tanna

[tah-nah, tah-nah]

noun

(often initial capital letter)

plural

tannaim 

1. one of a group of Jewish scholars, active in Palestine during the 1st and 2nd centuries a.d., whose teachings are found chiefly in the Mishnah.

Other Word Forms

• tannaitic adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of tanna¹

First recorded in 1725–30; < Hebrew tannā “teacher,” from Aramaic tĕnā “to repeat, learn, teach”

Example Sentences

By 1697, when the Portuguese ship Santo Antonio de Tanna sank off the coast of Africa, the British and the Dutch were successfully challenging Portugal’s sea trading monopoly, and the Omani Arabs were rebelling against more than one hundred years of Portuguese oppression.

Read more on Literature

On Christmas Day, 1696, a Portuguese relief force in the form of four ships, led by the heavily armed frigate the Santo Antonio de Tanna, arrived in the waters directly in front of the fort.

Read more on Literature

At a press conference on the side of a volcano on Tanna island, one of 80 plus in the Vanuatu archipelago, Marles emphasised the "shared destiny" of the two countries.

Read more on BBC

The group of women who founded Lijjat - Jaswantiben Jamnadas Poppat, Parvatiben Ramdas Thodani, Ujamben Narandas Kundalia, Banuben N Tanna, Laguben Amritlal Gokani, Jayaben V Vithalani and Diwaliben Lukka - were in their 20s and 30s, living in a crowded tenement in Mumbai and looking for ways to support their families.

Read more on BBC

A panel made up of the station’s presenters Haroon Rashid, Nikita Kanda, Gagan Grewal and Nadia Ali, plus industry experts Asim Burney, Amrita Tanna, and Karan Pangali chose the shortlist.

Read more on BBC