akh

Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word akh. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word akh, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say akh in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word akh you have here. The definition of the word akh will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition ofakh, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.

English

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Egyptian ꜣḫ.

Pronunciation

Noun

akh (plural akhs)

  1. In Egyptian mythology, (roughly) a spirit of the dead that has successfully completed its transition to the afterlife.
    • 1948, Henri Frankfort, Kingship and the Gods: A Study of Ancient Near Eastern Religion as the Integration of Society and Nature, page 64:
      Their abode is heaven; and the Akh, by contrast with the Ba, does not retain any relation to the body.… It is a deceased, a transcendent being, without earthly or material ties; and, as such, it is the most spiritualized of the various concepts of the dead.
    • 2000, James P. Allen, Middle Egyptian: An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs, page 33:
      After spending the night asleep in their tombs, the akhs would wake each morning at sunrise and “come forth from the necropolis” to enjoy an ideal life, free from the cares of physical existence.
    • 2005, Gary A. Stillwell, Afterlife: Post-Mortem Judgments in Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greece, page 118:
      The akh would later become the state achieved when the ba and ka are rejoined.
    • 2009, Janet Balk, “Egyptian Perceptions of Death in Antiquity”, in Clifton D. Bryant, Dennis L. Peck, editors, Encyclopedia of Death and the Human Experience, page 399:
      If a person’s ka and ba were not reunited and akh failed to develop, then everlasting life would not occur.
    • 2015, “Afterlife”, in Eric Orlin, editor, Routledge Encyclopedia of Ancient Mediterranean Religions, page 17:
      Different postmortem aspects of the individual are mentioned in ritual texts, so that it is unclear how they relate to one another: the ka (what leaves the body when death occurs), the ba (the personality of the individual), and the akh (a glorified bodily form).

Etymology 2

Borrowed from Arabic أَخ (ʔaḵ, “brother”). Doublet of ock.

Alternative forms

  • akhi (with the pronominal suffix)

Pronunciation

Noun

akh (plural akhs)

  1. (Islam, MLE, MTE, slang) Brother; a close male friend or associate.

Anagrams

Old Swedish

Etymology

Drom Middle Low German ach (“an unhappy interjection”).

Interjection

akh

  1. alas, oh (exclamation of sorrow, etc.)

Descendants

  • Swedish: ack
Wikious
Boobota
Sagapedia