lazarus means lazarus of Bethany, a man raised from the dead by Jesus Christ and later Christianity revered as a saint. It carries an Arena rating of 1518, earned across 32 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, lazarus ranks #146 of 13,269 for Most Storied Words, #586 of 13,269 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #917 of 13,269 for Most Malleable Words, #1,204 of 13,269 for Most Satisfying to Say.
lazarus is pronounced /ˈlæzəɹəs/.
Why “lazarus” is a great word
LAZARUS — [Proper Name] A name whose primary denotation refers to the New Testament figures — the beggar in the parable of Dives and Lazarus, and the man Jesus raised from the dead — but whose resonance has expanded to signify any person resurrected or revived from seeming ruin. From Late Latin Lazarus, from Koine Greek Λᾱ́ζᾱρος (Lā́zāros), a transliteration of the Biblical Hebrew name אֶלְעָזָר ('El'azár), literally meaning "God has helped." Doublet of Eleazar. Unlike "Eleazar" (the original Hebrew form worn by priests and warriors of the Old Testament) or "lazar" (the medieval noun for a diseased beggar, leached of all hope), "Lazarus" is the name freighted with the shock of return. It is the cool hand on a fevered brow, the unwinding of grave-clothes in a sunlit garden, the stunned silence of a mourner whose world has just been undone by a voice calling from a threshold. A testament that even the most final of endings can be, by some inscrutable grammar, a comma.
Etymology
From Late Latin Lazarus, from Koine Greek Λᾱ́ζᾱρος (Lā́zāros), the given name of Biblical figures mentioned in Luke 16 and John 12, from Biblical Hebrew אֶלְעָזָר ('El'azár), a given name shared by various people in the Hebrew Bible and literally meaning "God has helped". Doublet of Eleazar.
name
- Lazarus of Bethany, a man raised from the dead by Jesus Christ and later Christianity revered as a saint.“I’ve always been moved by the story of Lazarus as it is recounted in the Gospel of John. The basic shape of the narrative is recognizable and relatable: Someone dies, and the heartbroken family pleads for their loss to be reversed. In the case of Lazarus, Christ is so moved by the family’s grief that he interferes with the natural order of things and grants an exception like no other: He brings th”
- A beggar in a parable by Jesus Christ, traditionally (Christianity) thought to have been a leper and often conflated with Lazarus of Bethany.
- A male given name from Hebrew.
- A surname from Hebrew.“Ken Cuccinelli tweaked the famous poem from Emma Lazarus – whose words, “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free” are long associated with immigration to the US and the nation’s history as a haven – as part of a case for strict new measures pushed Monday by the Trump administration that could dramatically change the legal immigration system.”
noun
- A person who was dead and has been resurrected; a dead person who could potentially be resurrected.“This was the classic age of all the various exhumations, restorations, and resurrections; it was a retrospective time — a time of ghosts and Lazaruses, more or less decomposed.”
- A poor person, a beggar.“And do you not think, that all these poor Lazaruses, that you have persecuted, and do persecute, that when they die, they will not be carried into Abraham's bosom?”
verb
- To rescue a dying person.
- To raise from the dead.
Words closest in meaning
By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.
- resurrection 84% match — The act of arising from the dead and becoming alive again. vs lazarus →
- lazar 83% match — Synonym of leper: a person suffering from Hansen's disease; a person suffering any contagious disease requiring similar isolation. vs lazarus →
- redeemer 80% match — One who redeems; one who provides redemption. vs lazarus →
- calvary 79% match — A life-size representation of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ on a piece of raised ground. vs lazarus →
- lazaret 79% match — Synonym of lazaretto.; A place reserved for people with infectious diseases (especially leprosy or plague) to live on a long-term basis. vs lazarus →
- anastasis 79% match — a recovery from a debilitating condition, especially irradiation of human tissue vs lazarus →
- purgatory 79% match — Any situation where suffering is endured, particularly as part of a process of redemption. vs lazarus →
- resurrectionism 78% match — Belief in, or the event of, a person being resurrected from the dead. vs lazarus →