Definition

properly, to pare off, i.e. lessen; intransitively, to be (or causatively, to make) small or few (or figuratively, ineffective)

Etymology

a primitive root;

Where the KJV renders it

• suffer to decrease
• diminish
• (be
• borrow a
• give
• make) few (in number
• -ness)
• gather least (little)
• be (seem) little
• ( give the) less
• be minished
• bring to nothing

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.