a loud outcry: the raised, carrying voice of someone shouting rather than speaking
TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled
This word names the volume and force of a voice, not what the voice says. Greek already had a neutral word for a voice or a sound at any level (φωνή); this one is kept for a voice pushed to full strength, loud enough to cut through a crowd or a room. What is behind the shout is left to the setting, and in the New Testament three settings cover every use:
a shout that announces something and sets people moving
the noise of people arguing at the top of their voices
a cry forced out of someone by grief or desperate need
Because the word is about loudness and not about motive, its moral weight comes entirely from the company it keeps. Paul tells the Ephesians to put it away alongside bitterness, anger, and slander, since raised voices are what a quarrel sounds like. The very same word describes Elizabeth blessing Mary and Jesus praying in Hebrews 5:7. Nothing in the word itself is either ugly or holy.
That is also why Revelation 21:4 can list it beside death, mourning, and pain. The promise is not that the new world will be quiet, but that nothing will be left to shout about.
Nuances
1aa shout that announces or proclaims something to others
Mat 25:6Luk 1:42*
1bangry uproar: the raised, quarrelsome voices of people in conflict
Act 23:9Eph 4:31
1ca cry wrung out of someone by grief or desperate need
the Greek word covers any loud cry at all, including a blessing spoken over Mary and Jesus praying under pressure, so its harshness in one verse comes from the list it sits inLuk 1:42Heb 5:7
Both
both name a loud, disorderly noise made by people raising their voices togetherAct 23:9Eph 4:31
Only clamor
the English word is formal and slightly old-fashioned, so it reads as the name of a vice rather than as the ordinary sound of people yelling
Names the noise itself as something that breaks out, not a voice that belongs to somebody. At midnight a shout simply goes up with no speaker named, and in the council a great uproar erupts out of the argument.Mat 25:6Act 23:9
Belongs to the vocabulary of grief. It is counted among the sorrows God will wipe away, alongside mourning and pain, and it is paired with tears in the prayers Jesus offered in the days of his flesh.Rev 21:4Heb 5:7
Can name a fault of character. Shouting at one another is listed as a habit to be put away, in the company of bitterness, rage, and slander.Eph 4:31
Both
Both can be a person's voice pushed to full volume with words riding on it, so English can render either one "cried out": Elizabeth blessing Mary, and Jesus committing his spirit from the cross.Luk 1:42Luk 23:46
Both can name the noise of a crowd rather than one speaker: the uproar that broke out in the council, and the single roar that went up from the Ephesians for two hours.Act 23:9Act 19:34
Both name the cry of a person in extremity. Jesus prayed with strong crying and tears, and at the end he cried out again at the top of his voice and gave up his spirit.Heb 5:7Mat 27:50
Covers sound made by things that are not people at all: the wind you hear without knowing where it comes from, a flute or a harp, a trumpet call before battle, rushing waters and thunder.Jhn 3:81Co 14:71Co 14:8Rev 14:2
Names a voice as somebody's own, recognizable and identifying. The sheep know their shepherd by it, a servant girl knows Peter at the gate by it, and Paul wishes he could change his tone with the Galatians.Jhn 10:4Act 12:14Gal 4:20
Works at any level of loudness, including a voice never raised at all: the chosen servant will not quarrel or shout, and no one will hear his voice in the streets. When volume is the point, the text has to add a word for "loud".Mat 12:19Mat 27:50Act 7:57
Stands for what is said, a message to be listened to and obeyed: a voice from heaven identifying the Son, the summons the dead will hear, the warning "today if you hear his voice".Mat 3:17Jhn 5:25Heb 3:7
Can mean an entire language. Paul counts up the many kinds of speech in the world, and says that without knowing what a speaker's words mean he is a foreigner to him.1Co 14:101Co 14:11
βοήa shout that calls out for help or redress, used of the wages of cheated harvesters crying against their employer
It covers glad shouting as readily as anything else. Elizabeth blesses Mary at the top of her voice, and a midnight shout goes up to announce that the bridegroom is coming.Luk 1:42Mat 25:6
