Israeli

How to spell israeli

7 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce israeli

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does israeli mean?

1. adjectiveRelating to the modern State of Israel, its people, or its institutions.
2. nounA citizen or native of Israel.

Israeli in a sentence

• adjective

  The conference featured several israeli technology startups.

• noun

  The delegation included one israeli and two visiting researchers.

• adjective

  She studied the israeli legal system for her thesis.

• noun

  As an israeli, he held a passport issued in Jerusalem.

Where does israeli come from?

Language of origin: Hebrew

This word is built on the place name Israel, which comes from the Hebrew Yisra'el, traditionally explained as 'he who struggles with God' or 'God strives', from a root meaning to strive or contend together with the word for God. The name appears throughout the Hebrew Bible, first as the name given to the patriarch Jacob and then as the name of the people and the land. The ending -i is a gentilic suffix, common in Hebrew and Arabic, that turns a place name into a word meaning 'a person or thing belonging to that place'. The modern term came into wide English use in 1948, when the State of Israel was founded and a single adjective was needed for its citizens and institutions. The spelling trap lives in the middle: the unstressed vowels and the 'ae' sequence, plus the single l, are easy to scramble into forms like 'isreali' or 'isaeli'.

How the word is built

• Israel (place name, from Hebrew Yisra'el)
• -i (gentilic suffix: belonging to or native of)