adjective
neos
Strong’sG3501
young, new, fresh
stem ne-23 times in the New Testamentin 11 of 27 books5 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
νέος primarily describes something young or youthful, said of children, youths, and people generally in contrast to the old 1234. Its comparative form is used of the "younger" as against the "elder," distinguishing younger people or age-groups within a community 12.
It also means new or fresh, of something recent in point of time rather than in kind, as of new wine, a new covenant, a new lump of dough, or a person renewed 124. Used this way it can describe a figurative renewal, as of a person made new 12.
The word also forms part of the place name Neapolis, a city named in the New Testament 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
νέος, -α, -ον,
[in LXX for נַעַר (Ge 37:2, Ex 33:11, al.), חָדָשׁ (Le 23:16, Nu 28:26, al.), etc.; compar. -ώτερος for קָטֹן, צָעִיר, etc.;]
SYN.: καινός, q.v.
G. Abbott-Smith, A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament, 1922 — public domain. References open in the reader.
Strong’s G3501 — the 1890 definition, and where the word comes from
Saidneh'-os
"new", i.e. (of persons) youthful, or (of things) fresh; figuratively, regenerate
Fromincluding the comparative νεότερος ; a primary word;
King Jamesnew, young.
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
Ionic dialect νέη, νέον; Ionic dialect νεῖος (which see): [feminine νέας as monosyllable, Refs 4th c.BC+; contraction feminine νῆ Refs 6th c.BC+
1 young, youthful (of children, youths, and of men at least as old as Refs 8th c.BC+youths, Refs 8th c.BC+: later mostly with Article, οἱ νέοι Refs 5th c.BC+ 'boys will be boys', Refs 4th c.AD+; οἱ ν., corporately organized, Refs 8th c.BC+; opposed to γεραιός, Refs 5th c.BC+; εὐθὺς ἐκ νέου ἐθίζειν from youth upwards, Refs 5th c.BC+; ἐκ νέας (i.e. ψυχῆς) Refs 5th c.BC+; τὸ ν., ={νεότης}, youth (in the abstract), Refs 5th c.BC+ all young creatures, Refs 5th c.BC+; also, of minors, νέου ὄντος ἔτι Refs 5th c.BC+; compare νεώτερος.
1.b rarely of animals and plants, ὄρπηκες, ἔρνος, Refs 8th c.BC+
2 suited to a youth, youthful, ἄεθλοι Refs 5th c.BC+; ν. φροντίς youthful spirits, Refs 5th c.BC+; of persons, ἄφρων νέος τε Refs 5th c.BC+
II new, fresh, ν. θάλαμος Refs 8th c.BC+; λίνον Refs 7th c.BC+; ἡ ν. (i.e. σελήνη) the new moon, especially in phrase ἕνη καὶ νέα, see at {ἕνος} Refs; but μηνὸς τῇ ν. (i.e. ἡμέρᾳ) on the first day of the month, Refs 5th c.BC+: in this sense rarely of persons, ὁ ν. ταγὸς μακάρων Refs 5th c.BC+; compare νεώτερος.
II.2 of events, etc., new, with collateral notion of unexpected, strange, untoward, evil, τί ν.; Refs 5th c.BC+; μῶν τι βουλεύῃ ν.; Refs 5th c.BC+
III neuter νέον as adverb of Time, lately, just now, opposed to both to distant past and present, παῖδα ν. γεγαῶτα Refs 8th c.BC+ adverb νεωτέρως,Refs 5th c.BC+: superlative νεώτατα most recently, Refs 5th c.BC+; also ἐκ νέας, Ionic dialect αὖτις ἐκ νέης, anew, afresh, Refs 5th c.BC+
IV. the degrees of comparative are νεώτερος, νεώτατος, see at {νεώτερος}: νεαίτερος is corrupt for νεαίρετος in Refs 4th c.BC+, cf. Sanskrit návas, Latin novus, etc.)
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 | masculine singular | feminine singular | neuter singular | masculine plural | feminine plural | neuter plural |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| subject nominative | neos1×νέος | neas | neem1×νέον | neois | neais | neeim |
| object accusative | neon8×νέον | nean | neoin | neain1×νέας | ||
| direct address vocative | neor | near | neoir | neair | ||
| of, belonging to genitive | neou | neau1×νέας | neeu | neoiu | neaiu | neeiu |
| to, for dative | neo | nea | nee | neoi | neai | neei |
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
ne 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.
