Mishnah

or Mish·na

[ English, Ashkenazic Hebrew mish-nuh; Sephardic Hebrew meesh-nah ]

noun

, Judaism.

, plural Mish·na·yoth, Mish·na·yot, Mish·na·yos [mish-n, uh, -, yohs, meesh-nah-, yawt], English Mish·nahs.

1. the collection of oral laws compiled about a.d. 200 by Rabbi Judah ha-Nasi and forming the basic part of the Talmud.
2. an article or section of this collection.

Other Words From

• Mish·na·ic [mish-, ney, -ik], Mishnic Mishni·cal adjective
• post-Mish·naic adjective
• post-Mishnic adjective
• post-Mishni·cal adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of Mishnah¹

First recorded in 1600–10, Mishnah is from the Medieval Hebrew word mishnāh literally, teaching by oral repetition

Example Sentences

Nearly 2,000 years ago, in the Mishnah, rabbis puzzled out 39 activities that constitute work and are forbidden on Shabbat.

From The Daily Beast

Babylonia had risen into supreme importance for Jewish life at about the time when the Mishnah was completed.

From Project Gutenberg

That chief literary expression of Pharisaism, the Mishnah, was the outcome of the work begun at Jamnia.

From Project Gutenberg

The subject-matter of the Mishnah includes both law and morality, the affairs of the body, of the soul, and of the mind.

From Project Gutenberg

But there are parts of the Mishnah which are older, and parts also at least a century later than the death of that great scholar.

From Project Gutenberg

But the phrase seems merely to be one of the vague forms for the impersonal which are common in the Mishnah.

From Project Gutenberg