BIBLE

Pronunciation (US):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does Bible mean? 

• BIBLE (noun)
  The noun BIBLE has 2 senses:

1. the sacred writings of the Christian religions

2. a book regarded as authoritative in its field

  Familiarity information: BIBLE used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• BIBLE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The sacred writings of the Christian religions

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

Bible; Book; Christian Bible; Good Book; Holy Scripture; Holy Writ; Scripture; Word; Word of God

Context example:

he went to carry the Word to the heathen

Hypernyms ("Bible" is a kind of...):

religious text; religious writing; sacred text; sacred writing (writing that is venerated for the worship of a deity)

Meronyms (parts of "Bible"):

Old Testament (the collection of books comprising the sacred scripture of the Hebrews and recording their history as the chosen people; the first half of the Christian Bible)

text (a passage from the Bible that is used as the subject of a sermon)

New Testament (the collection of books of the Gospels, Acts of the Apostles, the Pauline and other epistles, and Revelation; composed soon after Christ's death; the second half of the Christian Bible)

Testament (either of the two main parts of the Christian Bible)

Domain member category:

covenant ((Bible) an agreement between God and his people in which God makes certain promises and requires certain behavior from them in return)

eisegesis (personal interpretation of a text (especially of the Bible) using your own ideas)

exegesis (an explanation or critical interpretation (especially of the Bible))

Gabriel ((Bible) the archangel who was the messenger of God)

Noachian deluge; Noah's flood; Noah and the Flood; the Flood ((Biblical) the great deluge that is said in the Book of Genesis to have occurred in the time of Noah; it was brought by God upon the earth because of the wickedness of human beings)

demythologise; demythologize (remove the mythical element from (writings))

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "Bible"):

family Bible (a large Bible with pages to record marriages and births)

Instance hyponyms:

Vulgate (the Latin edition of the Bible translated from Hebrew and Greek mainly by St. Jerome at the end of the 4th century; as revised in 1592 it was adopted as the official text for the Roman Catholic Church)

Douay-Rheims Bible; Douay-Rheims Version; Douay Bible; Douay Version; Rheims-Douay Bible; Rheims-Douay Version (an English translation of the Vulgate by Roman Catholic scholars)

Authorized Version; King James Bible; King James Version (an English translation of the Bible published in 1611)

Revised Version (a British revision of the Authorized Version)

New English Bible (a modern English version of the Bible and Apocrypha)

American Revised Version; American Standard Version (a revised version of the King James Version)

Revised Standard Version (a revision of the American Standard Version)

Derivation:

biblical (of or pertaining to or contained in or in accordance with the Bible)

biblical (in keeping with the nature of the Bible or its times or people)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A book regarded as authoritative in its field

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Hypernyms ("bible" is a kind of...):

enchiridion; handbook; vade mecum (a concise reference book providing specific information about a subject or location)

 Context examples 

“Where might you have got the paper? Why, hillo! Look here, now; this ain't lucky! You've gone and cut this out of a Bible. What fool's cut a Bible?”

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

Theory that attributed most geological features of the earth to the great flood described in the Bible.

(Diluvian Theory, NOAA Paleoclimate Glossary)

She put the book in the front room on top of the family Bible.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Also, he found great satisfaction in Edith's reading to him from the Bible.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

I never went wrong before! I never will again. I swear it. I’ll swear it on a Bible.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The old lady, had been reading her morning portion of Scripture—the Lesson for the day; her Bible lay open before her, and her spectacles were upon it.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

“Any of you fellows got a Bible or Prayer-book?” was the captain’s next demand, this time of the hunters lounging about the companion-way.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

The tray was kept from tumbling down, by a bible; and the tray, if it had tumbled down, would have smashed a quantity of cups and saucers and a teapot that were grouped around the book.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

It is one he values much, and I've often admired it, set up in the place of honor with his German Bible, Plato, Homer, and Milton, so you may imagine how I felt when he brought it down, without its cover, and showed me my own name in it, from my friend Friedrich Bhaer.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

“You'll all swing now, I reckon. What soft-headed lubber had a Bible?”

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)