[tal-uh
nt] 
| 1. | a special natural ability or aptitude: a talent for drawing. |
| 2. | a capacity for achievement or success; ability: young men of talent. |
| 3. | a talented person: The cast includes many of the theater's major talents. |
| 4. | a group of persons with special ability: an exhibition of watercolors by the local talent. |
| 5. | Movies and Television. professional actors collectively, esp. star performers. |
| 6. | a power of mind or body considered as given to a person for use and improvement: so called from the parable in Matt. 25:14–30. |
| 7. | any of various ancient units of weight, as a unit of Palestine and Syria equal to 3000 shekels, or a unit of Greece equal to 6000 drachmas. |
| 8. | any of various ancient Hebrew or Attic monetary units equal in value to that of a talent weight of gold, silver, or other metal. |
| 9. | Obsolete. inclination or disposition. |
| tal·ent (tāl'ənt) n.
[Middle English, inclination, disposition, from Old French, from Medieval Latin, from Latin, balance, sum of money, from Greek talanton; see telə- in Indo-European roots. Sense 3, Middle English, from Old English talente, from Latin talenta, pl. of talentum, from Greek talanton.] tal'ent·ed adj., tal'ent·less adj., tal'ent·less·ness n. |
Talent
of silver contained 3,000 shekels (Ex. 38:25, 26), and was equal to 94 3/7 lbs. avoirdupois. The Greek talent, however, as in the LXX., was only 82 1/4 lbs. It was in the form of a circular mass, as the Hebrew name _kikkar_ denotes. A talent of gold was double the weight of a talent of silver (2 Sam. 12:30). Parable of the talents (Matt. 18:24; 25:15).