Word.ws English Dictionary

balebatim

balebatim is the plural of balebos.

balebatim is the plural of baleboste.

Meaning of balebos

Noun

balebos (plural balebatim)

  1. (Judaism) Master of the house, head of the household, host.
  2. (Judaism) House owner, homeowner.
  3. (Judaism, broadly) Boss, person in charge (of anything).
  4. (Judaism) Important man, bourgeoisie.
    • An annual custom that lasted for many years involved a celebration of the eight days of Chanukah for all of the balebatim. Every evening was hosted by a different balebos and there was a lavish feast.2008, Joseph Margoshes, “Reb Vovtshi's Kloyz”, in A World Apart: A Memoir of Jewish Life in Nineteenth Century Galicia, →ISBN, page 51
  5. (Judaism) Layman, congregant, non-clergy.
    • The rabbi, whom I met and then overheard at a kiddush after shul, was going over his sermon with some of the balebatim, […].1996, Jonathan Boyarin, “My Trip to Israel, Continued”, in Palestine and Jewish History: Criticism at the Borders of Ethnography, →ISBN, page 153

Meaning of baleboste

Noun

baleboste (plural balebatim)

  1. (Judaism) mistress of the house
  2. (Judaism) ideal housewife, homemaker, hostess

Questions about balebatim

What is balebatim the plural of?
Balebatim is the plural of balebos.

Words near balebatim in the dictionary

  1. Balearic warbler
  2. Balearic warblers
  3. balearica
  4. balearicas
  5. Balearics
  6. balebatim
  7. baleboosteh
  8. balebos
  9. balebosta
  10. baleboste
  11. balebuste

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: balebatim (page history and authors); balebos (page history and authors); baleboste (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: “balebatim.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/balebatim. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.