Definition

properly, to eye or (generally) to heed, i.e. pay attention; by implication, to respond; by extension to begin to speak; specifically to sing, shout, testify, announce

Etymology

a primitive root;

Where the KJV renders it

• give account
• afflict (by mistake for H6031 (עָנָה))
• (cause to
• give) answer
• bring low (by mistake for H6031 (עָנָה))
• cry
• hear
• Leannoth
• lift up
• say
• scholar
• (give a) shout
• sing (together by course)
• speak
• testify
• utter
• (bear) witness. See also H1042 (בֵּית עֲנוֹת)
• H1043 (בֵּית עֲנָת)

Every distinct English word the King James Version uses to translate this Hebrew 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.