Word.ws English Dictionary

derech eretz

derech eretz noun: proper behavior; manners.

Noun

derech eretz (uncountable)

  1. (Jewish) Proper behavior; manners
    • Just admit it: it really reveals a tremendous lack of derekh erets to ask someone these questions if you aren't directly interested or affected in some way (which, short of being this guy's wife, I don't know how you could be). I'd suggest rather than defending your question, you refrain from...2002 September 26, Jess Olson, “Kol Sasson”, in soc.culture.jewish.moderated (Usenet)

Origin of derech eretz

Borrowed from Hebrew דֶּרֶךְ אֶרֶץ (“way of the land”).

Questions about derech eretz

What does derech eretz mean?
Derech eretz means proper behavior; manners.
What part of speech is derech eretz?
Derech eretz is a noun.

Words near derech eretz in the dictionary

  1. derealizes
  2. derealizing
  3. derebey
  4. derebeys
  5. derech
  6. derech eretz
  7. derecho
  8. derechoes
  9. derechos
  10. Dereck
  11. derecognise

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: derech eretz (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-derech eretz.wav.

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