Words to Know
Here are the meanings of some of the words in The Easy-to-Read Book of Mormon. They are in a-b-c order. Some of the words that are used to tell the meanings of other words are also explained in this “Words to Know” part. (Those words look like this.) If you look up “Jesus Christ” and “God the Father” in this list, you will see all the other names they are called in this book.
Click to jump to: D-E-F • G-H-I • J-K-L-M-N-O • P-Q-R • S • T-U-V-W-X-Y-Z
A–B–C
adultery [commit adultery]: breaking the promise a person makes when they get married not to have sex with someone who is not their wife or husband.
altar: a place people build to kill animals and burn them as sacrifices to God; an altar can be very fancy or just a pile of stones.
ancestors: parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, and so on.
apostle: a special witness of Jesus Christ; one of the twelve men Jesus chose to help him work with the Jews. In the Book of Mormon, these special witnesses are called disciples.
armor: what people wear to protect themselves when fighting in a war; armor can be made from animal skins or metal or both.
atonement: the work Jesus Christ did to help people come back to God through repentance. Christ pays justice for the sins of those who repent.
baptism [baptize, baptized]: to be put all the way under the water and then taken out of the water again by someone holding the priesthood, as a promise to God to keep his commandments. Baptism helps people remember Jesus’ death and resurrection. God promises to take away people’s sins when they are baptized; after people are baptized, God gives them the Holy Ghost.
bellows: a tool made from animal skin to blow air on a fire to make it hot enough to melt metal.
bitter: a bad taste.
boast [boasting]: to brag; to talk about how great or how powerful a person or something is; to talk too much or too proudly about the things you have done.
borders: the place where people’s lands are divided from each other; a line between two countries on a map.
bully [bullying]: to pick on, hurt, or make fun of people who are too weak or small to protect themselves.
canal: a kind of river people make so they can go from one sea or lake to another.
chariots: small carts or wagons, pulled by horses (or other animals), used for travel and making war.
charity: the kind of love Jesus Christ has for us; showing love by helping other people.
cimeters: a kind of curved sword.
combination [secret combination]: a group of people who murder and steal from other people, and who promise not to tell on each other.
commandments: rules or laws written in the scriptures which God has given us through prophets.
condemn: to punish; to find someone guilty; to blame someone for mistakes.
confess: telling someone about a mistake or sin or crime.
convert [converted]: to change; to believe in the truth.
cord: a kind of rope.
correct [action word]: to make something right; to teach people the right way.
countless: too many things or people to be counted.
crops [crop]: the plants people grow for food (such as wheat, corn, and so on).
curse: a promise of bad things to happen as a punishment for wickedness.
D–E–F
damnation [damned]: to live away from God forever; to be unhappy after death.
deny: to say that something is not true.
descendants: someone’s children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and so on.
despair: to have no hope for good things to happen.
devil: an being who tempts people to do evil things.
devilish: being or doing evil like the devil.
disciple [disciples]: someone who follows Jesus; one of the twelve men Jesus chose to help him work with the Nephites.
disease: another word for sickness.
divorce papers: papers that show that two people are no longer married to each other.
dung: animal droppings, often mixed with dirt around plants or trees to help them grow.
educated: people who have learned many things.
elder [elders]: a priesthood helper in the Nephite church; a servant of God.
endure: to suffer; to put up with or to live with trouble; to do what is right even when it is hard.
endure to the end: to live righteously for the rest of one’s life.
envy: to want something that belongs to someone else; to not be happy with the things one already has.
eternal: something that never ends, that goes on forever.
faint : to fall down suddenly as if asleep or dead.
faith [have faith]: to believe in something true; to hope for good things to happen.
Fall [of Adam and Eve]: when Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, death came into the world and people were cut off from God.
false gods: things or idols people worship instead of the true God.
famine: a time when there is very little or no food to eat.
fast [fasted]: to go without food for a time as a way to be humble. People sometimes fast when they pray to show God how much they need his help.
filthy: very dirty and awful.
flesh: our mortal bodies.
flocks, herds: groups of animals which people take care of and use for food, clothes, or help with work.
forbidden fruit: the fruit Eve and Adam were told not to eat when they lived in Garden of Eden.
fort: a strong place behind walls where people and soldiers go to be safe during war.
fortune-tellers: people who are paid money to tell others what the future will be like.
freedom: being able to make choices without fear of being hurt or punished.
G–H–I
Garden of Eden: the place God made for Adam and Eve to live in.
genealogy: the record of a family’s history; a list of the names of someone’s ancestors.
generation: people or family members born at the same time. Sisters and brothers belong to one generation; their parents and aunts and uncles belong to a different generation; their grandparents to another, and so on.
