adjective

Greekκενός (kenos)

Biblang

kenos

Strong’sG2756

empty, vain, hollow

stem ken-18 times in the New Testamentin 11 of 27 books9 of 26 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

κενός means empty — literally, of a container or space having nothing in it ¹²⁴.

From this it comes to describe things that are empty in the sense of worthless, groundless, or fruitless — words, teaching, or belief that have no substance ¹; a deceptive philosophy ¹; effort, labor, or an undertaking that comes to nothing ¹. This sense is often expressed with the phrase "in vain," meaning to no purpose or without result ¹.

Applied to a person, it describes someone empty-handed, having nothing to bring or show ¹³, and by extension a person who is vain or without real substance, foolish or empty-headed ¹³.

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

κενός, -ή, -όν,

[in LXX chiefly for ריק and cognate forms;]

empty (Ge 37:24, Jg 7:16). Metaph.,

(a) empty, vain: λόγοι, Eph 5:6; ἀπάτη, Col 2:8; κήρυγμα, πίστις, I Co 15:14;

(b) vain, fruitless: ἡ χάρις, I Co 15:10; κόπος, I Co 15:58; ἡ εἴσοδος, I Th 2:1; κενά, Ac 4:25(LXX); εἰς κενόν, in vain, to no purpose (Diod., LXX; cl. διὰ κενῆς), II Co 6:1, Ga 2:2, Phl 2:16, I Th 3:5;

SYN.: μάταιος, of the aim or effect of an action, κ. of its quality (Lft. on Cl. Rom., I Co., § 7; Tr., Syn., xlix).

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

Strong’s G2756 — the 1890 definition, and where the word comes from

Saidken-os'

empty (literally or figuratively)

Fromapparently a primary word;

King Jamesempty, (in) vain.

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

κενός, ή, όν,
Ionic dialect and poetry κεινός Refs 8th c.BC+; Epic dialect also κενεός, as always in Refs 8th c.BC+ (except in Il.[same places], and κενός Refs 8th c.BC+, and in Doric dialect, Refs 4th c.BC+; Aeolic dialect κέννος, accusative to Greg. Cor.p.610 Refs 5th c.BC+; but οἱ Αἰολεῖς.. οὐ λέγουσι κέννος Choerob.in Refs, from κενϝος, kenevos,Refs 5th c.AD+ κενευϝός Refs
I mostly of things, empty, opposed to πλέως, Refs 5th c.BC+; opposed to πλήρης, Refs; opposed to μεστός, Refs 8th c.BC+; τὸ κ. (i.e. τάλαντον) the empty one, Refs 5th c.BC+; χώματα κεινά, ={κενοτάφια}, Refs 5th c.BC+; κατέθισαν ἐπὶ κενευϝῶν (i.e. τάφων genitive singular) Refs 5th c.AD+; κ. χρόνος a pause in music, Anon.Refs 1st c.AD+; of wool and wine, uncertain meaning in Refs 2nd c.AD+; τὸ κ. the void of space, Refs 5th c.BC+; τὸ κ., ={τόπος ἐστερημένος σώματος}, Refs 5th c.BC+; ἢν κενεὸν λάβῃ [ἡ διακοπή] if it penetrates the (brain-) cavity, Refs 5th c.BC+[same place]; especiallyAstrology texts, not occupied by a planet, κ. δρόμος Refs 4th c.AD+; compare κενοδρομέω.
I.2 empty, fruitless, void, κενὰ εὔγματα εἰπών Refs 8th c.BC+; ἐλπίς, ἐλπίδες, Refs 5th c.BC+; τέρψιςRefs 5th c.BC+; ἀπόντων κενὴν κατηγορεῖν bring an idle charge, Refs 4th c.BC+; ineffectual, λύγξ Refs 5th c.BC+; πουλυμαθημοσύνης, τῆς οὐ κενεώτερον ἄλλο Timo [same place]; πολλὰ κ. τοῦ πολέμου Refs 4th c.BC+; ἐπιθυμίαι, opposed to φυσικαί, Refs 5th c.BC+; ἡ διὰ κενῆς ἐπανάσεισις τῶν ὅπλων empty flourishing of arms, Refs 5th c.BC+; διὰ κενῆς ῥίπτειν throw without a projectile, Refs 4th c.BC+; κεκλάγγω διὰ κενῆς ἄλλως to no purpose, Refs 5th c.BC+; κατὰ κενοῦ χανεῖν Suid. see at {λύκος ἔχανε; κατὰ κενοῦ φέρειν τὰς χεῖρας} Refs 1st c.AD+; κατὰ κ. βαίνειν, ={κενεμβατεῖν}, Refs 1st c.AD+: regular adverb κενῶς, διαλεκτικῶς καὶ κ. Refs 4th c.BC+
II of persons and things,
II.1 c.genitive, destitute, bereft, τοῦ νοῦ Refs 5th c.BC+; κ. φρονήσεως, ἐπιστήμης, Refs; κ. πόνου without the fruits of toil, Refs 4th c.BC+
II.2 absolutely, empty-handed, αἰσχρόν τοι δηρόν τε μενειν κενεόν τε νέεσθαι Refs 8th c.BC+; ἀπίκατο, οἱ μὲν κεινοί, οἱ δὲ φέροντες κτλ. Refs 5th c.BC+; of camels, without burdens, unloaded, opposed to ἔγγομοι, Refs 2nd c.AD+; κ. ἂν ἴῃ.., κ. ἄπεισιν LXX+5th c.BC+; bereft of her mate, λέαινα Refs 5th c.BC+; orphan, Ἔρωτες Refs 2nd c.BC+; ὑπ᾽ ἄσθματος κενοί exhausted.., Refs 4th c.BC+; of places, without garrison, χῶραι Refs 5th c.BC+; of the body, without flesh, Refs 1st c.AD+
II.2.b devoid of wit, vain, pretentious, κεινὸς εἴην NT+5th c.BC+
III comparative and superlative, κενότερος Refs 5th c.BC+; -ότατος Refs 5th c.BC+; κενώτερος, -ώτατος, Refs 5th c.BC+; κενεώτερος Timo (see. above); κενεώτατος variant in Refs 5th c.BC+

