hebdomad

American  

[heb-duh-mad] / ˈhɛb dəˌmæd /

noun

1. the number seven.

2. a period of seven successive days; week.

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hebdomad British  

/ ˈhɛbdəˌmæd /

noun

1. obsolete  the number seven or a group of seven

2. a rare word for week

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Etymology

Origin of hebdomad

1535–45; < Latin hebdomad- < Greek (stem of hebdomás week), equivalent to hébdom ( os ) seventh ( hepta- ) + -ad- -ad ¹

Example Sentences

In Gnosticism, for example, there is the fabulous story of the Hebdomad, seven Archons, abstract creatures with the power to create or destroy a world.

From The Guardian

The continuity of the astronomical mythos of Equinoctial Christolatry and of the total typology is proved by the persistence of the type—the ancient genitrix, the two sisters, the hebdomad of inferior and superior powers, the trinity in unity represented by Iao the tetrads male and female, the double Horus, or Horus and Stauros, the system of Æôns, the Karaite divinities, Harpocrates and Sut-Anubis, Isis and Hathor.

From Project Gutenberg

Ten Decads encircle her neck, nine Enneads are about her heart, and seven Hebdomads are under her feet, and each has emanated a Hebdomad.

From Project Gutenberg

At any rate, after he has reached the final ascent in the flesh, he still continues to advance, as is fit, and presses on through the holy Hebdomad into the Father's house, to that which is indeed the Lord's abode.

From Project Gutenberg

Why he should choose to express that interval by fifty, rather than by fifty-two, weeks, may be surmised in two ways: first, because the latter phrase would be unpoetical and unmanageable; and, secondly, because he might fancy that the week of the Pagan Theseus would be more appropriately represented by a lunar quarter than by a Jewish hebdomad.

From Project Gutenberg