adjective
peteinem
Strong’sG4071
a bird
stem petein-14 times in the New Testamentin 6 of 27 books2 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
Bird — a winged creature that flies, used especially of birds in general 1234. The word comes from a root meaning "to fly," and describes something capable of flight or fully feathered/fledged 13. In its ordinary use as a noun, it simply means a bird or fowl 1234.
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
πετεινός, -ή, -όν
(< πέτομαι), [in LXX chiefly for עוֹף;]
G. Abbott-Smith, A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament, 1922 — public domain. References open in the reader.
Strong’s G4071 — the 1890 definition, and where the word comes from
Saidpet-i-non'
a flying animal, i.e. bird
Fromneuter of a derivative of G4072;
King Jamesbird, fowl.
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
also πετηνός (see. near the end), and πτηνός (see. entry), Epic dialect and poetry πετεηνός (also πετεεινός Refs 1st c.BC+:— able to fly, full-fledged, of young birds, πάρος πετεηνὰ γενέσθαι Refs 8th c.BC+; of birds generally, able to fly, winged, πετηνῶν.. ὑπ᾽ οἰωνῶν Refs 5th c.BC+ winged fowl, αἰετὸς.. τελειότατος πετεηνῶν Refs 8th c.BC+; πετεινόν a bird, Refs 6th c.BC+; τὰ πετεινά (with variant{πετηνά}) Refs 5th c.BC+ is the name of an Attic dialectship in Refs
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 | peteinos | peteinas | peteinem | peteinois | peteinais | peteineim11×πετεινὰ |
| object accusative | peteinon | peteinan | peteinoin | peteinain | ||
| direct address vocative | peteinor | peteinar | peteinoir | peteinair | ||
| of, belonging to genitive | peteinou | peteinau | peteineu | peteinoiu | peteinaiu | peteineiu3×πετεινῶν |
| to, for dative | peteino | peteina | peteine | peteinoi | peteinai | peteinei |
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
petein 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.
14 occurrences, every one of them listed
peteineim“birds”subject or objectdirect plural11×
Matthew 6:26emblepavar eis teim peteineim tou ouranou hoti ouk speralō oude …Look at the birds of the air: They do not …
Matthew 13:32… kai genotō dendrem, hōste erchara teim peteineim tou ouranou kai kataskēnarō en toi …… becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and nest …
Mark 4:32… dunorō hupo tan skian auteu teim peteineim tou ouranou kataskēnarō.… forth great branches, so that the birds of the air nest in its …
Acts 11:6… thēreim kai teim herpeteim kai teim peteineim tou ouranou;… the earth, wild beasts, reptiles, and birds of the air.
Matthew 8:20… Tais alōpekais fōleoin echalō kai teim peteineim tou ouranou kataskēnōsiain, tos de huios …Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens and birds of the air have nests, but …
Matthew 13:4… para tan hodan, kai ercharanteim teim peteineim katesthiata auteim.… fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it.
Mark 4:4… para tan hodan, kai erchata teim peteineim kai katesthiata autem.… fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it.
Luke 8:5… tan hodan, kai katapatita kai teim peteineim tou ouranou katesthiata autem.… where it was trampled, and the birds of the air devoured it.
Luke 9:58… Tais alōpekais fōleoin echalō kai teim peteineim tou ouranou kataskēnōsiain, tos de huios …Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens and birds of the air have nests, but …
Luke 13:19… kai geneta eis dendrem, kai teim peteineim tou ouranou kataskēnata en toi kladoi …… and became a tree, and the birds of the air nested in its …
Acts 10:12… tetrapodeim kai herpeteim tau gēau kai peteineim tou ouranou.… of the earth, as well as birds of the air.
peteineiu“birds”of, belonging togenitive plural3×
Luke 12:24… autoin; pose mallon vis diaferavō teiu peteineiu.… more valuable you are than the birds!
Romans 1:23… en homoiōme eikonau fthartou anthrōpou kai peteineiu kai tetrapodeiu kai herpeteiu.… for images of mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.
James 3:7“bird”pantas gar fusias thēreiu tē kai peteineiu herpeteiu tē kai enalieiu damazotō kai …… birds, reptiles, and creatures of the sea are being tamed and have been …