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• chosen people
  chosen people

  noun

  Often Chosen People (in the Bible) the Israelites.
• Chosen People
  Chosen People

  A term applied to the Jews (see also Jews). According to the Old Testament, God chose the descendants of Abraham through the line of Isaac and Jacob — the ancestors of today's Jews — as the people through whom he would reveal himself to the world. God therefore freed them from slavery in Egypt (see also Egypt) and led them into the Promised Land.

chosen people

American  

noun

1. Often Chosen People (in the Bible) the Israelites.

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chosen people British  

plural noun

1. any of various peoples believing themselves to be chosen by God, esp the Jews

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Chosen People Cultural  

1. A term applied to the Jews (see also Jews). According to the Old Testament, God chose the descendants of Abraham through the line of Isaac and Jacob — the ancestors of today's Jews — as the people through whom he would reveal himself to the world. God therefore freed them from slavery in Egypt (see also Egypt) and led them into the Promised Land.

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Etymology

Origin of chosen people

First recorded in 1525–35

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

chosen people Chosen People

God said to his chosen people: “You cannot see my face, for no one can see me and live.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 13, 2025

Unai knew that Damian and his chosen people could breathe life into the atmosphere.

From BBC ● Nov. 1, 2025

Some Christians support Israel due to Old Testament writings that Jews are God’s chosen people and that Israel is their rightful homeland.

From Seattle Times ● Oct. 24, 2023

"I think the danger is not belonging — it's not being one of the chosen people."

From Salon ● May 25, 2023

I felt such intense pride at that point, not as an African, but as a Xhosa; I felt like one of the chosen people.

From "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela

In America’s case, the sociologist Robert Bellah described the country’s civil religion through its symbols: the Exodus, Chosen People, Promised Land, New Jerusalem, and Sacrificial Death and Rebirth.

From The Guardian ● Sep. 8, 2016

It has always been irresistibly tempting, Toynbee says, for a great or ancient body of human beings to think of itself as "The Chosen People."

From Time Magazine Archive

Sir: Millions of Americans have heard from pulpits and read in books that the Jews are the "Chosen People" and that God elected them for a special mission to mankind.

From Time Magazine Archive

Everything anyone ever wanted to know about the Chosen People, brilliantly organized, interpreted and narrated by one of Britain's most distinguished journalist-scholars.

From Time Magazine Archive

The Biblical legend lets us suppose that the waters of the Red Sea opened to let the Chosen People pass: but immediately afterwards the waters closed up again.

From Peaceless Europe by Nitti, Francesco Saverio