Klingon Words for Strength and Honor — HoS, batlh, quv & More

Klingon Words for Strength and Honor

Klingon is a language engineered around a warrior culture, and nowhere is that clearer than in its vocabulary for strength and honor. Marc Okrand did not just coin a word for "honor" — he coined two, with a cultural distinction between them that most fans have never heard of. Here is the complete, canon-only guide.

TL;DR / Quick Answer: Strength in Klingon is HoS (noun and verb). Courage is toDuj; to be brave is yoH. Honor is batlh (honor as conduct) or quv (honor as earned standing). A warrior is SuvwI', from Suv, to fight. Every word in this guide is attested in Marc Okrand's published Klingon corpus.

---

Strength: HoS and HoSghaj

HoS — Strength, Power, Energy

HoS is the core Klingon strength word. It does double duty:

• As a noun: strength, energy, power. A ship's engines produce HoS; so does a warrior's arm.
• As a verb: to be strong.

Pronunciation: khosh — the H is a harsh throat sound like the ch in German Bach, and the S is retroflex, an sh with the tongue curled back.

The imperative Be strong! addressed to one person is yIHoS — a usable, canonical two-word command of encouragement.

HoSghaj — To Be Powerful

HoSghaj is literally "strength-having" — the standard verb for to be powerful. Where HoS describes raw strength, HoSghaj describes wielded strength: a powerful house, a powerful fleet, a powerful argument.

---

Honor: The batlh vs quv Distinction

English has one word for honor. Klingon has two, and Okrand devotes a section of Klingon for the Galactic Traveler (1997) to the difference. Getting this right instantly marks you as someone who has studied the language rather than just watched the shows.

batlh — Honor as Conduct

batlh (pronounced batl with the lateral tlh affricate) is honor as a way of acting: integrity, honorable behavior, doing a thing the right way. It also works adverbially — batlh at the start of a clause means "with honor, honorably."

The famous greeting-motto batlh Daqawlu'taH — "You will be remembered with honor" — comes from Okrand's Power Klingon audio course (1993) and uses this word.

Its dark mirror is batlhHa' — dishonorably. The suffix -Ha' reverses the meaning, and a warrior accused of acting batlhHa' has been insulted at the deepest level Klingon allows.

quv — Honor as Standing

quv is honor as a possession: the reputation, standing, and personal honor a warrior accumulates through deeds. It is also a verb, "to be honored." Related canon forms:

• quvmoH — to honor someone (cause them to be honored)
• quvHa' — to be dishonored
• quvHa'ghach — dishonor, the state of it
• quv bey' — an honor display, the ritual showing of one's standing

The two words interlock: you act with batlh, and through that conduct you gain quv. Lose your quv — become quvHa' — and, as Worf's storyline across The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine dramatizes, recovering it can take a lifetime.

ghob — Virtue, Ethics

A third, less known word: ghob means ethics or virtue as a noun. Confusingly and delightfully, the same syllable as a verb means to wage battle — in Klingon, virtue and battle share a word-shape. Fans of the language have been pointing at that coincidence for decades.

---

Courage: toDuj, yoH, and the Coward Word

toDuj — Courage, Bravery, Mettle

toDuj is the noun for courage. It is what a commander praises in troops and what a nuch — a coward — lacks. Calling someone nuch is fighting talk; see our guide to Klingon insults and curses for how far that word will take you.

yoH — To Be Brave

yoH is the verb. yoH SuvwI' — "the warrior is brave" (remember Klingon runs object–verb–subject, so the verb comes before the subject). The derived noun yoHwI' means "brave one" — a compact, canonical epithet that works beautifully as a title or callsign.

