Word.ws English Dictionary

Wandering Jew

Wandering Jew proper noun: a Jewish shoemaker who, in the Christian tradition, taunted Jesus Christ on the way to his crucifixion and for that was condemned to wander the Earth until the return of Jesus (ie. the second coming). Also the alternative letter-case form of wandering Jew.

Proper noun

the Wandering Jew

  1. A Jewish shoemaker who, in the Christian tradition, taunted Jesus Christ on the way to his crucifixion and for that was condemned to wander the Earth until the return of Jesus (ie. the second coming).
    • The length of the stoppages could not well be reduced; indeed, they are already too short if we are to believe the tale now current of a wandering Jew sort of passenger—a lady of advanced years who can only alight from a train backwards. Every time she begins to get out a porter rushes up crying...1944 May and June, “When the Circle was Steam Operated”, in Railway Magazine, page 150

Noun capitalized: wandering Jew

wandering Jew (plural wandering Jews)

  1. Any plant of three species of spiderworts, Tradescantia pallida, Tradescantia fluminensis, and Tradescantia zebrina.
    • GCN needs donations of plants to hang in its windows...Should be plants that like a bright but sunless northern exposure...plants that are happy hanging too; like ivies, wandering jews, spider plants, philodendrons, mother-of-thousands, what have you?? Cuttings O.K., need pots and a sprayer also.1974 April 13, “Untitled”, in Gay Community News, page 3
  2. The plant Saxifraga stolonifera.

Also used as

Wandering Jew is also the alternative letter-case form of wandering Jew.

Forms of Wandering Jew

pluralWandering Jews
pluralwandering Jews

Origin of Wandering Jew

The plant's name is derived from the figure of the Wandering Jew, presumably at least partly from the tendency of those plants to spread through a garden (i.e. wander).

Questions about Wandering Jew

What does Wandering Jew mean?
Wandering Jew means a Jewish shoemaker who, in the Christian tradition, taunted Jesus Christ on the way to his crucifixion and for that was condemned to wander the Earth until the return of Jesus (ie. the second coming).
What part of speech is Wandering Jew?
Wandering Jew can be a proper noun or a noun.

Words near Wandering Jew in the dictionary

  1. wandereth
  2. wanderin'
  3. wandering
  4. wandering albatross
  5. wandering albatrosses
  6. Wandering Jew
  7. wandering Jews
  8. wandering nerve
  9. wandering nerves
  10. wandering off
  11. wandering officer

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Wandering Jew (page history and authors); wandering Jew (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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Cite this entry: “Wandering Jew.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/wandering_jew. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.