Esau

American

[ee-saw] / ˈi sɔ /

noun

(in the Bible) a son of Isaac and Rebekah, twin brother of Jacob, to whom he sold his birthright.

Esau British

/ ˈiːsɔː /

noun

Bible son of Isaac and Rebecca and twin brother of Jacob, to whom he sold his birthright (Genesis 25)

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

In the Torah, Amalek refers to descendants of Esau who are known as the Israelites’ sworn enemy.

From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 12, 2026

The study of society emerged like Jacob after Esau, clutching the heel of the “secular study of something called religion.”

From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 31, 2025

"I was born into the language, I drank the language. As children, we never spoke Afrikaans; we only spoke N|uu," Esau told AFP.

From Barron's • Oct. 10, 2025

Later, as an adult, Esau realized the importance of preserving her mother tongue and founded a school in her home town of Upington to try to pass it on.

From Reuters • May 11, 2023

Since the day we were born, twins like Jacob and Esau, the younger had ruled the older.

From "Jacob Have I Loved" by Katherine Paterson

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023