Definition

properly, interrogative what? (including how? why? when?); but also exclamation, what! (including how!), or indefinitely what (including whatever, and even relatively, that which); often used with prefixes in various adverbial or conjunctive senses

Etymology

or מַה; or מָ; or מַ; also מֶה; a primitive particle;

Where the KJV renders it

• how (long
• oft
• (-soever))
• (no-) thing
• what (end
• good
• purpose
• thing)
• whereby(-fore
• -in
• -to
• -with)
• (for) why

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.