Definition

a cup (as a container), often figuratively, a lot (as if a potion); also some unclean bird, probably an owl (perhaps from the cup-like cavity of its eye)

Etymology

from an unused root meaning to hold together;

Where the KJV renders it

• cup
• (small) owl. Compare H3599 (כִּיס)

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.