noun · masculine

Greekἁγιασμός (hagiasmos)

Biblang

hagiasmos

Strong’sG38

sanctification, holiness

stem hagiasm-10 times in the New Testamentin 7 of 27 books3 of 10 forms occur

What it means

A plain-English reading of the word, with the lexicons it draws on — Abbott-Smith, Strong's, and Liddell-Scott-Jones — right below it, in full.

AI Summary

Consecration — the act or process of making something holy — is the word's proper sense as a verbal noun ¹. LSJ likewise gives consecration as one of its two glosses ³, and Dodson's gloss "sanctification" reflects this same idea ⁴.

The word also covers sanctification or holiness as a resulting state, i.e. the condition of being holy or pure rather than the act of becoming so ¹⁴. Strong's describes this as properly "purification," meaning in effect purity as a state, and notes that by a Hebrew idiom the word can also be used concretely for a purifier ². LSJ likewise lists sanctification alongside consecration ³.

Sources: 1 Abbott-Smith 2 Strong's 3 LSJ 4 Dodson. Condensed by anthropic/claude-sonnet-5 on 2026-09-23 — it may still misstate what these say; check them yourself if it matters to you.

The lexicons it was drawn from, in full:

Abbott-Smith — the 1922 lexicon entry, in full

† ἁγιασμός, -οῦ, ὁ

(< ἁγιάζω), [in LXX: Ez 45:4 (מִקְדָּשׁ), Si 7:31, etc.;]

as an active verbal noun in -μός, it signifies properly the process τὸ ἁγιάζειν, rather than the resultant state, ἁγιωσύνη, hence,

1. consecration;

2. sanctification: so strictly in Ro 6:19, 22 (but v. Meyer), I Co 1:30, I Th 4:3, 7, II Th 2:13, He 12:14, I Pe 1:2. Elsewhere it perhaps (Ellic.; but v. Milligan, Th., 48) inclines to the resultant state: I Th 4:4, I Ti 2:15 (Cremer, 55, 602).†

G. Abbott-Smith, A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament, 1922 — public domain. References open in the reader.

Strong’s G38 — the 1890 definition, and where the word comes from

Saidhag-ee-as-mos'

properly, purification, i.e. (the state) purity; concretely (by Hebraism) a purifier

Fromfrom G37;

King Jamesholiness, sanctification.

James Strong, Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, 1890 — public domain. The numbers in it link to the entries here.

Liddell-Scott-Jones — the classical dictionary this word appears in

ἁγι-ασμός, ον, ὁ,
consecration, sanctification, LXX+NT

H. G. Liddell, R. Scott, H. S. Jones, A Greek-English Lexicon (9th ed., 1925–1940) — digitised by the Perseus Digital Library and corrected and expanded by Tyndale House, Cambridge, via STEPBible-Data's TFLSJ table, CC BY 4.0. Covers all of Greek literature, not just the Bible.

Translated as

Every occurrence, sorted by the English it was actually given — the evidence for what the word means, not a gloss of it.

sanctification6×holiness4×

Berean Standard Bible (BSB), dedicated to the public domain — berean.bible.

Biblang forms

Every form this word takes in Biblang, with the Greek it corresponds to and how often the New Testament uses it.

Job in the sentence case	one singular	more than one plural
subject nominative	hagiasmos2×ἁγιασμὸς	hagiasmois
object accusative	hagiasmon3×ἁγιασμόν	hagiasmoin
direct address vocative	hagiasmor	hagiasmoir
of, belonging to genitive	hagiasmou	hagiasmoiu
to, for dative	hagiasmo5×ἁγιασμῷ	hagiasmoi

Tinted cells are forms the New Testament never uses, so there is no Greek to show against them — but they are still correct Biblang, built from the slots below like any other.

Why these forms, and no others — the slots that make them

hagiasmstem+ogender+snru—its job in the sentence case+—ione · more than one number

hagiasmo is this word in every one of its forms. The slots after it make all the rest.

same in every form varies — every value shown

Where it appears

Every verse the word appears in, filed under the form it takes there.

10 occurrences, every one of them listed

hagiasmos“sanctification”subjectnominative singular2×

1 Corinthians 1:30“sanctification”… ni apo theou, dikaiosunas tē kai hagiasmos kai apolutrōsias,… become for us wisdom from God: our righteousness, holiness, and redemption.

1 Thessalonians 4:3“sanctification”… gar atō thelēmem tou theou, tos hagiasmos vu, apechorō vin apo tau porneiau,For it is God’s will that you should be holy: You must abstain from sexual immorality;

hagiasmon“sanctification”objectaccusative singular3×

Romans 6:19“sanctification”… meleim vu douleim ta dikaiosuna eis hagiasmon.… slavery to righteousness leading to …

Romans 6:22“sanctification”… theo, echavō ton karpon vu eis hagiasmon, tem de telem zōan aiōnian.… sin and have become slaves to God, the fruit you reap leads to holiness, and the outcome is eternal life.

Hebrews 12:14Eirēnan diōkavōr meta pantoiu, kai ton hagiasmon, hou chōris oudenos horeti ton kurion,… peace with everyone, as well as holiness, without which no one will see …

hagiasmo“holiness”to, fordative singular5×

1 Thessalonians 4:4… vu tem heautou skevem ktorō en hagiasmo kai tima,… to control his own body in holiness and honor,

1 Thessalonians 4:7… tos theos epi akatharsia alla en hagiasmo.… called us to impurity, but to holiness.

2 Thessalonians 2:13… tos theos aparchan eis sōtērēan en hagiasmo pneumeu kai pistia alētheiau,… beginning to be saved by the sanctification of the Spirit and by faith …

1 Timothy 2:15… menaleia en pistia kai agapa kai hagiasmo meta sōfrosunau.… they continue in faith, love, and holiness, with self-control.

1 Peter 1:2“sanctification”kata prognōsian theou patrou, en hagiasmo pneumeu, eis hupakoan kai rantismon haimeu …according to the foreknowledge of God the Father and sanctified by the Spirit for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by His blood: Grace and …