Home › Glossary › Letter G

Gomorrah

Historical Location
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

Want to hear it? Click the Listen button to hear the browser speak the word using text-to-speech!

The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

An ancient city destroyed by divine fire alongside Sodom for its extreme wickedness, serving as a biblical symbol of divine judgment.

Detailed Definition
Gomorrah, paired with Sodom, epitomizes divine judgment on sexual immorality and social injustice (Genesis 19). Its ruins symbolize total destruction and moral warning. In poetry, Gomorrah appears as shorthand for depravity, apocalyptic fire, or societal collapse—often used to critique contemporary corruption or to reflect on the consequences of unchecked vice.
Example
Example in poetry:
In Genesis 19, Gomorrah’s destruction is rendered in stark poetic narrative; The prophet Isaiah (1:9) compares Jerusalem to “Sodom and Gomorrah” in lyrical warning; In John Milton’s “Paradise Lost,” Gomorrah exemplifies divine wrath on sin; Modern ethical poetry uses Gomorrah to critique injustice, not just sexual immorality; Contemporary verse reinterprets Gomorrah through lenses of hospitality and exclusion.
Additional Notes
Gomorrah, destroyed with Sodom for its sins (Genesis 19), symbolizes divine judgment on injustice and inhospitality. Prophets like Isaiah (1:9) use it as a warning. Modern ethical poetry reinterprets its sin as neglect of the poor (Ezekiel 16:49), not just sexual immorality. Students should treat it as part of the “Sodom and Gomorrah” dyad and note its use in critiques of societal corruption.
Other Meanings of “Gomorrah”
Also Known As
City of Sin Sister of Sodom Ashen Ruin Doomed Plains
Skip to main content