It can be sheer uproar, the noise of people shouting each other down, and it is named among the habits believers are told to drop, rendered "clamor" or "shouting" in English Bibles.Act 23:9Eph 4:31
It can also be the sound of plain grief, the wailing that goes with death and pain and that is promised an end in the world to come.Rev 21:4
Both
Both name a cry loud enough to reach someone who can act on it. The harvesters' cries come to the ears of the Lord of hosts, and Jesus prays with loud cries to the one able to save him.Jas 5:4Heb 5:7
Both belong to trouble rather than ordinary talk. Each is the raised voice of people under strain, whether the strain is being cheated of wages or being in pain and mourning.Jas 5:4Rev 21:4
Its one New Testament use is a cry lodged against someone. Field workers whose pay was held back cry out, and their cry counts as a charge brought against the landowner who cheated them.Jas 5:4
The point of the word is what the cry is asking for, not how loud it is. No word for volume is attached to it; the whole force lies in who is being called on and what they are being asked to put right.Jas 5:4
στεναγμόςa groan rather than a shout: pain that comes out wordless and low instead of loud
Names volume above all: the writers keep attaching words for "great" or "strong" to it, because the point is a voice pushed as far as it will go.Luk 1:42Act 23:9Heb 5:7
It can carry actual words that others are meant to hear and act on, such as the midnight announcement that the bridegroom has arrived and everyone should come out to meet him.Mat 25:6
It can be a fault to get rid of, the ugly raised voice that keeps company with bitterness, rage, and slander.Eph 4:31
It is often a crowd noise, a whole room of people shouting at once until the uproar takes over the meeting.Act 23:9
Both
Both are sounds of distress that God actually hears and answers, whether the loud cries and tears of Jesus in his suffering or the groaning of slaves that brought God down to rescue them.Heb 5:7Act 7:34
Both belong to the noise of a world in pain, the kind of sound that stops only when the suffering that caused it is undone.Rev 21:4Act 7:34
It is the sound that comes out with no words in it at all, which is exactly why Paul can call these groans "wordless" and still say they are prayer.Rom 8:26
It is low and involuntary, pressed out of a person by strain rather than chosen and aimed at a listener.Rom 8:26Act 7:34
It rises from being ground down over time rather than from one loud moment: God names it alongside the long mistreatment of his people in Egypt.Act 7:34
δάκρυονtears, the part of grief you can see, set beside this word in Hebrews 5:7 as the part you can hear
Is a sound rather than a sight, loud enough to carry to everyone within earshot, and it can be an announcement or a burst of blessing rather than grief.Mat 25:6Luk 1:42
Covers angry noise: the uproar of a crowd in a shouting match, and the raised voices that believers are told to get rid of, so it is the one of the two that can itself be sinful.Act 23:9Eph 4:31
Can belong to a whole group at once, a noise that rises from a room full of people rather than something one person produces.Act 23:9
Both
Both are outward signs of distress that other people can see or hear, and the two are put side by side to describe prayer wrung out of real suffering.Heb 5:7
Both are named together among the marks of the present world's grief that God promises to bring to an end.Rev 21:4
Names the physical drops themselves, something that sits on a face, wets what it falls on, and can be wiped away by another hand.Luk 7:38Luk 7:44Rev 7:17
Can be quiet and can go on for years, so it serves as evidence of how sincerely someone has loved and served, not as a single loud moment.Act 20:19Act 20:312Co 2:4
Belongs to affection and longing as much as to sorrow: remembering someone's tears is remembering how much they wanted to be together again.2Ti 1:4
Marks the moment a person's inner state is laid bare, whether that is desperate faith asking for help or remorse that arrives too late to undo anything.Mrk 9:24Heb 12:17
kraugē in the other biblical languages
צְעָקָהHebrew“cry”the Hebrew word for the outcry of people being crushed, the cry of the oppressed that reaches God
