Word.ws English Dictionary

am ha'aretz

am ha'aretz noun: an ignoramus.

Noun

am ha'aretz (plural amei ha'aretz)

  1. (Jewish, slang) An ignoramus.
    • […] implying that the Chief Rabbi shlita was an am haaretz who did not know the difference between an aleph and an ayin.2004 February 19, Henry Goodman, “About Adam”, in soc.culture.jewish.moderated (Usenet)
    • I want to see a WRITTEN source as authored by a posek/acharon prior to the year 1900. A posek/acharon, not some chassidishe amha'aretz with a diploma who can "macht a moitzi fin a reitach" [so ignorant that he makes the blessing HA'MOTZI said over eating bread when he eats a radish].2006 April 27, bac...@vms.huji.ac.il, “Spilling out drops of wine at the Seder”, in soc.culture.jewish.moderated (Usenet)

Forms of am ha'aretz

pluralamei ha'aretz
alternative formam haarez
alternative formam haaretz
alternative formamoretz
alternative formamorets

Origin of am ha'aretz

Borrowed from Hebrew עַם הָאָרֶץ (“common people; ignorant person”).

Questions about am ha'aretz

What does am ha'aretz mean?
Am ha'aretz means an ignoramus.
What part of speech is am ha'aretz?
Am ha'aretz is a noun.
What is the plural of am ha'aretz?
The plural of am ha'aretz is amei ha'aretz.

Words near am ha'aretz in the dictionary

  1. alépine
  2. alépines
  3. Alūksne
  4. Alțina
  5. am
  6. am ha'aretz
  7. am haarez
  8. am I right
  9. am I right or am I right
  10. am I under arrest
  11. AM pop

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: am ha'aretz (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “am ha'aretz.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/am_ha%27aretz. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.