gematria

[guh-mey-tree-uh]

noun

1. a cabbalistic system of interpretation of the Scriptures by substituting for a particular word another word whose letters give the same numerical sum.

Word History and Origins

Origin of gematria¹

1685–95; < Hebrew gēmaṭriyā < Greek geōmetría geometry

Example Sentences

The Negative48 spinoff focuses on deciphering meaning using a takeoff of gematria, an ancient Hebrew tradition of assigning numeric values to letters.

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“We learned gematria from Michael in Dallas,” said Melissa Cole, who was at the rally in Wilmington with two 13-year-olds and a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel in a stroller.

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One centerpiece of kabbalistic thought is gematria—the search for coded messages within the text of the Bible.

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It’s the only literary form for which every letter and number is routinely scrutinized for esoteric messages, using methods ranging from gematria to theomatics to Koranic symmetry to Equidistant Letter Sequences.

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But in the religious world these youths came from, 18 represents the Hebrew word Chai, which means “alive,” in Gematria, an ancient system of numerology.

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