Original Word: οἰκουμένη, ης, ἡ
Part of Speech: Noun, Feminine
Transliteration: oikoumené
Phonetic Spelling: (oy-kou-men'-ay)
Short Definition: the inhabited (Roman) world
Definition: (properly: the land that is being inhabited, the land in a state of habitation), the inhabited world, that is, the Roman world, for all outside it was regarded as of no account.

3625 oikouménē (from 3611 /oikéō, "to inhabit, dwell") – the inhabited earth, i.e. all people living on the inhabited globe.

[3625 (oikouménē) is "the land that is being inhabited, the land in a state of habitation, the inhabited world, that is, the Roman world (orbis terrarum), for all outside it was regarded as of no account" (Souter).

3625 (oikouménē) literally means "the inhabited (land)." It was "originally used by the Greeks to denote the land inhabited by themselves, in contrast with barbarian countries; afterward, when the Greeks became subject to the Romans, 'the entire Roman world;' still later, for 'the whole inhabited world' " (WS, 140,141).]

STRONGS NT 3625: οἰκουμένη

οἰκουμένη, οἰκουμένης, ἡ (feminine of the present passive participle from οἰκέω (namely, γῆ; cf. Winers Grammar, § 64, 5; Buttmann, § 123, 8));

1. the inhabited earth;

a. in Greek writings often the portion of the earth inhabited by the Greeks, in distinction from the lands of the barbarians, cf. Passow, ii., p. 415a; (Liddell and Scott, under the word, I.).

b. in the Greek authors who wrote about Roman affairs (like the Latinorbis terrarum) equivalent to the Roman empire: so πᾶσα ἡ οἰκουμένη contextually equivalent to all the subjects of this empire, Luke 2:1.

c. the whole inhabited earth, the world (so in (Hyperides, Eux. 42 (probably Liddell and Scott)) the Sept. for תֵּבֵל and אֶרֶץ): Luke 4:5; Luke 21:26; Acts 24:5; Romans 10:18; Revelation 16:14; Hebrews 1:6 (πᾶσα ἡ οἰκουμένη, Josephus, b. j. 7, 3, 3); ὅλῃ ἡ οἰκουμένη, Matthew 24:14; Acts 11:28 (in the same sense Josephus, Antiquities 8, 13, 4 πᾶσα ἡ οἰκουμένη; cf. Bleek, Erklär. d. drei ersten Evv. i., p. 68); by metonymy, the inhabitants of the earth, men: Acts 17:6, 31 (Psalm 9:9); ; ἡ οἰκουμένη ὅλῃ, all mankind, Revelation 3:10; Revelation 12:9.

2. the universe, the world: Wis. 1:7 (alternating there with τά πάντα); ἡ οἰκουμένη μελλουσα, that consummate state of all things which will exist after Christ's return from heaven, Hebrews 2:5 (where the word alternates with πάντα and τά πάντα, Hebrews 2:8, which there is taken in an absolute sense).

earth, world.

Feminine participle present passive of oikeo (as noun, by implication, of ge); land, i.e. The (terrene part of the) globe; specially, the Roman empire -- earth, world.

see GREEK oikeo

see GREEK ge

οικουμενη οἰκουμένη οἰκουμένῃ οικουμενην οἰκουμένην οικουμενης οἰκουμένης oikoumene oikoumenē oikouméne oikouménē oikouménei oikouménēi oikoumenen oikoumenēn oikouménen oikouménēn oikoumenes oikoumenēs oikouménes oikouménēsInterlinear Greek • Interlinear Hebrew • Strong's Numbers • Englishman's Greek Concordance • Englishman's Hebrew Concordance • Parallel Texts