noun · masculine
seismos
Strong’sG4578
an earthquake, storm
stem seism-14 times in the New Testamentin 5 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
The word’s core meaning is a shaking or commotion, most often referring to an earthquake 1234. This is by far its main use in the New Testament, where it regularly describes ground-shaking tremors 1.
The same root idea of a violent shaking can also describe a storm, particularly a tempest at sea, where the shaking is felt as violent commotion of wind and water rather than of the ground 124.
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
σεισμός, -οῦ, ὁ
(< σείω), [in LXX chiefly for רַעַשׁ;]
G. Abbott-Smith, A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament, 1922 — public domain. References open in the reader.
Strong’s G4578 — the 1890 definition, and where the word comes from
Saidsice-mos'
a commotion, i.e. (of the air) a gale, (of the ground) an earthquake
Fromfrom G4579;
King Jamesearthquake, tempest.
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
(σείω) shaking, shock, γῆς σ. earthquake, Refs 5th c.BC+
2 generally, shock, agitation, commotion, σ. τοῦ σώματος Refs 5th c.BC+; ἔξωθεν.. προσφέρειν τοῖς.. πάθεσι σεισμόν a shock, NT+2nd c.AD+
3 blackmail, extortion, Refs 2nd c.BC+; συκοφάντεια καὶ σ. Refs 2nd 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 | seismos9×σεισμὸς | seismois3×σεισμοὶ |
| object accusative | seismon1×σεισμὸν | seismoin |
| direct address vocative | seismor | seismoir |
| of, belonging to genitive | seismou | seismoiu |
| to, for dative | seismo1×σεισμῷ | seismoi |
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
seismo 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
seismos“earthquake”subjectnominative singular9×
Matthew 8:24kai idou seismos megos geneta en ta thalassa, hōste …Suddenly a violent storm came up on the sea, so …
Matthew 28:2kai idou seismos geneta megos; angelos gar kuriou katabainarantos …Suddenly there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord …
Acts 16:26afnōs de seismos geneta megos hōste saleuira teim themelieim …Suddenly a strong earthquake shook the foundations of the prison …
Revelation 6:12… anoigata tan sfragidan tan hektan, kai seismos megos geneta, kai tos hēlios geneta …… seal, and there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black like …
Revelation 8:5… brontais kai fōnais kai astrapais kai seismos.… rumblings, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake.
Revelation 11:13kai en ekeina ta hōra geneta seismos megos, kai tem dekatem tau polau …… that hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city …
Revelation 11:19… astrapais kai fōnais kai brontais kai seismos kai chalazas megas.… lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and a great hailstorm.
Revelation 16:18… astrapais kai fōnais kai brontais, kai seismos geneta megos, hoios ouk geneta apo …… peals of thunder, and a great earthquake the likes of which had not …
Revelation 16:18“earthquake”… anthrōpois genela epi tau gēau tēlikoutos seismos houtōs megos,… occurred since men were upon the earth — so mighty was the great quake.
seismon“earthquake”objectaccusative singular1×
Matthew 27:54… autou tērarōntois ton Iēsun horarantois ton seismon kai teim generanteim fobila sfodra legarōntois; …… who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they …
seismo“earthquake”to, fordative singular1×
Revelation 11:13“earthquake”… polau piptata, kai apoktenila en to seismo onomeim anthrōpoiu chiliadais hepta, kai tois …… of the city collapsed. Seven thousand were killed in the quake, and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of …
seismois“earthquakes”subjectnominative plural3×
Matthew 24:7… epi basileian, kai eli limois kai seismois kata topoin;… kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places.
Mark 13:8… ethnem kai basileias epi basileian, eli seismois kata topoin, eli limois; archas ōdinaiu …… kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places, as well as …
Luke 21:11seismois tē megois kai kata topoin limois …There will be great earthquakes, famines, and pestilences in various places …