Ancient Greek

Verb

καταλαμβάνω • ‎(katalambánō)

1. I seize, grasp, hold
2. I grasp with the mind: comprehend
3. I catch, overtake
4. I find, detect
5. I occur, befall (often of events, especially negative events: death, disaster, defeat, etc.)

Inflection

Derived terms

Descendants

• Greek: καταλαβαίνω ‎(katalavaíno, “to understand, to notice”)

  καταλαμβάνω ‎(katalamváno, “to seize”)

References

• καταλαμβάνω in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• καταλαμβάνω in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
• «καταλαμβάνω» in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
• Bauer, Walter et al. (2001) A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, Third edition, Chicago: University of Chicago Press
• καταλαμβάνω in Slater, William J. (1969) Lexicon to Pindar, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter
• “G2638”, in Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance to the Bible, 1979

Greek

Verb

καταλαμβάνω • ‎(katalamváno) ‎(simple past κατέλαβα, passive form καταλαμβάνομαι)

1. seize, capture, acquire sovereignty
2. (crime) detect
3. understand, grasp (possibly incorrectly)

Usage notes

• Although λαμβάνω ‎(lamváno) and λαβαίνω ‎(lavaíno) are alternative forms having the same meaning, this is not true of καταλαβαίνω ‎(katalavaíno, “to understand, to realise, to notice”) and καταλαμβάνω ‎(katalamváno, “to seize, to acquire sovereignty”).

Conjugation