noun · masculine
ichthos
Strong’sG2486
a fish
stem ichth-20 times in the New Testamentin 5 of 27 books5 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
Fish — an aquatic creature caught for food 1234. In the biblical text it is used in its ordinary literal sense of a fish, as in accounts of eating or catching fish 1.
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
Strong’s G2486 — the 1890 definition, and where the word comes from
Saidikh-thoos'
a fish
Fromof uncertain affinity;
King Jamesfish.
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
(so Hdn.Gr.2.936, -ῦς and -ύς frequently in codices), ύος, ὁ, accusative ἰχθύν Refs 5th c.BC+, in late Poets also ἰχθύα Refs 5th c.BC+, contraction ἰχθῦς Refs 8th c.BC+, both forms being used in Comedy texts, -ῦςRefs 5th c.BC+, -ύας Refs 4th c.BC+ -ῦς Refs 1st c.BC+; -ύαςRefs 4th c.BC+:—fish, ὠμηστής Refs 8th c.BC+: metaphorically, of a stupid fellow, Refs 1st c.AD+
II in plural, οἱ ἰχθύες the fish-market at Athens, παρὰ τοὺς ἰχθῦς Refs 5th c.BC+
III plural, the constellation Refs 4th c.BC+ Attic dialect accusative to Refs 2nd c.AD+ [ῡ in disyllable cases, nominative -ῡςRefs 8th c.BC+), accusative -ῡν Refs 5th c.BC+, but -ῠν Refs 5th c.BC+ [same place]: ῠ in trisyllable cases and in all compounds] (Cf. Lithuanian žuvìs, Armenian jukn, 'fish'.)
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.
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 | ichthos | ichthois1×ἰχθύες |
| object accusative | ichthon3×ἰχθὺν | ichthoin7×ἰχθύας |
| direct address vocative | ichthor | ichthoir |
| of, belonging to genitive | ichthou2×ἰχθύος | ichthoiu7×ἰχθύων |
| to, for dative | ichtho | ichthoi |
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
ichtho 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.
20 occurrences, every one of them listed
ichthon“fish”objectaccusative singular3×
Matthew 7:10ē kai ichthon aitati mē ofion epidōati auto?Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake?
Matthew 17:27… balasar ankistrem kai ton anabainaranton prōton ichthon airasar, kai anoigarantos tem stomem autou …… a hook, and take the first fish you catch. When you open its …
Luke 11:11… vu ton patron aitati tos huios ichthon, kai anti ichthou ofion auto epidōati?… if his son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead?
ichthou“fish”of, belonging togenitive singular2×
Luke 11:11“fish”… aitati tos huios ichthon, kai anti ichthou ofion auto epidōati?… if his son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead?
Luke 24:42tois de epidōala auto ichthou optou merem;… gave Him a piece of broiled fish,
ichthois“fish”subjectnominative plural1×
Luke 9:13… ni polloterem ē artois pente kai ichthois duo, ei mēti poreuirantois nis agorazaneia …… five loaves of bread and two fish,” they answered, “unless we go and …
ichthoin“fish”objectaccusative plural7×
Matthew 14:17… ei mē pente artoin kai duo ichthoin.… five loaves of bread and two fish,” they answered.
Matthew 14:19… toin pente artoin kai toin duo ichthoin, anableparantos eis ton ouranon eulogata kai …… the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, He …
Matthew 15:36labata toin hepta artoin kai toin ichthoin kai eucharistarantos klata kai dōate toi …Taking the seven loaves and the fish, He gave thanks and broke them …
Mark 6:38… kai gnōskarantois legalō; Pente, kai duo ichthoin.… checking, they said, “Five — and two fish.”
Mark 6:41… toin pente artoin kai toin duo ichthoin anableparantos eis ton ouranon eulogata kai …… the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, Jesus …
Mark 6:41… hina paratithaleiō autoi, kai toin duo ichthoin merizata pantoi.… people. And He divided the two fish among them all.
Luke 9:16… toin pente artoin kai toin duo ichthoin anableparantos eis ton ouranon eulogata autoin …… the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, Jesus …
ichthoiu“fish”of, belonging togenitive plural7×
Mark 6:43… dōdeka kofinoiu plērōmeim kai apo toiu ichthoiu.… of broken pieces of bread and fish.
Luke 5:6kai houtem poiarantois sunkleiala plēthem ichthoiu pollem, diarrēgote de teim diktueim autoiu.… caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to tear.
Luke 5:9… sun auto epi ta agra toiu ichthoiu hoiu sullabala,… were astonished at the catch of fish they had taken,
John 21:6… helkara ischuale apo teu plētheu toiu ichthoiu.… because of the great number of fish.
John 21:8… pēchoiu diakosioi, surarōntois tem diktuem toiu ichthoiu.… dragged in the net full of fish, for they were not far from …
John 21:11… tem diktuem eis tan gēan mestem ichthoiu megoiu hekaton pentēkonta treis; kai tosoutoiu …… ashore. It was full of large fish, 153, but even with so many, the …
1 Corinthians 15:39… allosas de sarkas ptēneiu, allosas de ichthoiu.… animals have another, birds another, and fish another.