Where it appears
Every verse the word appears in, filed under the form it takes there.
23 occurrences, every one of them listed
neos“new”subjectnominative singular1×
Luke 5:37… de mēge, rēgati tos oinos tos neos toin askoin, kai autos ekchiti kai …… old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins, the …
neon“new”objectaccusative singular8×
Matthew 9:17oude balalō oinon neon eis askoin palaioin; ei de mē …Neither do men pour new wine into old wineskins. If they …
Matthew 9:17… tois askois apololō; alla balalō oinon neon eis askoin kainoin, kai amfoterois suntērolō.… will be ruined. Instead, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both …
Mark 2:22kai oudenos balatō oinon neon eis askoin palaioin; ei de mē, …And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he …
Mark 2:22… apolotō kai tois askois. alla oinon neon eis askoin kainoin.… the wineskins will be ruined. Instead, new wine is poured into new wineskins.”
Luke 5:37kai oudenos balatō oinon neon eis askoin palaioin; ei de mēge, …And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he …
Luke 5:38alla oinon neon eis askoin kainoin blēteem.Instead, new wine is poured into new wineskins.
Luke 5:39kai oudenos pinarantos palaion thelatō neon; legatō gar; Tos palaios chrēstos atō.… one after drinking old wine wants new, for he says, ‘The old is …
Colossians 3:10kai enduerantois ton neon ton anakainorōnton eis epignōsian kata eikonan …and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in …
neau“new”of, belonging togenitive singular1×
Hebrews 12:24kai diathēkau neau mesito Iēso, kai haime rantismou kreittonem …to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood …
neem“new”subject or objectdirect singular1×
1 Corinthians 5:7ekkathairavar tan palaian zuman, hina aveiō neem furamem, kathōs avō azumois. kai gar …… leaven, that you may be a new unleavened batch, as you really are …
neain“young”objectaccusative plural1×
Titus 2:4hina sōfronizaleiō tain neain filandrain arō, filoteknain,… this way they can train the young women to love their husbands and …
neoteros4×
Luke 15:12kai legata tos neoteros autoiu to patro; Patror, dōasar mi …The younger son said to him, ‘Father, give …
Luke 15:13… ouk pollain hēmerain sunagarantos panteim tos neoteros huios apodēmata eis chōran makran, kai …After a few days, the younger son got everything together and journeyed …
Luke 22:26… megoteros en vi genotōr hōs tos neoteros, kai tos hēgorōntos hōs tos diakonarōntos;… among you should be like the youngest, and the one who leads like …
John 21:18“younger”amēn amēn legamō si, hote ase neoteros, zōnase siauton kai peripatase hopou thelase; …Truly, truly, I tell you, when you were young, you dressed yourself and walked where you wanted; but when …
neoterain3×
1 Timothy 5:2presbuterain hōs mētērain, neoterain hōs adelfain en panta hagneia.older women as mothers, and younger women as sisters, with absolute purity.
1 Timothy 5:11neoterain de chērain paraitosōr; hotan gar katastrēnialeia …But refuse to enroll younger widows. For when their passions draw …
1 Timothy 5:14boulomō oun neoterain gamarō, teknogonarō, oikodespotarō, mēdenan aforman dōarō …So I advise the younger widows to marry, have children, and …
neoteroin2×
1 Timothy 5:1… mē epiplēssaseia, alla parakalasōr hōs patron, neoteroin hōs adelfoin,… him as to a father. Treat younger men as brothers,
Titus 2:6“young”Toin neoteroin hōsautōs parakalasōr sōfronarō;In the same way, urge the younger men to be self-controlled.
neoterois1×
Acts 5:6anastēarantois de tois neoterois sustelala auton kai ekferarantois thaptala.Then the young men stepped forward, wrapped up his …
neoteroir1×
1 Peter 5:5“younger”homoiōs, neoteroir, hupotassivar presbuteroi. pantoir de allēloi tan …Young men, in the same way, submit yourselves to your elders. And all of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, “God …