Greek word · G5513

χλιαρός

chliaros

lukewarm

Tepid or lukewarm, mostly said of water, baths and drinks. Greek writers occasionally use it figuratively for something feeble or half-hearted, but its home is the kitchen, the bath and the table.

Appears once in the Greek New Testament. · Updated October 31, 2026

What it means

χλιαρός, -ά, -όν

(χλίω, to become warm),

warm, tepid; metaphorically, of persons, luke-warm: Revelation 3:16.†

(AS)

From G. Abbott-Smith, A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament (1922), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Revelation 3:16

Range of meaning: Tepid or lukewarm, mostly said of water, baths and drinks. Greek writers occasionally use it figuratively for something feeble or half-hearted, but its home is the kitchen, the bath and the table.
Against the English: Every English version says 'lukewarm', which is correct as a temperature. But in modern English 'lukewarm' mostly means 'mildly enthusiastic' ('a lukewarm reception'). Readers therefore hear a scale of religious feeling instead of a drink that is unpleasant and useless.
How it drifted: Partly through this verse itself: Christian preaching made 'lukewarm Christian' a stock phrase for low fervour. The figurative English sense then hid the concrete picture of a drink.
Used elsewhere in the period: Used in medical and everyday Greek for tepid water. Ancient medical writers knew warm or tepid water as a way to make someone vomit, which may stand behind the link to emeō. The word does not appear in the LXX and appears only here in the NT.

Where it appears

Revelation · 1

Revelation 3:16 χλιαρὸς lukewarm

So because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to vomit you out of My mouth!

Here: An everyday word for water or drink that is neither heated nor chilled, only tepid. It is the one New Testament use. It pictures a drink nobody wants, not a mild level of feeling.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.