adjective
teleios
Strong’sG5046
perfect, full-grown
stem telei-19 times in the New Testamentin 9 of 27 books7 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
Full-grown or mature: used of physical development that has reached its full growth, and by extension of mental and moral maturity, especially as the opposite of being a child or beginner 124. This sense covers the state of an adult as opposed to an infant 1.
Complete or perfect: describes something that is finished, whole, and lacking nothing — used of moral goodness, of God himself, and of things such as a work, a law, a gift, or love 124. Strong's also records a use of the word as a noun meaning simply completeness 2.
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
τέλειος, -α, -ον
(< τέλος), [in LXX chiefly for שָׁלֵם, תָּמִים and cogn. forms;]
(There is probably no reference in St. Paul's usage to the use of this term in the ancient mysteries; cf. ICC on Col 1:28; but v. also Lft., in l, and Notes, 173 f.) †
SYN.: v.s. ὁλόκληρος (and cf. Rendall, He., 158 ff.)
G. Abbott-Smith, A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament, 1922 — public domain. References open in the reader.
Strong’s G5046 — the 1890 definition, and where the word comes from
Saidtel'-i-os
complete (in various applications of labor, growth, mental and moral character, etc.); neuter (as noun, with G3588) completeness
Fromfrom G5056;
King Jamesof full age, man, perfect.
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 τέλεος, α, ον, in Trag., Attic dialect, and Doric dialectalso ος, ον, Refs 5th c.BC+ is alone used by Refs 8th c.BC+, neither form in Refs 8th c.BC+; τέλεος is alone used by Refs 5th c.BC+ are recommended by Refs 6th c.AD+; τέλειος first in Refs 2nd c.BC+, frequently in Papyri Refs 3rd c.BC+ adverb is sometimes τέλεονRefs 2nd c.AD+, etc., τέλειον Refs 2nd c.AD+: the form τέλεως, accusative τέλεων, with plural τέλεῳ, is found in Refs 4th c.BC+: the form τέληον in Refs: (τέλος):—perfect, of victims, entire, without spot or blemish, ἀρνῶν αἰγῶν τε τελείων Refs 8th c.BC+; βοτὸν τ. Refs; τὸνς ϝεξήκοντα τελέονς ὄϝινς (accusative plural) Refs 5th c.BC+; of sacrifices, ἱερὰ τ. perfect, of full tale or number, or performed with all rites, Refs 8th c.BC+ is probably the surest bird of augury (compare τελήεις).
b in Dialects, ={κύριος}, fully constituted, valid, ἐν ἀγορᾷ τελείῳ Refs 4th c.BC+; authoritative, final, ἁ δέ κα ϝράτρα ἁ δαμοσία τελεία εἴε ¯ δικάδο ¯ σα Refs; τὸ θέθμιον.. τέλεον εἶμεν Refs 5th c.BC+; so in Trag., τελεία ψῆφος a final decision, Refs 5th c.BC+
2 of animals, full-grown, τέλεον νεαροῖς ἐπιθύσας Refs 8th c.BC+; ἐπ᾽ οὗ θύεται τὰ τ. τῶν προβάτων, opposed to γαλαθηνά, Refs 5th c.BC+; τ. ζῷον defined in Refs 2nd c.AD+; as substantive, τέλειον καὶ δέκα ἄρνες Refs 3rd c.BC+; τ. ἵππος, opposed to πῶλος, Refs 5th c.BC+; τ. ἅρμα a chariot drawn by horses, opposed to ἅρμα πωλικόν, Refs 4th c.BC+; of trees, Refs 4th c.BC+; εἰκὼν τελεία life-sized, Refs 2nd c.BC+; of a torsionengine, full-sized, opposed to to the model of one, Refs 3rd c.BC+: of human beings, full-grown, adult, Refs 5th c.BC+
2.b married, τέλειοι οἱ γεγαμηκότες Refs 2nd c.AD+; Ἥρα Τελεία is so explained at Stymphalus, Refs 3rd c.BC+
3 of persons, accomplished, perfect in his kind, in relation to quality, Refs 5th c.BC+; τ. σοφιστής Refs 5th c.BC+; κατὰ πάντα Refs 5th c.BC+; οἱ τ. δογματικοί Refs 2nd c.AD+; but ἡ τελεία μαῖα the trained or qualified midwife, distinguished from ἡ ἀρίστη (the trained and experienced midwife), Refs 2nd c.AD+
