Word.ws English Dictionary

kavanah

/kəˈvʌnə/

kavanah noun: heartfelt intent during prayer, as opposed to roteness.

Noun

kavanah (uncountable)

  1. (Judaism) Heartfelt intent during prayer, as opposed to roteness.
    • The Gaon of Vilna (Ha-Gra) also opposed saying the formula Leshaym Yihud as well as Hineni mukhan umezuman ("Behold I am prepared and ready") since precepts do not require kavanah.1996, Macy Nulman, The Encyclopedia of Jewish Prayer, page 229

Forms of kavanah

alternative formkavana
alternative formkavvanah
alternative formkawwana

Origin of kavanah

Borrowed from Hebrew כַּוָּנָה (kavaná, “intention, direction”).

Questions about kavanah

What does kavanah mean?
Kavanah means heartfelt intent during prayer, as opposed to roteness.
What part of speech is kavanah?
Kavanah is a noun.
How do you pronounce kavanah?
Kavanah is pronounced /kəˈvʌnə/.

Words near kavanah in the dictionary

  1. kavalactones
  2. Kavalan
  3. kavals
  4. kavana
  5. Kavanagh
  6. kavanah
  7. Kavanaugh
  8. Kavanaugh stop
  9. Kavanaughs
  10. Kavangoland
  11. kavapyrone

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: kavanah (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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