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cheder

American  
[khey-duhr, khey-der, hey-] / ˈxeɪ dər, ˈxeɪ dər, ˈheɪ- /

noun

Yiddish.
chadarim, plural cheders plural
  1. heder.


cheder British  
/ ˈheɪdə, ˈxɛdɛr /

noun

  1. (in Western countries) elementary religious education classes, usually outside normal school hours

  2. more traditionally, a full-time elementary religious school

  3. informal a place of corrective instruction; prison

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

Etymology

Origin of cheder

literally: room

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

Kecel had no yeshiva, so Menahem gained an elementary knowledge of Hebrew and Jewish law and ritual at a cheder, a Jewish primary school.

From New York Times Dec. 27, 2022

One of twelve brothers & sisters, he went to school in the one-room village cheder, where the rabbi's goat stumbled about among the drying wash and tumbling babies.

From Time Magazine Archive

I saw a vast cavern, quite as large as the cheder nebilin, full of people, who seemed to be engaged in decorating it.

From A Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder by De Mille, James

When I had gone with her to the cheder nebilin, when I had used my sepet-ram to save life, she had perceived in me feelings and impulses to which all her own nature responded.

From A Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder by De Mille, James

On the other hand, she would not hear of sending me to the free cheder of our town, because of its reputation for poor instruction.

From The Rise of David Levinsky by Cahan, Abraham

There was a theater for performances and a Sabil-Kuttab, which Frankie explained was used both as a communal water source and an elementary school similar to our cheders.

From "The City Beautiful" by Aden Polydoros

I spent seven years at it, not counting the several years of Talmud which I had had at the various cheders What is the Talmud?

From The Rise of David Levinsky by Cahan, Abraham

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