noun · masculine
nouos
Strong’sG3563
the mind, reasoning faculty
stem nou-24 times in the New Testamentin 11 of 27 books4 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
νοῦς refers to the mind, understanding, or reasoning faculty — the part of a person that thinks, judges, and comprehends 1234. It is sometimes set in contrast to the flesh, to the spirit, or to speaking in tongues, marking it out specifically as the faculty of rational understanding 1. Strong's adds that this faculty can belong to God or to man, and can operate in thought, feeling, or will, with the further implied sense of meaning 2.
By extension, the word can also denote a particular product of that faculty: a specific thought, judgment, or purpose that someone holds 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
νοῦς
(contr. from νόος),ὁ, gen., dat., νοός, νοΐ (late forms, = cl., νοῦ, νῷ; Bl., § 9, 3), acc., νοῦν, [in LXX chiefly for לֵב, לֵבָב;]
SYN.: v.s. πνεῦμα.
G. Abbott-Smith, A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament, 1922 — public domain. References open in the reader.
Strong’s G3563 — the 1890 definition, and where the word comes from
Saidnooce
the intellect, i.e. mind (divine or human; in thought, feeling, or will); by implication, meaning
Fromprobably from the base of G1097;
King Jamesmind, understanding.
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
Attic dialect contraction νοῦς, genitive νοῦ: Refs 8th c.BC+ uses the contraction form once, in nominative, Refs 8th c.BC+: Trag. use contraction form, except in Refs 5th c.BC+: Aeolic dialect genitive νῶ Refs 7th c.BC+: irregular forms are found in “NT” and later writers, genitive νοός LXX+NT+1st c.AD+, is rare in early writers, as Refs 5th c.BC+
1 mind, as employed in perceiving and thinking, sense, wit, οὐ λῆθε Διὸς πυκινὸν ν. Refs 8th c.BC+; νόῳ prudently, Refs 8th c.BC+; παρὲκ νόον senselessly, Refs 8th c.BC+; σὺν νόῳ wisely, Refs 5th c.BC+; ξὺν νῷ with play on ξυνῷ, Refs 5th c.BC+; νόῳ λαβεῖν τι to apprehend it, Refs 5th c.BC+; νόῳ σχεῖν, ἔχειν, recall, remember, Refs 5th c.BC+; ἀγαθὸς ν., σπουδαῖος ν., Refs 5th c.BC+
2 νοῦν ἔχειν in two senses,
2.a to have sense, be sensible, Refs 5th c.BC+; so ν. ὀλίγον κεκτημένος Refs 5th c.BC+; compare νουνεχόντως.
2.b νοῦν or τὸν ν. ἔχειν to have one's mind directed to something, ἄλλοσ᾽ ὄμμα, θητέρᾳ δὲ ν. ἔχειν Refs 7th c.BC+; ποῦ τὸν ν. ἔχει; Refs 5th c.BC+; τὸν ν. ἔχειν πρός τινα or τι (like προσέχειν τὸν ν.) Refs 5th c.BC+ to occur to one, Refs 1st c.BC+
3 mind, more widely, as employed in feeling, deciding, etc., heart, χαῖρε νόῳ Refs 8th c.BC+; ν. ἔμπεδος, ἀκήλητος, ἀπηνής,Refs 8th c.BC+; ν. εὐμενής, ἄγναμπτος, etc., Refs 8th c.BC+; ἐκ παντὸς νόου with all his heart and soul, Refs 5th c.BC+; τῷ νῷ.. κἀπὸ τῆς γλώσσης in heart as well as tongue, Refs 5th c.BC+ according to one's mind, Refs 5th c.BC+
4 mind, resolve, purpose, ἀγαθῷ νόῳ, i.e. kindly, Refs 5th c.BC+; τί σοι ἐν νόῳ ἐστὶ ποιέει; what do you intend to do? Refs; ἡμῖν ἐν ν. ἐγένετο εἰπεῖν Refs; ἐν ν. ἔχειν with future infinitive, to intend.., Refs: with present infinitive,Refs 5th c.BC+; ποιέειν τι ἐπὶ νόον τινί to put into his mind to do.., Refs 5th c.BC+; ἐπὶ νόον τρέπειν τινί.. Refs
5 reason, intellect, νόου φρενί Refs 6th c.BC+; opposed to δόξα, Refs 5th c.BC+
5.b “Mind” as the active principle of the Universe, Refs 5th c.BC+
II act of mind, thought, ἡμῖν δ᾽ οὔ τις τοῦδε νόος καὶ μῆτις ἀμείνων Refs 8th c.BC+
II.2 purpose, design, νόον τελεῖν τινι Refs 8th c.BC+
III sense, meaning of a word, etc., οὗτος ὁ νόος τοῦ ῥήματος Refs 5th c.BC+; ὁ νόος τῆς θυσίης conjecture for νόμος in Refs 5th c.BC+; meaning of a work of art, Refs 1st c.AD+; πρὸς τὸν αὐτὸν νοῦν to the same effect, Refs 1st c.BC+; πρὸς νοῦν οὐδὲν λέγοντες to the point, Refs 1st c.BC+senseless, Refs
IV Refs 4th 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.
