Word.ws English Dictionary

tikkun olam

/tiˈkuːn ʌˈlɑːm/

tikkun olam noun: the value, prominent in Liberal Judaism, of helping and bettering society as a whole.

Noun

tikkun olam (uncountable)

  1. The value, prominent in Liberal Judaism, of helping and bettering society as a whole.
    • A middle-aged Jewish male searching for female companionship can place a personal ad in an Indianapolis magazine and identify himself as searching for a woman “committed to tikkun olam”.1989, Jacob Neusner, Ernest S. Frerichs, Nahum M. Sarna, From Ancient Israel to Modern Judaism […] , Scholars Press, →ISBN, page 51
    • Maybe the best form of tikkun olam is to give people freedom and free markets as opposed to more state-sponsored goodies. Freedom and free markets have worked pretty well in lifting people out of poverty, creating strong middle-class societies, and supporting great voluntary and charitable...2012 August 29, Jeffrey Goldberg, quoting Noam Neusner, “Mitt Romney, the Tikkun Olam President?”, in The Atlantic

Origin of tikkun olam

Borrowed from Hebrew תִּקּוּן עוֹלָם (tikún olám, literally “repairing the world”). The Hebrew phrase has been used to refer to a variety of things through Jewish history, including the elimination of idolatry.

Questions about tikkun olam

What does tikkun olam mean?
Tikkun olam means the value, prominent in Liberal Judaism, of helping and bettering society as a whole.
What part of speech is tikkun olam?
Tikkun olam is a noun.
How do you pronounce tikkun olam?
Tikkun olam is pronounced /tiˈkuːn ʌˈlɑːm/.

Words near tikkun olam in the dictionary

  1. tikkers
  2. tikki
  3. tikkis
  4. tikkun
  5. Tikkun Leil Shavuot
  6. tikkun olam
  7. tiklal
  8. tiko pek
  9. tiko peks
  10. tikolosh
  11. tikoloshe

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: tikkun olam (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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