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.

in vain6×vain5×empty3×empty-handed3×foolish1×

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	masculine singular	feminine singular	neuter singular	masculine plural	feminine plural	neuter plural
subject nominative	kenos1×κενὸς	kenas3×κενὴ	kenem6×κενὸν	kenois	kenais	keneim1×κενά
object accusative	kenon3×κενόν	kenan		kenoin1×κενούς	kenain
direct address vocative	kenor1×κενέ	kenar		kenoir	kenair
of, belonging to genitive	kenou	kenau1×κενῆς	keneu	kenoiu	kenaiu	keneiu
to, for dative	keno	kena	kene	kenoi1×κενοῖς	kenai	kenei

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

kenstem+oaegender+smnru—its job in the sentence case+—ione · more than one number

ken 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

Words built on the same stem

Other words sharing the exact same stem — not merely related in meaning.

kenomō — κενόω, I empty, deprive of content, make unreal

Where it appears

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

18 occurrences, every one of them listed

kenos“in vain”subjectnominative singular1×

1 Corinthians 15:58… hoti tos kopos vu ouk atō kenos en kurio.… labor in the Lord is not in vain.

kenon“empty-handed”objectaccusative singular3×

Mark 12:3kai labarantois auton derala kai apostelala kenon.… beat him, and sent him away empty-handed.

Luke 20:10… tois de geōrgois exapostelala auton derarantois kenon.… the servant and sent him away empty-handed.

Luke 20:11… de kakeinon derarantois kai atimazarantois exapostelala kenon.… treated him shamefully, sending him away empty-handed.

kenor“foolish”direct addressvocative singular1×

James 2:20thelasō de gnōskara, ō anthrōpor kenor, hoti tas pistias chōris teiu ergeiu …O foolish man, do you want evidence that …

kenas“in vain”subjectnominative singular3×

1 Corinthians 15:10… charitas autou tas eis min ouk kenas genita, alla perissoterem autoiu pantoiu kopiama, …… His grace to me was not in vain. No, I worked harder than all …

1 Corinthians 15:14“in vain”… egerotē, kenem ara tem kērugmem nu, kenas kai tas pistias vu,… not been raised, our preaching is worthless, and so is your faith.

1 Thessalonians 2:1… nu tan pros vin hoti ouk kenas genatē,… our visit to you was not in vain.

kenau“empty”of, belonging togenitive singular1×

Colossians 2:8… tos sulagōgarōntos dia tau filosofiau kai kenau apatau kata tan paradosian toiu anthrōpoiu, …… takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, which are based on human …

kenem“vain”subject or objectdirect singular6×

1 Corinthians 15:14“in vain”ei de Christos ouk egerotē, kenem ara tem kērugmem nu, kenas kai …And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is worthless, and so is …

2 Corinthians 6:1Sunergarōntois de kai parakalanō mē eis kenem tan charitan tou theou dechera vin;… not to receive God’s grace in vain.

Galatians 2:2… de toi dokarōntoi, mē pōs eis kenem trechameiō ē trechama.… running or had already run in vain.

Philippians 2:16“vain”… eis hēmeran Christou, hoti ouk eis kenem trechama oude eis kenem kopiama.… of life, in order that I may boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor in vain.

Philippians 2:16… ouk eis kenem trechama oude eis kenem kopiama.… did not run or labor in vain.

1 Thessalonians 3:5… peirazata vin tos peirazarōntos kai eis kenem geneteia tos kopos nu.… our labor might have been in vain.

kenoin“empty”objectaccusative plural1×

Luke 1:53peinarōntoin empimplēata agatheiu kai ploutarōntoin exapostelata kenoin.… but has sent the rich away empty.

kenoi“empty”to, fordative plural1×

Ephesians 5:6Mēdenos vin apatatōr kenoi logoi, dia houteim gar erchotō tas …Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things …

keneim“in vain”subject or objectdirect plural1×

Acts 4:25… Hinati fruassala ethneim kai laois meletala keneim?… nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?