Yom (Hebrew: יום) is a Biblical Hebrew word which occurs in the Hebrew Bible (or Old Testament). The Arabic equivalent is "yawm" or "yōm" written as يوم.
Although it is commonly rendered as day in English translations, the word yom has several literal definitions:
Biblical Hebrew has a limited vocabulary, with fewer words compared to other languages, like English that has the largest vocabulary. So words often have more than one meaning and context would determine the meaning. Strong's Lexicon yom is Hebrew #3117 יוֹם The word Yom's root meaning is to be hot as the warm hours of a day.
Thus "yom", in its context, is sometimes translated as: "time" (Gen 4:3, Is. 30:8); "year" (I Kings 1:1, 2 Chronicles 21:19, Amos 4:4); "age" (Gen 18:11, 24:1 and 47:28; Joshua 23:1 and 23:2); "age" (1 Samuel 9:20); "always" (Deuteronomy 5:29, 6:24 and 14:23, and in 2 Chronicles 18:7); "season" (Genesis 40:4, Joshua 24:7, 2 Chronicles 15:3); epoch or 24-hour day (Genesis 1:5,8,13,19,23,31) – see "Creationism", below.
Yom relates to the concept of time. Yom is not just for day, days, but for time in general. How yom is translated depends on the context of its use with other words in the around it, using hermeneutics.
The word day is used somewhat the same way in the English language, examples: "In my grandfather's day, cars did not go very fast" or "In the day of the dinosaurs there were not many mammals."
The word Yom is used in the name of various Jewish feast days; as, Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement; Yom teruah (lit., day of shouting) the Feast of Trumpets.
Yom is also used in each of the days of the week in the Hebrew calendar.