Akh
/ɑːx/noun
In ancient Egyptian religion, an akh was a blessed and effective spirit of a deceased person in the afterlife.
Did you know?Unlike the ka and ba, the akh represented the deceased person’s transfigured, magically effective state after successful funerary rites.
Etymological Timeline
Early Dynastic Period
Egyptian
ꜣḫ
“A powerful or effective spiritual being; the term was associated with brightness and efficacy.”
Old Kingdom
Egyptian
ꜣḫ
“A blessed dead person who had successfully entered the afterlife through ritual transformation.”
Middle Kingdom
Egyptian
ꜣḫ
“A transfigured spirit capable of acting in the divine or ancestral realm.”
Ptolemaic Period
Greek transcription
akh
“A transliterated Egyptological form referring to the effective spirit of the deceased.”
Modern Egyptology
English
akh
“A scholarly loanword for the transformed, effective spirit in ancient Egyptian belief.”