- the Bible ⇒
- the sacred writings of the Christian religion, comprising the Old and New Testaments and, in the Roman Catholic Church, the Apocrypha
- (as modifier): a Bible reading
- (often not capital) any book containing the sacred writings of a religion
- (usually not capital) a book regarded as authoritative
WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2026
Bi•ble /ˈbaɪbəl/USA pronunciation
n. [countable]
WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2026- Bible[the + ~] the collection of sacred writings of the Christian religion, consisting of the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament.
- JudaismAlso called ˈHe•brew ˈScrip•tures. [the + ~] the collection of sacred writings of the Jewish religion: consisting of the Five Books of Moses (the Torah), the books of the Prophets, and various other sacred writings, including the Psalms, and collectively known to Christians as the Old Testament.
- a book that is a copy of these writings:[often: bible]always carried a small bible with him.
- any book esteemed for its usefulness and authority:[usually: bible]a bird-watchers' bible.
Bi•ble
(bī′bəl),USA pronunciation n.
- Biblethe collection of sacred writings of the Christian religion, comprising the Old and New Testaments.
- Theology, JudaismAlso called Hebrew Scriptures. the collection of sacred writings of the Jewish religion: known to Christians as the Old Testament.
- (often l.c.) the sacred writings of any religion.
- (l.c.) any book, reference work, periodical, etc., accepted as authoritative, informative, or reliable:He regarded that particular bird book as the birdwatchers' bible.
- Greek, in tà biblía tà hagía (Septuagint) the holy books; biblíon, byblíon papyrus roll, strip of papyrus, equivalent. to býbl(os) papyrus (after Býblos, a Phoenician port where papyrus was prepared and exported) + -ion noun, nominal suffix
- Medieval Latin biblia (feminine singular)
- Old French bible
- Middle English bible, bibel 1300–50
Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::
Bible /ˈbaɪbəl/ n
'bible' also found in these entries (note: many are not synonyms or translations):
anthem
- antiphon
- Apocalypse
- Apocrypha
- Authorized Version
- AV
- -bashing
- Bible Belt
- Bible-thumper
- biblical
- Biblicist
- bibliomancy
- book
- canticle
- Carné
- catena
- cony
- Coverdale
- demythologize
- Doré
- Douay Bible
- DV
- evensong
- exegesis
- family Bible
- fundamentalism
- German
- Good Book
- Gothic
- isagogics
- King James Version
- Lutheran
- NEB
- New English Bible
- New Testament
- oath
- Old Testament
- Pentecostal
- polyglot
- Revised Standard Version
- Revised Version
- RSV
- RV
- sackbut
- sermon
- slippery
- testament
- text
- A, a
- Abdias