Definition

a guarding or (concretely, guard), the act, the person; figuratively, the place, the condition, or (specially), the time (as a division of day or night), literally or figuratively

Etymology

from G5442 (φυλάσσω);

Where the KJV renders it

• cage
• hold
• (im-)prison(-ment)
• ward
• watch

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.