goy

[ goi ]

/ gɔɪ /

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noun, plural goy·im

[goi-im], /ˈgɔɪ ɪm/, goys.Usually Disparaging.

a term used by a Jew to refer to someone who is not Jewish.

a term used by an observant Jew to refer to a Jew who is not religious or is ignorant of Judaism.

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Sometimes goi .

Origin of goy

First recorded in 1835–45; from Yiddish, from Hebrew goi “nation, non-Jew, Jew ignorant of the Jewish religion”

usage note for goy

Use of this term usually implies a contempt for non-Jews as being different from or even inferior to Jews: Only a goy would use such faulty logic. goy is rarely used in a neutral, descriptive way as a synonym for gentile , though that is its meaning in Yiddish and Hebrew. In another usually disparaging usage, goy is applied to a Jew who is not observant.

OTHER WORDS FROM goy

goyish, adjective

Words nearby goy

gowl, gown, gownsman, go wrong, gox, goy, Goya, Goya, Francisco, Goyen, goyish, gozzle

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use goy in a sentence

You put the id back in Yid, Portnoy instructed, and you come to understand the “oy” in goy.
Who Is Philip Roth’s Portnoy Satirizing?|Bernard Avishai|August 28, 2012|DAILY BEAST
The narrator calls two of the men "Bill the Goy" and "Clyde the Schlub."
Must Read New Fiction: ‘Arcadia,’ ‘Men in Space,’ ‘The O’Briens,’ ‘Hot Pink’|Chloë Schama, Jacob Silverman, Wendy Smith, Daniel Roberts|March 23, 2012|DAILY BEAST
In the eyes of the Goy he's something peculiar, something disgraceful!
Simon Eichelkatz; The Patriarch|Ulrich Frank
Pooty soon Bill said to hisself, 'Goy-blamed ef I don't think he's friz to death, or else he'd say somethin'!'
Harper's New Monthly Magazine|Various

Truly the wise man's proverb is just: "Sedaukauh teromain goy, veh-ka-sade le-u-meem khahmaut."
General Smith's Views of the Powers and Policy of the Government of the United States|Joseph Smith
For what is absolutely necessary they employ an occasional servant, who is known as the "Shobbos Goy."
The Strand Magazine, Volume XXVII, Issue 160, April, 1904|Various
Two in particular, Agasaki and Goy, are thus described by Kmpfer.
The History of Prostitution|William W. Sanger

British Dictionary definitions for goy

goy

/ (ɡɔɪ) /

noun plural goyim (ˈɡɔɪɪm) or goys

a Jewish word for a gentile

Derived forms of goy

goyish, adjective

Word Origin for goy

from Yiddish, from Hebrew goi people

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