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 | nouos3×νοῦς | nouois |
| object accusative | nouon9×νοῦν | nouoin |
| direct address vocative | nouor | nouoir |
| of, belonging to genitive | nouou6×νοὸς | nouoiu |
| to, for dative | nouo6×νοῒ | nouoi |
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
nouo 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.
24 occurrences, every one of them listed
nouos“mind”subjectnominative singular3×
1 Corinthians 14:14… tem pneumem mu proseuchotō, tos de nouos mu akarpos atō.… tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful.
Titus 1:15“mind”… katharem, alla mianotē autoiu kai tos nouos kai tas suneidēsias.… but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure. Indeed, both their minds and their consciences are defiled.
Revelation 17:9Hōde tos nouos tos echarōntos sofian. tais hepta kefalais …This calls for a mind with wisdom. The seven heads are …
nouon“mind”objectaccusative singular9×
Luke 24:45tote dianoigata autoiu ton nouon teu suniēkarō tain grafain,Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.
Romans 1:28… paradōata autoin tos theos eis adokimon nouon, poiarō teim mē kathēkarōnteim,… gave them up to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to …
Romans 11:34Tinos gar gnōskata nouon kuriou? ē tinos sumboulos autou geneta?“Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has …
1 Corinthians 2:16tinos gar gnōskata nouon kuriou, hos sumbibazati auton? nis de …“For who has known the mind of the Lord, so as to …
1 Corinthians 2:16… kuriou, hos sumbibazati auton? nis de nouon Christou echanō.… instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ.
Philippians 4:7… eirēnas tou theou tas huperecharōntas panton nouon frourati tain kardiain vu kai teim …… peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your …
1 Timothy 6:5diaparatribais diaftherorēntoiu anthrōpoiu ton nouon kai aposterorēntoiu tau alētheiau, nomizarōntoiu porismon …… constant friction between men of depraved mind who are devoid of the truth …
2 Timothy 3:8… antistēolō ta alētheia, anthrōpois kataftherorēntois ton nouon, adokimois peri tan pistian.… the truth. They are depraved in mind and disqualified from the faith.
Revelation 13:18“understanding”hōde tas sofias atō; tos echarōntos nouon psēfizatar ton arithmon teu thēreu, arithmos …Here is a call for wisdom: Let the one who has insight calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a …
nouou“mind”of, belonging togenitive singular6×
Romans 7:23… melei mu antistrateuorōnton to nomo tou nouou mu kai aichmalōtizarōnton min en to …… warring against the law of my mind and holding me captive to the …
Romans 12:2… houto, alla metamorfovōr ta anakainōsia tou nouou, eis tem dokimazarō vin tinem tem …… transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to …
Ephesians 4:17“mind”… teim ethneim peripatatō en mataiota tou nouou auteiu,… no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking.
Ephesians 4:23ananeoorō de te pneume tou nouou vu,… renewed in the spirit of your minds;
Colossians 2:18… horatē embateuarōntos, eikē fusiorōntos hupo tou nouou tau sarkau autou,… up without basis by his unspiritual mind.
2 Thessalonians 2:2“mind”… mē tacheōs saleuira vin apo tou nouou mēde throorō mēte dia pneumeu mēte …not to be easily disconcerted or alarmed by any spirit or message or …
nouo“mind”to, fordative singular6×
Romans 7:25… Ara oun autos mis to men nouo douleuamō nomo theou, ta de sarka …… our Lord! So then, with my mind I serve the law of God …
Romans 14:5… pantan hēmeran; hekastos en to idio nouo plēroforotōr;… be fully convinced in his own mind.
1 Corinthians 1:10… aveiō de katartizorēntois en to auto nouo kai en ta auta gnōma.… that you may be united in mind and conviction.
1 Corinthians 14:15… te pneume, proseuchemi de kai to nouo; psallami te pneume, psallami de kai …… I will also pray with my mind. I will sing with my spirit …
1 Corinthians 14:15… te pneume, psallami de kai to nouo;… I will also sing with my mind.
1 Corinthians 14:19“mind”… en ekklēsa thelamō pente logoin to nouo mu lalara, hina kai allosoin katēchameia, …But in the church, I would rather speak five coherent words to instruct others than ten …