an idol: a man-made image set up and worshipped as a false god
This word always names an idol, a physical image people crafted and then treated as if it were a god. It shows up only in the plural, as "idols," and never once in a good light: every time, the Bible is condemning or mocking the worship of these objects.
Much of its punch comes from how it sounds. The same three consonants spell a common Hebrew word for "pain, toil, and grief." So to a Hebrew ear the term for an idol echoes the word for sorrow and hard labor, hinting that these images are worthless things of trouble, made with effort yet good for nothing. Whether or not that pun was heard in every verse, it fits the scorn the word always carries.
The prophets reach for it constantly, Hosea most of all, to expose the folly of Israel trading its living God for lumps of shaped metal. The Psalms drive the same point by describing what idols are actually made of: silver and gold, the work of human hands, with mouths that cannot speak and eyes that cannot see.
Hebrew has several scornful words for these objects, each with its own sting: the dung-word גִּלּוּל, the nothing-word אֱלִיל, and the carving-word פֶּסֶל. This one stresses that an idol is a fashioned, man-made thing, likely with the bitter overtone of grief woven in.