ʾĒl (or 'Il, written aleph-lamed, e.g. Ugaritic: ????????, Phoenician: ????????, Hebrew: אל, Syriac: ܐܠ, Arabic: إل or إله, cognate to Akkadian: ilu) is a Northwest Semitic word meaning "god" or "deity", or referring (as a proper name) to any one of multiple major Ancient Near East deities.