Definition

to destroy fully (reflexively, to perish, or lose), literally or figuratively

Etymology

from G575 (ἀπό) and the base of G3639 (ὄλεθρος);

Where the KJV renders it

• destroy
• die
• lose
• mar
• perish

Every distinct English word the King James Version uses to translate this Greek term. The variety shows what readers in English receive across many different surface words — the same underlying word, scattered across the English Bible under different names.

What the first audience heard

A deep-dive treatment of this word is in the works. The featured chapter above carries the long form of what this word meant to its first audience.