Mishnah

Or Mish·na

[mish-nuh, meesh-nah]

noun

Judaism.

plural

Mishnayoth, Mishnayot, Mishnayos. ,

plural

Mishnahs .

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 Word Forms

• Mishnaic adjective
• Mishnic adjective
• Mishnical adjective
• post-Mishnaic adjective
• post-Mishnic adjective
• post-Mishnical 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

Lander took his oath of office on a 500-year-old fragment of the Mishnah, an ancient Jewish text documenting oral traditions and laws.

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Most of the younger attendees had spent the past month learning pieces of the Mishnah, a collection of Jewish oral traditions, in memory of Meyers.

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A low glass cabinet contained the full Mishnah.

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I finished the explanation of the Mishnaic text and read the next thought unit, which consisted of another Mishnah found in a different tractate from the one we were now studying.

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Many more of the elements of today’s Seder are found in the Mishnah and the Talmud , and the evolution of the holiday meal is usually seen as a natural and purely Jewish process.

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