kiddush

/ˈkɪdʊʃ/

kiddush noun: a blessing recited over wine or grape juice in commemoration of the sanctity of the Shabbat or other Jewish holy day. Also the clipping of kiddush luncheon.

Noun

kiddush (plural kiddushes or kiddushim)

(Judaism) A blessing recited over wine or grape juice in commemoration of the sanctity of the Shabbat or other Jewish holy day.
- Cohn began the seder with a kiddush for wine, and the first two toasts he proposed were the traditional ones to life and to freedom.1982, Bernard Malamud, “The Schooltree”, in God’s Grace, New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux
- The world’s richest Jew may have pledged to give the vast majority of his wealth to charity, but Mark Zuckerberg’s great-grandfather’s kiddush cup is staying in the family. […] “For shabbat tonight, we gave Max a kiddush cup that has been in our family for almost 100 years,” the 33-year-old...2017 September 17, “Mark Zuckerberg gives family heirloom kiddush cup to daughter”, in The Times of Israel

Also used as

kiddush is also the clipping of kiddush luncheon.

Forms of kiddush

plural	kiddushes
plural	kiddushim
alternative form	Kiddush
alternative form	kiddish

Origin of kiddush

Borrowed from Hebrew קִדּוּשׁ (kidúsh, “kiddush”, literally “sanctification”). Doublet of kaddish.

Questions about kiddush

What does kiddush mean?: Kiddush means a blessing recited over wine or grape juice in commemoration of the sanctity of the Shabbat or other Jewish holy day.
What part of speech is kiddush?: Kiddush is a noun.
How do you pronounce kiddush?: Kiddush is pronounced /ˈkɪdʊʃ/.
What is the plural of kiddush?: The plural of kiddush is kiddushes.

Words near kiddush in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: kiddush (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: 2026-09-02

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