What does κακολογέω (kakologéō) mean in the Bible?
κακολογέω (kakologéō): To speak evil against someone with words; used of cursing parents or slandering God's name.
Greek · G2551
κακολογέω
To revile
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κακολογέω G2551
Pronunciation kakologéō
What does κακολογέω (kakologéō) mean in the Bible?
κακολογέω (kakologéō): To speak evil against someone with words; used of cursing parents or slandering God's name.
Full entry for κακολογέω (G2551) · Open the biblical lexicon
Questions this entry answers
How does the BSB render G2551?
The BSB source-word alignment has 4 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include curses (2), maligned (1), speak evil of (1).
Where does κακολογέω (kakologéō) appear in Scripture?
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 15:4. Its strongest book concentrations include Mark (2), Acts (1), Matthew (1).
Source Word Evidence
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders It curses 2× Matthew 15:4, Mark 7:10
maligned 1× Acts 19:9
speak evil of 1× Mark 9:39
Show sample aligned rows
Matthew 15:4 κακολογῶν to curses Verb - Present Participle Active - Nominative Masculine Singular Mark 7:10 κακολογῶν to curses Verb - Present Participle Active - Nominative Masculine Singular Mark 9:39 κακολογῆσαί to speak evil of Verb - Aorist Infinitive Active Acts 19:9 κακολογοῦντες to maligned Verb - Present Participle Active - Nominative Masculine Plural
Usage map
A compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
First aligned row Matthew 15:4
Aligned rows 4
Books represented 3
Matthew 1 Mark 2 Acts 1
Source forms
κακολογῶν 2x kakologōn Matthew 15:4, Mark 7:10
κακολογῆσαί 1x kakologēsai Mark 9:39
κακολογοῦντες 1x kakologountes Acts 19:9
Parsing patterns
Verb - Present Participle Active - Nominative Masculine Singular 2x Matthew 15:4, Mark 7:10
Verb - Aorist Infinitive Active 1x Mark 9:39
Verb - Present Participle Active - Nominative Masculine Plural 1x Acts 19:9
Evidence Summary
Greek word. To speak evil against someone with words; used of cursing parents or slandering God's name.
Strong's G2551
Lexical occurrences 4 verses Greek text appearances 4 times Word forms 2 forms 4 references Verse guides 0 guides
Source Gloss
to revile
Extended definition Source: STEPBible TBESG + Abbott-Smith
To speak evil against someone with words; used of cursing parents or slandering God's name.
(κακολόγος, slanderous), [in LXX: Exo.21:16 22:28, 1Ki.3:13, Pro.20:20, Eze.22:7 (קָלַל pi., hi.), 2Ma.4:1 * ;] to speak ill of, revile, abuse: with accusative of person(s), Mat.15:4, Mrk.7:10" (LXX) Mrk.9:39; with accusative of thing(s), Act.19:9.
Greek Text Appearances
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
4 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
Matthew 15:4 Verb Present Active Participle Nominative Singular Masculine
κακολογῶν kakologwn
I speak evil of, curse
Read verse Mark 7:10 Verb Present Active Participle Nominative Singular Masculine
κακολογῶν kakologwn
I speak evil of, curse
Read verse Mark 9:39 Verb Aorist Active Infinitive
κακολογῆσαί kakologhsai
I speak evil of, curse
Read verse Acts 19:9 Verb Present Active Participle Nominative Plural Masculine
κακολογοῦντες kakologountev
I speak evil of, curse
Read verseFull New Testament corpus: 260 chapters, 7,957 verses, 140,628 tokens. Data source: honza/textus-receptus (data only), with authority check against byztxt/greektext-textus-receptus.
Grammatical Forms
How mood, tense, and voice shift the force of this verb in context.
This verb appears through different tense, voice, mood, or stem patterns. Those forms help readers see how the action is presented in context.
Form groups 2 Aligned forms 4 Tenses Present, Aorist Voices Active
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
Tenses
Voices
Participle verbal adjective — the action as a modifying quality 3×
Present Active Matt 15:4 · Mark 7:10 · Acts 19:9 3×
Infinitive verbal noun — the action in abstract 1×
Aorist Active Mark 9:39 1×
Discourse Aspect
How this verb appears across 4 occurrences in the NT discourse index (MACULA Greek SBLGNT).
Aspect
Tense
present 3 aorist 1
Voice
active 4
Mood
participle 3 infinitive 1
NT Occurrences
Aspect reflects grammatical form — not authorial emphasis. Participles and infinitives are verbal adjectives and nouns respectively.
Clause data: MACULA Greek (Clear Bible, CC BY 4.0) · SBLGNT (Logos/SBL, CC BY 4.0)
Word Origins
κακολογέω is built from these roots:
Sources
MorphGNT Strong's Dictionary XML — CC0 1.0 Public Domain
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (morphhb/OSHB) — CC BY 4.0
Open Scriptures Hebrew Lexicon — CC BY 4.0
Berean Standard Bible (BSB) source-word alignment - CC0 Public Domain