Gentile: a person who is not part of the House of Israel.
gift of tongues: power from God to speak different languages, or to speak a special language from God.
God the Father: God; the Father; Heavenly Father (also called the Lord God, the Lord God Almighty).
God’s word [word of God]: the things God tells prophets to tell people, often written down as scripture.
gospel: the good news about Christ’s atonement; the commandments Jesus gave to help us go back and live with God.
government: the rules people agree to live by, and the way those rules are made to work.
grace: a gift given out of love; the love Jesus has for us which can save us from the devil.
graft: to cut off and make a branch from one tree part of another tree. One makes a cut in the other tree and puts the branch into the cut, then wraps cloth around the branch and tree to keep the branch in place. The grafted branch becomes part of the tree.
guilt [feel guilty]: the bad feeling or feeling of shame people often have when they do evil things.
hand down: when one generation gives something to another generation.
harlot: a woman who is paid money to have sex, or a woman who is forced to have sex to make money for someone else.
heaven: the place where God lives.
hell: the place where the devil lives, and where all wicked people will go.
holy [holiness]: pure and clean, without sin.
House of Israel: a person who belongs to the family of Jacob; God’s people of the promise.
humble: not proud; meek; people who do not think that they are too good for other people or that they know everything; people who know they need God’s help.
hypocrites: people who say one thing but do another; people who pretend to be righteous; people who do good things for the wrong reasons.
idol [idols]: a statue of a false god; anything people worship that is not the true God.
immortal [immortality]: a perfect, resurrected body; a person who can never die again.
imperfect [imperfection]: the opposite of perfect.
injustice: the opposite of justice.
innocent: not knowing the difference between good and evil; someone who is like a small child.
J–K–L–M–N–O
jealous: to want to have someone’s attention all the time.
Jehovah: another name for Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ: the Messiah; Messiah; Savior; Jesus; Holy One; Son of God; Only Begotten Son; Holy One of Israel; Christ; the Christ; the Son. (Sometimes also called the Father and the Son; the Lord; the Lord God; the God of Israel; the Lord God Almighty; God; Jehovah).
Jew: a member of the tribe of Judah (part of the House of Israel).
joints: the parts of the body which bend (such as knees, elbows, and so on).
judge [judgment]: to find out the truth; to choose what is fair; to punish bad people or reward good people.
justice [just]: what is right, true, and fair.
knowledge: things which can be learned or known.
Law of Moses: the rules and commandments God gave to Moses which the House of Israel promised to follow.
manna: a special kind of food God sent to the House of Israel to keep them from dying of hunger in the desert.
meek [the meek]: easy to teach; people who are humble and willing to learn.
merchant: someone who buys, sells, or trades things to make money.
mercy [have mercy, be merciful]: to be kind to people; to help people when they are in trouble.
miracle: a good thing which happens because of God’s power; something people cannot explain.
misery [miserable]: being very unhappy.
misuse: to use something in a wrong way, or for the wrong reason.
mortal: people’s imperfect bodies which can die.
mystery [mysteries]: secret things of God which only very righteous people can learn about.
neas: a crop the Nephites grew.
orchard: a place where many trees are grown. Some people worshiped false gods in orchards.
orphans: children who have no mother or father; children who have no one to take care of them.
outer darkness: another name for hell.
overcome: to become weak because of God’s power or because one is full of joy; to be defeated.
overthrow: to take over a kingdom by defeating its king; to get rid of a ruler or government.
P–Q–R
paradise: a place of happiness where righteous people go after they die, before they go live with God.
perfect [perfection]: something which does not have anything wrong with it at all.
persecute: to make fun of, to hurt, to make life hard for other people.
pillar of fire [pillar of light]: a long, narrow tower of fire or light coming down from heaven.
plates: thin sheets of metal on which Nephite prophets wrote important things.
pollute [pollution]: to make dirty; to change in bad ways.
praise: to say nice things about something or someone.
preach: to talk to or teach people about the gospel.
pride [proud]: to feel good about oneself; to feel that one already knows everything, or is too good for other people.
priest: a priesthood helper in the Nephite church; almost always a servant of God.
priestcraft: to make money from preaching the gospel; to pretend to be chosen by God to preach things that are not really part of the true gospel.
priesthood [Aaronic Priesthood, Melchizedek Priesthood]: the power to do things in God’s name; to have the right to use God’s power.
prophecy [prophecies]: what a prophet says will happen in the future.
prophesy [prophesied]: to have God’s power to be able to say what will happen in the future.
prophet [prophets]: someone who prophesies; someone whom God calls to teach people God’s commandments.
prosper [prospered]: to do well; to have things go well in life; to have more than just the things one needs to live.
prune: to cut off branches which are not wanted or needed to help the rest of the tree grow better.
pure: perfectly clean, without sin.
quiver: a safe place to carry arrows.
rape [raped]: to force a woman or girl to have sex.
rebel [rebellion]: to fight against something or someone; to try to overthrow a government or ruler.
record: a written history.
refiners: people who melt down metal to make it pure.
reject [rejected]: to throw out; to refuse to believe, follow, or obey.
repent [repentance, repentant]: to turn away from sin; to stop doing evil; to make up for doing bad things.
restore [restoration]: to bring something back to the place it belongs.
resurrection: to rise from the dead; the time when one’s spirit is joined to an immortal body forever.
revelation: the knowledge God gives in answer to people’s prayers.
rudder: the part of a ship that makes it turn.