3.b of things, φάρμακον τελεώτατον Refs 5th c.BC+; τ. ἀρετή, φιλία, etc., Refs 4th c.BC+; of a syllogism in the 1st pers. figure, the other figures being ἀτελεῖς, Refs 2nd c.AD+ a serious, dangerous illness, Refs 5th c.BC+; ἀδικία τελέα, τελεωτάτη, absolute, Refs 5th c.BC+; συνθέσεις λευκὰς τελείας δέκα τρεῖς thirteen complete white suits, Refs 2nd c.AD+; τ. ἀποζυγή complete divorce, Refs 4th c.AD+; ὕνις τελεία, κράβακτος ξύλινος τ., etc., Refs 3rd c.AD+; of land, fully inundated, opposed to ἀβροχικός, Refs 6th c.AD+, probably in Refs 6th c.AD+
4 of prayers, vows, etc., fulfilled, accomplished, εὐχωλαί Refs 5th c.BC+; of omens or predictions, ὄψις ὀνείρου οὐ τελέη a vision which imported nothing, Refs 5th c.BC+
5 of numbers, full, complete, τελέους ἑπτὰ μῆνας Refs 5th c.BC+; τ. ἐνιαυτός the great year, Refs 5th c.BC+
5.b in Arithm., of perfectnumbers, which are equal to the sum of their divisors, as Refs 3rd c.BC+ (3 is τ. because it has ἀρχή, μέσον, τέλος, Refs
6 τ. κρατήρ, i.e. the third bowl offered to Ζεὺς Σωτήρ, Refs 5th c.BC+
II of the gods, having power to fulfil prayer, all-powerful (as implied in Refs 5th c.BC+; of Hera ζυγία, the presiding goddess of marriage (see.Refs 5th c.BC+; of Apollo, Refs 3rd c.BC+; of the Eumenides, Refs 4th c.BC+: generally, θεοὶ τέλειοι τέλειαί τε Refs 4th c.BC+. the head or lord of the house, Refs 4th c.BC+
III ={τελευταῖος}, last, Refs 5th c.BC+
IV τέλειον, τό, a royal banquet, as a translated of the Refs 5th c.BC+
V ἡ τελεία (i.e. στιγμή) the full point, Refs 4th c.BC+
V.2 ἡ τελεία (i.e. ἀντίδοτος) the perfect antidote, effective against all poisons, Scrib. Larg.177.
VI Τέλεος (i.e. μήν(, ὁ, name of a month at Epidaurus, Refs
VII adverb τελέως finally, absolutely, with full authority, Refs 4th c.BC+
VII.2 completely, absolutely, thoroughly, τ. ἐς ἀσθενὲς ἔρχεται Refs 5th c.BC+; τ. ἐκκλησιάσαιμεν perfectly, Refs 5th c.BC+; τ. μ᾽ ὑπῆλθε completely deceived me, Refs 4th c.BC+; τ. ἑστιᾶν perfectly, Refs 5th c.BC+; τ. κινήσεται absolutely, Refs 5th c.BC+; τ. γὰρ ἡμᾶς ἐνώχλει he was a perfect nuisance to us, Refs 3rd c.BC+; τ. γυμνάζειν put a person through the τέλειον γυμνάσιον, Refs 2nd c.AD+; μέσα τ. completely neutral, Refs adverb allowed by Thom.Mag.p.358 R., but τελείως is found in LXX+5th c.BC+
VII.3 the neuter τέλεον is also used as adverb in later Prose, Refs 2nd c.AD+
VIII comparative and superlative: Refs 8th c.BC+ prevail, though the other forms occur in Refs 4th c.BC+. comparative adverb τελεώτερον Refs 8th 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 | masculine singular | feminine singular | neuter singular | masculine plural | feminine plural | neuter plural |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| subject nominative | teleios3×τέλειος | teleias1×τελεία | teleiem4×τέλειον | teleiois5×τέλειοι | teleiais | teleieim |
| object accusative | teleion3×τέλειον | teleian | teleioin | teleiain | ||
| direct address vocative | teleior | teleiar | teleioir | teleiair | ||
| of, belonging to genitive | teleiou | teleiau | teleieu | teleioiu1×τελείων | teleiaiu | teleieiu |
| to, for dative | teleio | teleia | teleie | teleioi1×τελείοις | teleiai | teleiei |
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
telei 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.
