Ten Commandments

English

Alternative forms

  • ten commandments

Etymology

Calque of Biblical Hebrew עֲשֶׂרֶת הַדְּבָרִים ('aséret had'varím, “the ten items”), from Exodus 34:28, Deuteronomy 4:13 and Deuteronomy 10:4.

Pronunciation

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  • Audio (Mid-Atlantic US):(file)

Proper noun

the Ten Commandments pl (plural only)

  2. (biblical) A particular list of religious and moral imperatives which, according to the Old Testament of the Bible or the Hebrew Bible, were twice given or dictated by God to Moses on Mount Sinai and inscribed on two stone tablets.
    • 2024 November 12, Lauren Mascarenhas and Isabel Rosales, “Federal judge temporarily blocks Louisiana law requiring classrooms to display Ten Commandments”, in CNN‎[1], Atlanta, Ga.: Warner Bros. Discovery, archived from the original on 5 December 2024:
      A federal judge has temporarily blocked a Louisiana law requiring the Ten Commandments to be displayed in every public school classroom by the new year.
  3. (by extension) A list of principal rules in a given field.
    • 1945, Joseph M. Gettys, How To Enjoy Studying The Bible, Richmond, VA: John Knox Press, page 38:
      These may well be the ten commandments of interpretation.
    • 1946 11, E. A. Mangan, “Ten Commandments or Ten Taboos?”, in The Liguorian, volume 34, number 11, Oconomowoc, WI: Liguori Publications, page 508:
      […] he adds that they were very silly in doing so in the face of the devastating fact that people have made up ten commandments of business, ten commandments of educators, ten commandments of lovers, and ten commandments of many other human activities.
    • 1991, MC Ren, The D.O.C., Kokane, “Appetite for Destruction”, in Niggaz4Life, performed by N.W.A, Ruthless; Priority:
      I possess the ten commandments of the hip-hop thugsta
  4. (slang, dated) The ten fingernails, used by women when fighting.
    • 1876, Evening Hours, page 629:
      She'd drink the gin fust and give him her ten commandments artervards, when she'd aggerawated him to try it on.
    • 1881, William Henry Thomes, Running the Blockade: Or, U. S. Secret Service Adventures, page 148:
      […] once or twice, when he cut up bad, she appeared to him, and scratched his face with her ten commandments […]

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