Abraham

[ey-bruh-ham, -huhm]

noun

1. the first of the great Biblical patriarchs, father of Isaac, and traditional founder of the ancient Hebrew nation: considered by Muslims an ancestor of the Arab peoples through his son Ishmael.

2. a first name: from a Hebrew word meaning “father of many.”

Abraham

/ ˈeɪbrəˌhæm, -həm /

noun

1. Old Testament the first of the patriarchs, the father of Isaac and the founder of the Hebrew people (Genesis 11–25)

2. the place where the just repose after death (Luke 16:22)

Other Word Forms

• Abrahamic adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of Abraham¹

First recorded before 1000; from Late Latin, from Greek Abraám, from Hebrew ʾabhrāhām, traditionally translated as “father of many nations, father of multitudes,” equivalent to ʾabh “father” + hamon “multitude,” or a variant of ʾabhram “high father, exalted father,” equivalent to ʾabh “father” + ram “high, exalted”

Example Sentences

I am also thankful that President Abraham Lincoln’s Thanksgiving Proclamation continues to endure.

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Under my leadership, Sudan took a historic step in 2021 by joining the Abraham Accords.

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It was Abraham Lincoln who decisively developed Niles’s insight and clinched the case for the importance of the Revolution and the Founders to all Americans.

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The famed Pony Express, which rushed the news of Abraham Lincoln’s election to California in November 1860, went out of business less than a year later, after the telegraph made coast-to-coast communications infinitely faster.

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Thus was born, in time, the Abraham Accords, an economic and diplomatic normalization treaty involving Israel, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Morocco, Sudan and, most recently, Kazakhstan.

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