ψιθυριστάς

psithyristḗs

gossips

One who whispers; specifically, a person who speaks in low tones or murmurs about others, often in order to convey slander, malicious gossip, or secret criticism. In literary and moral contexts, it denotes someone engaging in covert disparagement or harmful talk against others behind their backs.

G5588

Romans 1:29 · Word #13

Lexicon G5588

Lemmaψιθυριστής
Transliterationpsithyristḗs
Strong'sG5588
DefinitionOne who whispers; specifically, a person who speaks in low tones or murmurs about others, often in order to convey slander, malicious gossip, or secret criticism. In literary and moral contexts, it denotes someone engaging in covert disparagement or harmful talk against others behind their backs.

Morphology N ACC M PL All morphology codes

Part of Speech N — Noun — A person, place, thing, or idea
Case ACC — Accusative — Direct object or extent
Gender M — Masculine — Grammatical masculine
Number PL — Plural — More than one

Common Translation

Phrasegossips
Literalwhisperers

Lexical Info

Lemmaψιθυριστής
Strong'sG5588

SIBI-P1 Translation G5588-01

secret whispering slanderers

Morphological NotesNoun; accusative masculine plural (Gr,N,,,,,AMP); agent noun formed with -ιστής indicating a practitioner of whispering.
Rendering RationaleThe rendering reflects the root ψιθυρ- (“to whisper, murmur”) and the agentive suffix -ιστής (“one who practices”), conveying those who habitually engage in whispered disparagement. The plural form preserves the accusative masculine plural morphology of the noun.

View full lexicon entry for G5588 →

SILEX v2

SIBI-P2 (Context-Aware)

whisperers

Same as P1No — adjusted for context
Rationale'Secret whispering slanderers' is too expansive; the Greek denotes those who slander by whispering or gossiping. 'Whisperers' captures the core sense in the vice list context.