Hebrew

American  

[hee-broo] / ˈhi bru /

noun

1. a member of the Semitic peoples inhabiting ancient Palestine and claiming descent from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; an Israelite.

2. a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic family, the language of the ancient Hebrews, which, although not in a vernacular use from 100 b.c. to the 20th century, was retained as the scholarly and liturgical language of Jews and is now the national language of Israel. Heb

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adjective

1. Hebraic.

2. noting or pertaining to the script developed from the Aramaic and early Hebraic alphabets, used since about the 3rd century b.c. for the writing of Hebrew, and later for Yiddish, Ladino, and other languages.

Hebrew British  

/ ˈhiːbruː /

noun

1. the ancient language of the Hebrews, revived as the official language of Israel. It belongs to the Canaanitic branch of the Semitic subfamily of the Afro-Asiatic family of languages

2. a member of an ancient Semitic people claiming descent from Abraham; an Israelite

3. archaic a Jew

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adjective

1. of or relating to the Hebrews or their language

2. archaic Jewish

Hebrew Cultural  

1. The language of the Hebrews, in which the Old Testament was written. It is the language of the modern state of Israel.

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Other Word Forms

• non-Hebrew
  noun
• pre-Hebrew
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of Hebrew

before 1000; Middle English Hebreu, variant (with H- < Latin ) of Ebreu < Old French < Medieval Latin Ebrēus for Latin Hebraeus < Late Greek Hebraîos < Aramaic ʿIbhraij; replacing Old English Ebrēas (plural) < Medieval Latin Ebrēī

Example Sentences

The Hebrew University in Jerusalem – where Sinclair works as a lecturer in Jewish education – has written a strongly-worded letter to the Israel police force.

From BBC • Apr. 24, 2026

Israel was newly founded as a nation, and pronunciation, not translation, was at the center of the instruction, so after all that time I still couldn’t read or speak Hebrew.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 23, 2026

New polling by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem points to a war-weariness among Israelis.

From BBC • Apr. 13, 2026

The team located them using a new computational tool called Conservatory, developed through collaboration among the laboratories of Idan Efroni at Hebrew University, Madelaine Bartlett at Sainsbury Laboratory Cambridge University, and Zachary Lippman at CSHL.

From Science Daily • Mar. 14, 2026

It was that, apart from the Yiddish that fused its way into English or Hebrew, Anat didn’t speak it.

From "Night Owls" by A.R. Vishny