Jewish

How to spell jewish

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce jewish

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does jewish mean?

1. adjectiveRelating to the Jewish people, their religion, culture, or traditions.

Jewish in a sentence

• The museum opened a new gallery on jewish history and art.

• She grew up in a jewish household and learned the festival traditions early.

Where does jewish come from?

Language of origin: Hebrew

This adjective is built from the noun Jew plus the common English suffix -ish, which means 'belonging to' or 'characteristic of'. The noun itself travelled a long way: English took it through Old French giu from the Latin Judaeus, which in turn came from the Greek Ioudaios, and ultimately from the Hebrew Yehudi, meaning a member of the tribe or kingdom of Judah. The personal name Judah was understood to mean 'praised', so at its root the word carries an idea of praise and belonging to a people. The -ish ending appears in many nationality and group adjectives such as British, Spanish, and Danish, and that familiar pattern explains why the word ends in -ish rather than the -ese or -ian seen elsewhere. The spelling trap is mostly the single 'w' followed straight by 'ish': writers sometimes hesitate over whether an 'e' survives before the suffix, but it does not, giving the clean form jewish.

How the word is built

• Jew (member of the people descended from the ancient Israelites; from Hebrew Yehudi)
• -ish (adjective suffix meaning 'belonging to or characteristic of')