noun · masculine
pōlos
Strong’sG4454
a colt, young ass
stem pōl-12 times in the New Testamentin 4 of 27 books1 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
πῶλος means a young animal, most often specifically a colt or young ass 1234. In the New Testament it refers to the colt of a donkey, the animal ridden in the accounts of the entry into Jerusalem 13.
More broadly in Greek usage the word could denote the foal of a horse and, by extension, the young of other animals such as the elephant, camel, or dog, not just the ass 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
πῶλος, -ου, ὁ
(in cl. also ἡ), [in LXX chiefly for עַיִר;]
G. Abbott-Smith, A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament, 1922 — public domain. References open in the reader.
Strong’s G4454 — the 1890 definition, and where the word comes from
Saidpo'-los
a "foal" or "filly", i.e. (specially), a young ass
Fromapparently a primary word;
King Jamescolt.
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
and ἡ, foal, whether colt or filly, Refs 8th c.BC+; νεοζυγὴς π. Refs 4th c.BC+; κριθῶντα π. Refs; ὁ ἔτι ἀδάμαστος π. Refs 5th c.BC+; ἵπποι π., opposed to ἵπποι τέλειοι, Refs 5th c.BC+
2 any young animal: of the elephant, Refs 4th c.BC+; κάμηλος π. Refs 2nd c.AD+; of the dog, Refs 2nd c.AD+; ass, NT; ὄνοι π. Refs 3rd c.BC+; pullet, Refs 2nd c.AD+
3 in Poets, in feminine, young girl, maiden, Refs 6th c.BC+: less frequently masculine, young man, Refs 4th c.BC+
II a Corinthian coin, from the figure of Pegasus upon it, Refs 5th c.BC+
III ἱερὸς π. Ἴσιδος, title of priest in Egypt, Refs 2nd c.BC+; π. alone, of a priest of Demeter and Persephone, 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 | pōlos | pōlois |
| object accusative | pōlon12×πῶλον | pōloin |
| direct address vocative | pōlor | pōloir |
| of, belonging to genitive | pōlou | pōloiu |
| to, for dative | pōlo | pōloi |
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
pōlo 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.
12 occurrences, every one of them listed
pōlon“colt”objectaccusative singular12×
Matthew 21:2… kai eutheōs heuriskavi onan dorēntan kai pōlon meta autau; luarantois agavar mi.… a donkey tied there, with her colt beside her. Untie them and bring …
Matthew 21:5… kai epibainarēntos epi onan kai epi pōlon huion hupozugieu.… riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’”
Matthew 21:7agala tan onan kai ton pōlon, kai epitithala epi autoiu teim himatieim, …They brought the donkey and the colt and laid their cloaks on them …
Mark 11:2… kai euthuos eisporeuorōntois eis autan heuriskavi pōlon dorēnton epi hon oudenos oupō anthrōpoiu …… enter it, you will find a colt tied there, on which no one …
Mark 11:4kai aperchala kai heuriskala pōlon dorēnton pros thuran exō epi teu …So they went and found the colt outside in the street, tied at …
Mark 11:5… legale autoi; Tinem poiavō luarōntois ton pōlon?… asked, “Why are you untying the colt?”
Mark 11:7kai feralō ton pōlon pros ton Iēsun, kai epibalalō auto …Then they led the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks …
Luke 19:30… katenanti kōman, en ha eisporeuorōntois heuriskavi pōlon dorēnton, epi hon oudenos pōpote anthrōpoiu …… enter it, you will find a colt tied there, on which no one …
Luke 19:33luarōntoiu de autoiu ton pōlon legala tois kuriois autou pros autoin; …As they were untying the colt, its owners asked, “Why are you …
Luke 19:33… autou pros autoin; Tinem luavō ton pōlon?… asked, “Why are you untying the colt?”
Luke 19:35… epiriptarantois autoiu teim himatieim epi ton pōlon epibibazala ton Iēsun;Then they led the colt to Jesus, threw their cloaks over …
John 12:15… tos basilevos su erchotō, kathorōntos epi pōlon onau.… King is coming, seated on the colt of a donkey.”