κατοίκησις
katoíkēsis
G2731 noun
SILEX Entry
Definition
The act of inhabiting or residing; the state or process of living or making one's home in a place. In specific contexts, may refer to a dwelling place, residence, or habitation—sometimes concretized as a building or place of residence. The primary emphasis is on the act or condition of settling or inhabiting, but can extend to the result of such inhabiting (the home or place itself).
Semantic Range
the act of inhabiting, residence, state of dwelling, place of residence, habitation, settlement (collective or individual); sometimes a dwelling place (concretely)
Root / Etymology
Formed from the verb κατοικέω (katoikeō, 'to settle, to dwell, to inhabit'), composed of κατά (kata, 'down, according to') + οἰκέω (oikeō, 'to dwell'), with the noun-forming suffix -σις (-sis) denoting action or state. Thus, κατοίκησις is 'the act or condition of dwelling/residing.'
Historical & Contextual Notes
In classical and Hellenistic Greek, κατοίκησις most often denotes the act or state of settling or inhabiting a particular place, commonly applied to both people settling in a new area and the collective state of residence. In the Septuagint and Jewish-Greek literature, the term can refer both to settlement (e.g., of a city or land) and, by extension, to a community's habitation within a land. In the New Testament, the word appears only rarely (e.g., Eph 2:22), where it refers to God’s indwelling or habitation among people—implying both the action (indwelling) and the result (a place made a habitation). English translations often render the word as 'dwelling' or 'habitation,' but these do not always capture the verbal force present in the Greek, which emphasizes both the process and the result. Compared with οἰκία ('house') or οἰκοδομή ('building'), κατοίκησις retains a stronger sense of the act or condition of inhabiting rather than just the physical structure.
Original Strong's Gloss (1890)
from κατοικέω; residence (properly, the act; but by implication, concretely, the mansion):--dwelling.
Root Family
κατοίκ- (katoíkēsis) — to settle, to dwell, to inhabit
Word Forms
1 distinct form
| SIDANCE | Surface | Transliteration | Morphology | Common | SIBI-P1 | SIBI-P2 | Occurrences |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
G2731-01 |
κατοίκησιν | katoikesin | N ACC F SG |
dwelling | dwelling | dwelling | 1 |
Occurrences in Scripture
1 occurrence
| SIDANCE | Reference | Word | Transliteration | Morphology | Common | SIBI-P1 | SIBI-P2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
G2731-01 |
Mark 5:3 | κατοίκησιν | katoikesin | N ACC F SG |
dwelling | dwelling | dwelling |