Word.ws English Dictionary

chayav

US/ˈxajəv/

chayav adjective: responsible, culpable, obligated, typically in either the fulfillment of a mitzvah or in receiving punishment from a beit din.

Adjective

chayav (comparative more chayav, superlative most chayav)

  1. (Judaism, typically followed by for or to) responsible, culpable, obligated, typically in either the fulfillment of a mitzvah or in receiving punishment from a beit din
    • Say someone becomes niftar and owes a petty sum (under 100 currency units) is his next-of-kin chayav to pay his debts under halachah?2014 July 13, Noach MiFrankfurt, Mi Yodeya, archived from the original on 07 Dec 2021
    Antonyms:
    patur

Antonyms of chayav

  • patur

Forms of chayav

comparativemore chayav
superlativemost chayav
alternative formchayev
alternative formchayov
alternative formhayav
alternative formkhayav

Origin of chayav

Borrowed from Hebrew חַיָּב (chayáv, “liable, culpable, obligated”).

Words formed from chayav

  • chayav mita

Questions about chayav

What does chayav mean?
Chayav means responsible, culpable, obligated, typically in either the fulfillment of a mitzvah or in receiving punishment from a beit din.
What part of speech is chayav?
Chayav is an adjective.
How do you pronounce chayav?
Chayav is pronounced /ˈxajəv/ (US).

Words near chayav in the dictionary

  1. chaya roots
  2. chayah
  3. Chayahuita
  4. chayaroot
  5. chayas
  6. chayav
  7. Chayes
  8. Chayeses
  9. chayesite
  10. Chayka
  11. chaykhana

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: chayav (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Saschajoon-chayav.wav.

Cite this entry: “chayav.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/chayav. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.