Bible word study

O (Strong’s G5600): Meaning in the Bible

O (ὦ) is the Greek word numbered G5600 in Strong’s concordance of the Bible. Strong’s defines it as (may, might, can, could, would, should, must, etc.; also with G1487 and its compounds, as well as with other particles) be. In the King James Bible it is translated + appear, are, (may, might, should) be.

• Original wordὦ
• Transliterationō
• Pronunciationo
• Strong’s numberG5600
• LanguageGreek

The full Strong’s definition

Derivation. the subjunctive of G1510;

How the King James Bible translates it

Where O appears in the Bible

In the King James Bible’s text tagged with Strong’s numbers, O (G5600) stands behind 66 English renderings in 60 verses across 18 of the 66 books. It is most frequent in John (15), 1 Corinthians (12), Matthew (8).

How the King James Bible renders O, by count

• be40 of 66 (61 percent)
• may be7 of 66 (11 percent)
• is5 of 66 (8 percent)
• they may be2 of 66 (3 percent)
• are1 of 66 (2 percent)
• had1 of 66 (2 percent)

Three places to read O

• Matthew 6:4 That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly.
• John 17:19 And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.
• 2 Corinthians 1:17 When I therefore was thus minded, did I use lightness? or the things that I purpose, do I purpose according to the flesh, that with me there should be yea yea, and nay nay?

Counts are made at build time from the King James text tagged with Strong’s numbers (eBible.org, public domain). Verses are read from the stored King James text, never typed.

Why the word matters

Every word the biblical writers chose carries weight. Studying O in the original Greek lets you read the passages where it appears more carefully, closer to what the first hearers understood, so the meaning is drawn from the text itself rather than from the English alone.

The lexical data on this page comes from the public-domain Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890), a Hebrew and Greek dictionary keyed to the King James Bible. It is a reference tool, not a settled verdict: no single word decides a doctrine, and meaning is finally shaped by how a word is used in its sentences. Read the passages themselves, prayerfully, and in full.

Related words