Definition

the tongue (of man or animals), used literally (as the instrument of licking, eating, or speech), and figuratively (speech, an ingot, a fork of flame, a cove of water)

Etymology

or לָשֹׁן; also (in plural) feminine לְשֹׁנָה; from H3960 (לָשַׁן);

Where the KJV renders it

• babbler
• bay
• evil speaker
• language
• talker
• tongue
• wedge

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.