Definition

a city (a place guarded by waking or a watch) in the widest sense (even of a mere encampment or post)

Etymology

or (in the plural) עָר; or עָיַר; (Judges 10:4), from H5782 (עוּר)

Where the KJV renders it

• Ai (from margin)
• city
• court (from margin)
• town

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.