Word.ws English Dictionary

Litvak

Litvak noun: a Lithuanian Jew, or an Ashkenazi Jew from the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania.

Noun

Litvak (plural Litvaks)

  1. A Lithuanian Jew, or an Ashkenazi Jew from the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
    • A small man, sunburned as a gypsy, in a torn blouse, with a jet-black beard and enormous flashing eyes, was expostulating in a hoarse voice with a peppery Litvak accent, gesticulating violently and flinging his head from side to side.1950, Isaac Bashevis Singer, chapter 4, in A. H. Gross et al., transl., The Family Moskat, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, page 60
    • The rabbi under the silk wedding canopy, held up by split triangular poles of quartered eucalyptus exuding an aromatic sap, is ill at ease but ready for business. He’s a middle-aged Litvak, a stocky man in mud-spotted trousers that drip over dried muddy heels.1971, Bernard Malamud, The Tenants

Proper noun

Litvak

  1. A surname.

Forms of Litvak

pluralLitvaks

Origin of Litvak

Borrowed from Polish litwak.

Questions about Litvak

What does Litvak mean?
Litvak means a Lithuanian Jew, or an Ashkenazi Jew from the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
What part of speech is Litvak?
Litvak can be a noun or a proper noun.
What is the plural of Litvak?
The plural of Litvak is Litvaks.

Words near Litvak in the dictionary

  1. liturgizes
  2. liturgizing
  3. liturgy
  4. liturgy of the hours
  5. lituus
  6. Litvak
  7. Litvaks
  8. litverse
  9. litverses
  10. Litvin
  11. Litvinenko

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Litvak (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:

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