Samuel

[sam-yoo-uhl]

noun

1. a judge and prophet of Israel. 1 Samuel 1–3; 8–15.

2. either of two books of the Bible bearing his name. 1 Sam., 2 Sam.

3. a male given name.

Samuel

/ ˈsæmjʊəl /

noun

1. a Hebrew prophet, seer, and judge, who anointed the first two kings of the Israelites (I Samuel 1–3; 8–15)

2. either of the two books named after him, I and II Samuel

Word History and Origins

Origin of Samuel¹

From Late Latin Samuhel, from Greek Samouḗl, from Hebrew Shĕmūʾēl “Name of El (God),” or “His name is El (God)”

Example Sentences

Casting Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter, stars of the goofball comedy “Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure,” in Samuel Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot” sounds like an idea dreamed up by undergraduate theater nerds smoking strong weed.

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She is married to Arnold Samuel Goodstein, a Democrat who previously served in the state Senate and the state House of Representatives.

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With four words—“What hath God wrought!”—sent over the first working electric telegraph wire in 1844, Samuel Morse helped change the status quo, and helped catapult New York into a leading position.

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Justice Samuel Alito signaled he agreed, saying the Colorado law “looks like blatant viewpoint discrimination.”

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Variously compared to Irish writer Samuel Beckett and Russia's Fyodor Dostoyevsky, late American critic Susan Sontag called Krasznahorkai "the contemporary Hungarian master of apocalypse who inspires comparison with Gogol and Melville".

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