Kaddish
Americannoun
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Kaddishim
plural
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(italics) a liturgical prayer, consisting of three or six verses, recited at specified points during each of the three daily services and on certain other occasions.
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Also called Mourner's Kaddish. (italics) the five-verse form of this prayer that is recited at specified points during each of the three daily services by one observing the mourning period of 11 months, beginning on the day of burial, for a deceased parent, sibling, child, or spouse, and by one observing the anniversary of such a death.
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Kaddishim, persons who recite this prayer.
noun
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an ancient Jewish liturgical prayer largely written in Aramaic and used in various forms to separate sections of the liturgy. Mourners have the right to recite some of these in public prayer during the year after, and on the anniversary of, a death
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to be a mourner
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of Kaddish
First recorded in 1605–15, Kaddish is from the Aramaic word qaddīsh holy (one)
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.
This tour de force contains an hour’s worth of haunting, intertwining phrases that feel like a combination of Requiem and Kaddish.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 29, 2024
A violinist and a pianist gave a rendition of Maurice Ravel's interpretation of Kaddish, the Jewish prayer for the dead.
From BBC ● Feb. 7, 2024
Add to this bulging collection the musical “A Kaddish for Bernie Madoff,” which Alicia Jo Rabins debuted onstage in 2012 and has now adapted into a film with the director Alicia J. Rose.
From New York Times ● Sep. 6, 2022
Jewish law doesn't consider a miscarriage to be a death, so devastated parents don't say Kaddish, the Jewish mourning prayer, for a dead embryo or fetus.
From Salon ● Nov. 2, 2021
“An ambulance will come by in a second,” said the Kaddish boy, almost sympathetically.
From "Night Owls" by A.R. Vishny
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
