Standard Lemma guide

olibanum

noun · 2 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

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  • UK: /ɒˈlɪbənəm/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.

1

noun

Meaning 1

A gum resin from trees of the genus Boswellia, formerly used as a medicine and now mainly as incense.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

an aromatic gum resin obtained from various Arabian or East African trees; formerly valued for worship and for embalming and fumigation

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: frankincense, gum olibanum, thus

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: gum

History

Etymology

Borrowed from Medieval Latin olibanum, from Latin oleum libani, the first word meaning oil and the second from Ancient Greek λίβανος (líbanos, “frankincense (Boswellia sacra)”), from a Semitic source, compare Proto-Semitic *laban- (“white”). Cognate with Biblical Hebrew לְבוֹנָה (l'voná, “frankincense”), Arabic لبان (lubān, “frankincense”). (Compare benzoin for a similar process of metanalysis.) Doublet of oliban.