# behemoth

> English word · Noun · IPA /bəˈhi(ː).məθ/ · frequency rank #29,930

## Definitions
1. A great and mighty beast which God shows to Job in Job 40:15–24.
2. Any great and mighty monster.
3. Something which has the qualities of great power and might, and monstrous proportions.

## Etymology
From Middle English behemoth, bemoth, from Late Latin behemoth, from Hebrew בְּהֵמוֹת (behemót). Most likely, the Hebrew word is an intensive plural of בְּהֵמָה (behemá, “beast”), from Proto-Semitic (compare Ge'ez ብህመ (bəhmä, “to be dumb, to be speechless”), Arabic ب ه م (b h m)).
Some have instead suggested a borrowing from a hypothetical Egyptian pA-i-H-E1-mw (*pꜣ-jḥ-mw, “hippopotamus”, literally “the ox of the water”), from pꜣ (“definite article”) + jḥ (“ox, cattle”) + mw (“water”) in a direct genitive construction (for the pronunciation, compare the later Coptic descendants ⲡ- (p-) + ⲉϩⲉ (ehe) + ⲙⲟⲟⲩ (moou)); this, however, suffers from problems such as the lack of attestation of the supposed etymon, and there seems little reason to prefer it to the intensive plural explanation.

## Common misspellings (12)
`bbehemoth`, `beehmoth`, `behemmoth`, `behemoht`, `behemothh`, `behemotth`, `behemtoh`, `beheomth`, `behhemoth`, `behmeoth`, `bheemoth`, `ebhemoth`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/behemoth