Bethany

//ˈbɛθəni// name

name ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Proper Noun
  1. 1
    The village where Jesus stayed before going to Jerusalem and being crucified.
  2. 2
    The village where Lazarus, Mary and Martha lived (Bible, John 11 v. 1)

    "Now a certain man was sick, named Lazarus, of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha."

  3. 3
    Mary of Bethany, sometimes identified as Mary Magdalene.
  4. 4
    A female given name from Aramaic, transferred use of the biblical place name.
  5. 5
    Other places naned Bethany elsewhere
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  1. 6
    Other places naned Bethany elsewhere:; A city, the county seat of Harrison County, Missouri, United States.

Synonyms

All synonyms
lazarus

Example

More examples

"This all happened at Bethany on the other side of Jordan, where John was baptizing."

Etymology

From Ancient Greek Βηθανία (Bēthanía), from Aramaic בית עניא (beth anya, “house of wretchedness”). This etymology is highly disputed; see Bethany.

Related phrases

mary magdalene

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.