S
sackcloth: a kind of rough cloth people wore when they tried to show God they were sorry for their sins.
sacrament: the bread and water people eat and drink in memory of Jesus’ body and blood.
sacrifice: to give up something; to kill an animal and burn it up on an altar to show love for God and as a symbol of Jesus giving his life to save others.
salvation: freedom from death and from the pain of sin through Christ’s grace and power.
scar [scarred]: marks on the skin showing where someone has been cut or wounded.
scatter: to spread out all over.
scepter [scepters]: a rod rulers use as a symbol of power.
scripture [scriptures]: God’s word when it written down, such as in the Bible or Book of Mormon.
sealed [to seal]: closed up; to give power to something earth so it can be that same way in heaven.
seer: a special prophet who has power from God to see everything which has happened or which will happen.
seraphim [seraph]: a kind of being who lives with God.
sexual sins: having sex with others when not married; committing adultery; paying money to have sex; forcing others to have sex.
sheath: a safe place on a person’s belt to keep a sword.
shepherd: someone who takes care of sheep.
sheum: a crop that the Nephites grew.
siege [lay siege, laid siege]: when an army camps around an enemy’s city for a long time, hoping that the people in the city will run out of food and give up.
sin [commit sin]: to do evil; to break God’s commandments.
slaves: people who are forced to work for other people.
slave-drivers: people who make sure that slaves work, and who punish them if they do not.
slavery: to be forced to work for other people and not get paid for the work; to be forced to work or else get punished or killed.
sling [slings]: a tool that is used as a weapon to throw stones very hard.
sprout: when a plant begins to grow; the part of a plant people can see when it begins to grow.
stone: to hurt or kill someone by throwing stones at them.
strict: being very careful to follow every part of a law or commandment or rule.
suffer [suffering]: to feel pain; to be very hungry or tired or thirsty; to be persecuted; to worry a lot about others; to be hurt.
symbol: something which stands for something else, such as a flag standing for a country.
T–U–V–W–X–Y–Z
tax [taxes]: having to pay part of one’s money or part of what one owns to the rulers of a country.
teacher: a priesthood helper in the Nephite church; a servant of God; someone who helps others learn.
tempt [temptations]: to try to get people to do something; the evil things the devil tries to get people to do.
testimony: something that people say or write about what they have seen or heard, and that they promise is true.
thresh: to divide the seeds of a grain (such as wheat) that people eat from the stem or other parts that are not eaten.
threw lots [throw lots]: a kind of game using small sticks as a way of choosing someone to do a job or to win a prize.
torture: to try to hurt people as much as possible; to hurt people for fun or to force them to obey.
translate [translated]: to change words from one language to a different language.
treaty: when two or more nations agree to work together, or to stop fighting.
tyrant: a bad ruler who forces people to do what he wants.
unbelief: not having faith; not wanting to believe.
unbelievers: people who do not believe in Jesus or the gospel.
unclean animals: animals which the Law of Moses commanded the House of Israel not to eat.
uneducated: the opposite of educated.
unprepared: the opposite of prepared.
vain: useless; worthless; anything that is not important to God.
villages: very small cities or towns.
vineyard: a field where people grow grapes.
virgin: a person who has not had sex; in the Book of Mormon, this sometimes means Mary, the mother of Jesus.
visions: things prophets see because of God’s power.
wander: to travel without knowing where you are going.
wickedness: sin; doing evil things.
widows: women whose husbands have died.
wilderness: a wild place where it is hard to live, such as a desert or a place with many mountains.
wine-press: a machine for making wine out of grapes.
wisdom [wise]: to use knowledge in righteous ways.
witness [witnesses]: people who see and hear things for themselves; people who tell others about the things they have seen and heard.
woe: sadness and misery; trouble that comes to people who sin.
worship: showing love to God; meeting with others to show love to God by praying, singing, reading the scriptures, and listening to talks about God and God’s commandments.
ziff: a kind of metal the Nephites used.
Zion: a city of righteous people who live in peace and who share all they have so that no one is poor.
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