---

The Warrior's Core Vocabulary

Klingon	Pronunciation guide	Meaning
HoS	khosh	strength, power, energy; be strong
HoSghaj	khosh-ghaj	be powerful
batlh	batl	honor (conduct); honorably
quv	koov (uvular q)	honor (standing); be honored
quvmoH	koov-mokh	to honor
quvHa'	koov-khah	be dishonored
ghob	ghob	virtue, ethics (noun); wage battle (verb)
toDuj	to-DOOJ	courage, bravery, mettle
yoH	yokh	be brave
yoHwI'	yokh-wee	brave one
matlh	matl	be loyal
matlhHa'	matl-khah	be disloyal
Suv	shoov	fight
Suvchu'	shoov-choo	fight to the death
SuvwI'	shoov-wee	warrior
mang	mahng	soldier (warrior in a unit)
jagh	jagh	enemy
nuch	nooch	coward
Hem	khem	be proud
bortaS	bor-TASH	revenge
Qapla'	khap-LAH	success

Every entry above is drawn from Okrand's published vocabulary — the same corpus that powers Tengwar's Klingon dictionary of common words.

A note on bortaS

bortaS — revenge — belongs in any honor vocabulary because Klingon culture treats vengeance as an honor mechanism, not a vice. The canon compound bortaS DIb names the formal Right of Vengeance. The proverb every fan knows — "Revenge is a dish best served cold" — was rendered into Klingon for Star Trek VI, and our collection of famous Klingon quotes covers it in full.

---

Loyalty and Pride

Two verbs round out the honor cluster:

• matlh — to be loyal. Loyalty to one's house and captain is the connective tissue of Klingon honor; matlhHa', to be disloyal, is its rupture.
• Hem — to be proud. Klingon treats pride as a neutral-to-positive warrior emotion, not a sin. For the wider emotional lexicon — anger, joy, dread — see Klingon words for emotions.

---

Short Phrases Built from This Vocabulary

Five compact, grammatical phrases using only attested words and standard TKD grammar:

1. yIHoS — "Be strong!" (to one person)
2. yIyoH — "Be brave!"
3. batlh yISuv — "Fight with honor!"
4. HoS ghaj SuvwI' — "The warrior has strength."
5. batlh Daqawlu'taH — "You will be remembered with honor." (Power Klingon, Okrand)

For battle cries and combat commands beyond these, see Klingon warrior phrases, and for the ceremonial register — toasts and blessings built on Qapla' — see our guide to Klingon toasts and ceremonial phrases.

---

People Also Ask

Is batlh or quv the word in "Today is a good day to die"? Neither — that proverb is Heghlu'meH QaQ jajvam (from Okrand's The Klingon Way), built on Hegh (die) and jajvam (this day). But honor is its subtext: dying well is the ultimate act of batlh.

What do you call a Klingon warrior? SuvwI' — literally "one who fights," from the verb Suv plus the agent suffix -wI'. A soldier serving in a unit is a mang. The Klingon Defense Force is tlhIngan Hubbeq.

How do you say "honor the dead" or talk about honorable death? Klingon has a rich death register: Heghtay is the death ritual, Suvchu' is to fight to the death, and Suto'vo'qor (Sto-Vo-Kor) is the afterlife of the honored dead. Our Klingon death phrases guide covers the full set.

Is "Qapla'" about strength? Not directly — it means "success," from Qap (succeed). But as the standard farewell-blessing it is the social glue of warrior culture: you wish a fellow warrior success in whatever fight comes next.

---

Related Reading

• 50 Common Klingon Words Every Beginner Should Know
• Klingon Dictionary: Common Words in tlhIngan Hol
• Words of Honor: Klingon Vocabulary Around Batlh and Duty
• Klingon Warrior Phrases — Battle Cries and Combat Vocabulary
• Klingon Toasts, Blessings & Ceremonial Phrases

---

Learn Klingon with Tengwar

Tengwar is the only platform teaching Klingon alongside Elvish and Dothraki, with an AI tutor (Mithrandir) that explains OVS grammar in plain English and cites Okrand's vocabulary for every answer. Start free → (5 lessons, no credit card). For a deeper comparison of all Klingon apps, see the best Klingon learning app in 2026.