biblical
adj/ˈbɪblɪkəl/
Etymology From Medieval Latin biblicus + -al, equivalent to bible + -ical.
1
Of or relating to the Bible.
- Tithing is both a quranic and biblical virtue.
- Sepia Delft tiles surrounded the fireplace, their crudely drawn Biblical scenes in faded cyclamen blending with the pinkish pine, while above them, instead of a mantelshelf, there was an archway high enough to form a balcony with slender balusters and a tapestry-hung wall behind.1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 3, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:
1 more example
- She claws it away with her fingers. Falls heavily on her shoulders. Accepts the congratulations of her teammates, who look like they have just seen a biblical miracle.2025 July 19, Jonathan Liew, “Ann-Katrin Berger follows up biblical miracle with penalty heroics for Germany”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:
2
In accordance with the teachings of the Bible (according to some interpretation of it).
- biblical morality
- The biblical teaching is that…
1 more example
- Mike Pompeo, the former US secretary of state, has defended Israel’s decades-long control of the Palestinian territories by claiming that the Jewish state has a biblical claim to the land and is therefore not occupying it.2023 February 16, Chris McGreal, quoting Mike Pompeo, “Pompeo says Israel has biblical claim to Palestine and is ‘not an occupying nation’”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:
3
Figuratively Very great; especially, exceeding previous records in scale.
- of biblical proportions
- with biblical fury
4 more examples
- To have striven so hard, to have molded a public personality out of so amorphous an identity, to have sustained that superhuman effort only to end with every weakness disclosed and every error compounding the downfall—that was a fate of biblical proportions.1982, Henry Kissinger, Years of Upheaval, →ISBN:
- Dr. Peter Venkman: This city is headed for a disaster of biblical proportions. Mayor: What do you mean, "biblical"? Dr. Raymond Stantz: What he means is Old Testament, Mr. Mayor, real wrath-of-God type stuff.1984, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, Ghostbusters:
- We gather tonight at a dramatic and deeply promising time in our history, and in the history of man on earth. For in the past 12 months, the world has known changes of almost biblical proportions. And even now, months after the failed coup that doomed a failed system, I am not sure we have absorbed the full impact, the full import of what happened.1992, George H. W. Bush, State of the Union Address:
- Russell Banks's “Cloudsplitter,” a novel of near-biblical proportions about the abolitionist freedom fighter John Brown, is shaped like an explosive with an exceedingly long and winding fuse.1998 February 22, Walter Kirn, “The Wages of Righteousness”, in The New York Times:
- Synonyms
- biblic
- Antonyms
- nonbiblical, unbiblical
- Derived terms
- antibiblical, biblical blue, biblicality, biblically, biblical studies, extrabiblical, extra-biblical, in the biblical sense, know someone in the biblical sense, postbiblical, prebiblical
- Hypernyms
- scriptural
- Hyponyms
- evangelic, pentateuchal, psalmic, Torahic, New Testament, Old Testament
- Coordinate terms
- apostolic, conciliar, ex cathedra, Mishnaic, Rabbinic, Talmudic, traditional, Avestan, Qur'anic, Vedic