Names a loud cry across the whole range of emotion, not only distress: it can be a joyful, blessing shout, as when Elizabeth "cried out with a loud voice" over Mary.Luk 1:42
Names an announcing, rousing shout that summons people to act, like the midnight cry "Behold, the bridegroom!" that wakes the whole wedding party.Mat 25:6
Can be angry, quarrelsome clamor treated as a fault to abandon: the uproar of a heated dispute, and the "clamour" listed among attitudes to put away.Act 23:9Eph 4:31
Both
Both are a loud, public cry wrung out by anguish, not silent weeping: the great cry that rose through Egypt when every firstborn died, and the "loud crying and tears" of Jesus in his suffering.Exo 12:30Heb 5:7
Both can be the cry of grief and mourning, the sound sorrow forces out and that ceases when sorrow ends: Esau's "great and bitter cry", and the "crying" that will be no more in the new creation.Gen 27:34Rev 21:4
Is characteristically the outcry of the oppressed appealing for rescue, a cry God hears and answers, as with Israel groaning under bondage and the wronged widow and orphan.Exo 3:7Exo 22:23
Is the cry whose arrival before God brings down judgment on the guilty: the outcry of Sodom that seals its destruction, and the cry of the poor that reaches God against those who wrong them.Gen 18:21Job 34:28
זְעָקָהHebrew“outcry”a Hebrew word for the cry of distress rising out of a place in trouble, always a protest that something is wrong
Is the cry of the wronged that appeals for help and demands a response, so ignoring it brings judgment on the one who will not listen.Pro 21:13Gen 18:20
Names the protest of the oppressed against those who exploit them.Neh 5:6
שַׁוְעָהHebrew“cry”the Hebrew word for a cry that is specifically a plea for rescue, aimed at someone able to help
Covers hostile shouting: the raised voices of a quarrel, and the kind of yelling Paul lists among the habits a changed person throws out along with bitterness and slander. This is noise as a fault, not a plea for help.Act 23:9Eph 4:31
Can carry no distress at all. It is the midnight shout announcing that the bridegroom has come, and it is Elizabeth's loud burst of blessing over Mary. The word names volume, so joy and announcement fit it as easily as pain.Mat 25:6Luk 1:42
Names the audible sound of grief on its own, with nobody being asked for anything: the weeping that God will wipe away in the new creation, listed beside mourning and pain as a condition of the old world rather than as an appeal.Rev 21:4
Both
Both name the loud sound of a voice rather than the words it says, which is why English renders each of them as a "cry" and both are described by how strong or loud they are.Luk 1:42Psa 102:1
Both can be a desperate appeal from someone facing death, directed to God and heard by him. Jesus prays with strong crying and tears to the one able to save him, exactly as the psalmist's cry reaches God's ears from the brink of the grave.Heb 5:7Psa 18:6
Always a plea for rescue rather than mere noise. It is what slaves under forced labor send up, what a plague-struck city sends up to heaven, and what a man in mortal danger sends up from the middle of the trouble.Exo 2:231Sa 5:122Sa 22:7
Lives inside a fixed pattern of appeal and answer: the word almost always sits next to God hearing it, bending down to it, keeping his ears open to it, or refusing to shut them. The cry is defined by the one who listens, so it comes with an expectation of rescue built in.Psa 34:15Psa 40:1Psa 145:19Lam 3:56
Stands as a formal request set beside prayer itself. In the laments it is paired with the worshipper's prayer and asked to reach God, so the cry functions as an item of address that can be presented, carried, and received.Psa 39:12Psa 102:1
Can be the voice of a whole people rather than one person: the groan of enslaved Israel, and the cry of a doomed nation heard rising from far away as its land is ruined.Exo 2:23Jer 8:19
רִנָּהHebrew“cry”a Hebrew word for a ringing cry that carries far, most often a shout of celebration in worship rather than an outburst
It can name a noise that is simply a fault. Paul lists the shouting of a quarrel among the things a church should get rid of, alongside bitterness and slander, and Luke uses the same word for the uproar that breaks out when a council meeting turns into a shouting match.Eph 4:31Act 23:9
It is the sound of grief and pain. It covers the loud crying and tears of a man praying under terrible pressure, and it stands next to mourning and pain in the list of things God promises to wipe out for good.Heb 5:7Rev 21:4
