What does ὄνος (ónos) mean in the Bible?
ὄνος (ónos): Beast of burden representing humility; Jesus's triumphal entry on a donkey symbolizes humble, peaceful kingship
Greek · G3688
ὄνος
A donkey
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ὄνοςG3688
Pronunciationónos
What does ὄνος (ónos) mean in the Bible?
ὄνος (ónos): Beast of burden representing humility; Jesus's triumphal entry on a donkey symbolizes humble, peaceful kingship
Full entry for ὄνος (G3688) · Open the biblical lexicon
Questions this entry answers
How does the BSB render G3688?
The BSB source-word alignment has 5 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include a donkey (2), donkey (2), of a donkey (1).
Where does ὄνος (ónos) appear in Scripture?
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 21:2. Its strongest book concentrations include Matthew (3), John (1), Luke (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 Ita donkey2×Matthew 21:2, Matthew 21:5
donkey2×Matthew 21:7, Luke 13:15
of a donkey1×John 12:15
Show sample aligned rows
Usage map
A compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
First aligned rowMatthew 21:2
Aligned rows5
Books represented3
Matthew3Luke1John1
Source forms
ὄνον4xononMatthew 21:2, Matthew 21:5, Matthew 21:7, Luke 13:15
ὄνου1xonouJohn 12:15
Parsing patterns
Noun - Accusative Feminine Singular3xMatthew 21:2, Matthew 21:5, Matthew 21:7
Noun - Accusative Masculine Singular1xLuke 13:15
Noun - Genitive Feminine Singular1xJohn 12:15
Evidence Summary
Greek word. Beast of burden representing humility; Jesus's triumphal entry on a donkey symbolizes humble, peaceful kingship
Strong'sG3688
Lexical occurrences5 versesGreek text appearances6 timesWord forms3 forms5 referencesVerse guides0 guides
Study linkMatthew 21:2Source Gloss
a donkey
Greek Text Appearances
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
6 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
Matthew 21:2Noun Accusative Singular Feminine
ὄνονonon
a donkey, an ass
Read verseMatthew 21:5Noun Accusative Singular Feminine
ὄνονonon
a donkey, an ass
Read verseMatthew 21:7Noun Accusative Singular Feminine
ὄνονonon
a donkey, an ass
Read verseLuke 13:15Noun Accusative Singular Masculine
ὄνονonon
a donkey, an ass
Read verseLuke 14:5Noun Nominative Singular Masculine
ὄνοςonov
a donkey, an ass
Read verseJohn 12:15Noun Genitive Singular Feminine
ὄνου.onou
a donkey, an ass
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 this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
This word appears as a noun across 3 case and number patterns. The form changes show how the word functions in a sentence; they do not change the basic lexical meaning by themselves.
Form patterns3Aligned forms5Case patternAccusative (4)Number patternSingular (5)
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
Genitive · Singular · FeminineJohn 12:151×
Accusative · Singular · FeminineMatt 21:2 · Matt 21:5 · Matt 21:73×
Accusative · Singular · MasculineLuke 13:151×
Selected Scripture Witnesses
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Biblical Witnesses
Animal Jesus instructs disciples to bring for his triumphal entry
Fulfillment of OT prophecy regarding messianic king riding humble beast
OT scriptural reference to humble animal used in messianic context
Common domestic animal used in Jesus's moral teaching about mercy
Showing 4 selected witnesses from 5 lexical occurrence verses.
Word Origins
ὄνος is a primary word - no further derivation.
Part of These Phrases
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.