JONAH

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does Jonah mean? 

• JONAH (noun)
  The noun JONAH has 3 senses:

1. (Old Testament) Jonah did not wish to become a prophet so God caused a great storm to throw him overboard from a ship; he was saved by being swallowed by a whale that vomited him out onto dry land

2. a person believed to bring bad luck to those around him

3. a book in the Old Testament that tells the story of Jonah and the whale

  Familiarity information: JONAH used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• JONAH (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

(Old Testament) Jonah did not wish to become a prophet so God caused a great storm to throw him overboard from a ship; he was saved by being swallowed by a whale that vomited him out onto dry land

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Instance hypernyms:

prophet (someone who speaks by divine inspiration; someone who is an interpreter of the will of God)

Domain category:

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)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A person believed to bring bad luck to those around him

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

jinx; jonah

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

unfortunate; unfortunate person (a person who suffers misfortune)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A book in the Old Testament that tells the story of Jonah and the whale

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

Book of Jonah; Jonah

Instance hypernyms:

book (a major division of a long written composition)

Holonyms ("Jonah" is a part of...):

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)

Nebiim; Prophets (the second of three divisions of the Hebrew Scriptures)

 Context examples 

I like Revelations, and the book of Daniel, and Genesis and Samuel, and a little bit of Exodus, and some parts of Kings and Chronicles, and Job and Jonah.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)