yahrzeit
Syllables: yahr·zeit/ˈjɑːtsaɪt/US/ˈjɑɹtsaɪt/
yahrzeit noun: the anniversary of a person's death, usually a parent's, often marked by the lighting of a memorial candle and other rituals.
Noun
yahrzeit (plural yahrzeits)
- The anniversary of a person's death, usually a parent's, often marked by the lighting of a memorial candle and other rituals.
- "Yahrzeit" (year's time) is the anniversary of the parent's death. On the evening preceding, a light is kindled in the house, and kept burning until the following sundown. Synagogue service in the morning and evening is also attended, and the kaddish recited. "Nahala" (inheritance) is the poetic...1892 February, Richard Wheatley, “The Jews in New York.—II.”, in The Century Illustrated Magazine, volume XLIII, number 4, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co.; London: T[homas] Fisher Unwin, →OCLC, page...
- Sad to say, the Yahrzeit of every-Jew is fading away from the memory of the average Jew in America.1930 August 1, Leon Spitz, “Tisha b’Ab—The yahrzeit of every Jew”, in The Canadian Jewish Chronicle, Montreal, Que.: The Eagle Publishing Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 1
Examples of yahrzeit in a sentence
- "Yahrzeit" (year's time) is the anniversary of the parent's death.1892 February, Richard Wheatley, “The Jews in New York.—II.”, in The Century Illustrated Magazine, volume XLIII, number 4, New York, N.Y....
- The yahrzeit is here, and the least lachrymose country on earth is devising its rituals of commemoration.2002 September 2, Leon Wieseltier, “A Year Later”, in Peter Beinart, editor, The New Republic, New York, N.Y.: The Republic Publishing...
- Let's remember Hank Greenberg's yahrzeit, the 30th of Av, which falls this year on Sept. 3.2016 August 10, Irwin Cohen, “Hank Greenberg’s 30th yahrzeit”, in The Jewish Press, New York, N.Y.: The Jewish Press, →ISSN, →OCLC...
Forms of yahrzeit
| plural | yahrzeits |
|---|---|
| alternative form | jahrzeit |
| alternative form | yahrtzeit |
| alternative form | yartseit |
| alternative form | yartzeit |
| alternative form | yortsayt |
| alternative form | yortseit |
| alternative form | yortzite |
Origin of yahrzeit
PIE word *yóh₁r̥ Borrowed from Yiddish יאָרצײַט (yortsayt), from Middle High German jārzīt (“anniversary; Christian commemoration of a person’s death”); from Middle High German jār (“year”) (from Old High German jār (“year”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *yéh₁-r/n- (“year”)) + Middle High German zīt (“time”) (from Old High German zīt (“time”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *dh₂ítis (“part; time”), from the root *deh₂-, *deh₂-y- (“to chop up, divide; to distribute (pieces)”), whence also time and, via Ancient Greek, daemon). The Yiddish word is cognate with German Jahreszeit (“season”), which heavily influenced the spelling and pronunciation once the word was borrowed into English. Piecewise doublet of yeartide.
Words formed from yahrzeit
Phrases with yahrzeit
Questions about yahrzeit
- What does yahrzeit mean?
- Yahrzeit means the anniversary of a person's death, usually a parent's, often marked by the lighting of a memorial candle and other rituals.
- How do you use yahrzeit in a sentence?
- "Yahrzeit" (year's time) is the anniversary of the parent's death.
- What part of speech is yahrzeit?
- Yahrzeit is a noun.
- How do you pronounce yahrzeit?
- Yahrzeit is pronounced /ˈjɑːtsaɪt/ (UK).
- What is the plural of yahrzeit?
- The plural of yahrzeit is yahrzeits.
Words near yahrzeit in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: yahrzeit (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:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-yahrzeit.wav.
Cite this entry: “yahrzeit.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/yahrzeit. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.