj, “ushabti”, literally “answerer”), by folk etymology from earlier SA-wA-b-t:y-A53 (šꜣwꜣbtj), perhaps from S-wA-b-M1 (šwꜣb, “persea (tree)”), which may have been the material they were originally made from. The variant forms shawabti, shabti are borrowed directly from the earlier Egyptian forms šꜣwꜣbtj and šꜣbtj, respectively.
Questions about ushabti
- What does ushabti mean?
- Ushabti means in Ancient Egypt, a figurine of a dead person, placed in their tomb to do their work for them in the afterlife.
- What part of speech is ushabti?
- Ushabti is a noun.
- How do you pronounce ushabti?
- Ushabti is pronounced /uːˈʃabti/ (UK).
- What is the plural of ushabti?
- The plural of ushabti is ushabtiu.
Words near ushabti in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: ushabti (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: “ushabti.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/ushabti. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.