The word measures how loud someone is, not why. One and the same word covers a woman's overjoyed blessing of a guest at her door and the bad-tempered shouting a letter tells its readers to drop, so only the setting shows what is behind the noise.Luk 1:42Eph 4:31
Both
Both name a cry aimed at everyone within earshot rather than a private word. In Hebrew it runs through an army at sundown and rises from a whole town when the wicked fall; in Greek it is the midnight shout that wakes ten sleeping women.1Ki 22:36Pro 11:10Mat 25:6
Both can be the loud half of prayer, an appeal raised at full voice for God to hear. Solomon asks God to listen to this cry and to the prayer beside it, a psalmist asks God to attend to it, and in Greek it names the loud crying with which Jesus prayed.1Ki 8:28Psa 61:1Heb 5:7
It is the regular word for public celebration that comes out as song. It fills the mouths of people brought home from exile, it is what the heavens and the hills are told to break into, and it belongs with the road back to Zion.Psa 126:2Isa 55:12Isa 35:10
It is the word for gladness that arrives after sorrow rather than instead of it. Weeping stays the night and this cry comes with the morning, and the farmer who went out in tears comes home with it.Psa 30:5Psa 126:5Psa 126:6
God himself can be the one making this sound. A prophet pictures the LORD quieting his people with his love and singing over them with this very cry, something never said of loud Greek shouting.Zep 3:17
תְּרוּעָהHebrew“shout”the Hebrew word for a signal shout or trumpet blast, a sound with a fixed meaning in war and worship rather than an unshaped outcry
Covers the cry of grief and pain, the sound a person makes under real distress, which is why it stands alongside tears and mourning.Heb 5:7Rev 21:4
Names the angry uproar people raise at each other, the shouting of a quarrel, which a letter can list among the habits a church should get rid of.Eph 4:31Act 23:9
Carries a message people are meant to hear and act on, whether it announces that someone is arriving or pronounces a blessing out loud.Mat 25:6Luk 1:42
Both
Both name the noise of a shout rather than the words being said, loud enough to carry across a whole scene, and English Bibles reach for the same renderings for both, "shout" and "shouting" and "cry".Isa 16:10Mat 25:6
In both, a shout can be the sound of trouble arriving, the massed noise of a crowd set against someone rather than a single voice.Jer 51:14Act 23:9
Belongs to the winepress: the ringing shout workers keep up together as they tread out the grapes, so when it stops the harvest itself has stopped.Isa 16:10Jer 48:33
Turns into the roar of an attacking force with the picture of grape treading still behind it, so the cry that once meant new wine now means a place being crushed.Isa 16:9Jer 51:14
Can be raised by the LORD himself over the nations, pictured as a man shouting over the grapes he is treading.Jer 25:30
What scholars say about kraugē
BDAG divides κραυγή three ways: a loud cry or shout (Mt 25:6;Lk 1:42), clamor or outcry in dispute (Ac 23:9;Eph 4:31), and a cry of anguish (Hb 5:7; Rv 21:4). LSJ documents the same range in classical and Hellenistic usage, where the noun regularly denotes the raised shout of a crowd, an army, or a herald, alongside the shriek of animals. The division is one of context rather than lexical ambiguity: the noun denotes vocal loudness throughout, and Grundmann's TDNT article on the κράζω group treats κραυγή as the nominal counterpart of the verb, noting the Septuagint's use of the word group to render צְעָקָה and זְעָקָה, the outcry of the oppressed that God is said to hear (Gen 18:20-21; Ex 3:7-9). That Septuagintal background is generally taken to inform Eph 4:31's vice list and Rv 21:4's echo of Isa 65:19.Hebrews 5:7 (μετὰ κραυγῆς ἰσχυρᾶς καὶ δακρύων) is the most discussed occurrence; Attridge and Ellingworth survey the debate over whether the phrase alludes to Gethsemane, to the lament psalms, or to a broader passion tradition, but the sense of κραυγή itself is not at issue in that discussion. No occurrence of the noun is textually or lexically contested; the sole textual question is at Lk 1:42, where part of the manuscript tradition reads φωνῇ μεγάλῃ for κραυγῇ μεγάλῃ without any change of sense.