19 occurrences, every one of them listed
teleios“perfect”subjectnominative singular3×
Matthew 5:48… hōs tos patros vu tos ouranios teleios atō.… therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.[’’]
Matthew 19:21fēate auto tos Iēsus; Ei thelasō teleios arō, hupagasōr pōlasar su teim huparcharōnteim …… him, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give …
James 3:2… tinos en logo ouk ptaiatō, houtos teleios andros, dunatos chalinagōgara kai holem tem …… what he says, he is a perfect man, able to control his whole …
teleion“mature”objectaccusative singular3×
Ephesians 4:13… tou huiou tou theou, eis andron teleion, eis metrem hēlikiau teu plērōmeu tou …… the Son of God, as we mature to the full measure of the …
Colossians 1:28“mature”… panta sofia, hina parastēaneia panton anthrōpon teleion en Christo;… everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ.
James 1:25tos de parakuptarantos eis nomon teleion ton tau eleutheriau kai paramenarantos, ouk …… one who looks intently into the perfect law of freedom, and continues to …
teleias“perfect”subjectnominative singular1×
1 John 4:18… atō en ta agapa, alla tas teleias agapas exō balatō ton fobon, hoti …… is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear, because fear …
teleiem“perfect”subject or objectdirect singular4×
Romans 12:2… theou, tem agathem kai euarestem kai teleiem.… what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.
1 Corinthians 13:10hotan de erchateia tem teleiem, tem ek mereu katargiti.but when the perfect comes, the partial passes away.
James 1:17Pantas dosias agathas kai pantem dōrēmem teleiem anōthen atō, katabainarōntem apo tou patrou …Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down …
James 1:4“perfect”tas de hupomonas ergem teleiem echatōr, hina aveiō teleiois kai holoklērois, …… its work, so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking …
teleiois“mature”subjectnominative plural5×
Matthew 5:48Evi oun vis teleiois hōs tos patros vu tos ouranios …Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is …
1 Corinthians 14:20… ta kakia nēpiazavōr, tai de frenai teleiois genovōr.… infants, but in your thinking be mature.
Philippians 3:15hosois oun teleiois, houtem fronaneiō; kai ei tinem heterōs …All of us who are mature should embrace this point of view …
Colossians 4:12… vu en tai proseuchai, hina stēiveia teleiois kai plērofororēntois en pante thelēme tou …… you, so that you may stand mature and fully assured in the full …
James 1:4… hupomonas ergem teleiem echatōr, hina aveiō teleiois kai holoklērois, en mēdene leiporōntois.… work, so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
teleioiu“mature”of, belonging togenitive plural1×
Hebrews 5:14teleioiu de atō tas stereas trofēas, toiu …But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained …
teleioi“mature”to, fordative plural1×
1 Corinthians 2:6Sofian de lalanō en toi teleioi, sofian de ouk tou aiōnou houtou …Among the mature, however, we speak a message of …
teleioterau1×
Hebrews 9:11… generanteiu agatheiu dia tau megoterau kai teleioterau skēnau ouk cheiropoiētau, houtem atō ouk …… He went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not made by …