Hanukkah

WOTD – 25 December 2006    

English

Wikipedia

Alternative forms

• Chanukah, Hanukah, Hanuka, Chanuka, Chanukka, Chanukkah, Hannuka, Khanukah, Chanuko, Channukah, Hannukah, Channuka, Hannukah, Hanukka, Hannukka, Channukkah, Chanuca, Chanucca, Chanuccah

Etymology

Originated 1890–95 From Hebrew חנוכה \ חֲנֻכָּה (khanuká, “dedication, consecration”) from חָנַךְ (khanákh, “to dedicate, to consecrate”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA: /ˈhʌ.nʊ.kə/, /ˈhæn.ə.kə/, X-SAMPA: /"hV.nU.k@/, /"h{n.@.k@/
• (US) IPA: /ˈhɑː.nə.kə/, /ˈxɑː.nə.kə/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Proper noun

Hanukkah (plural Hanukkahs)

1. (Judaism) A Jewish eight-day festival starting on the 25th day of Kislev, that commemorates the rededication of the temple in Jerusalem after the victory of the Maccabees over the Greek Syrians.

Synonyms

• Feast of Dedication
• Feast of Lights
• Festival of Lights

Related terms

• hanukkiah

Translations

the Jewish festival

• Arabic: حانوكا (ar) (ḥānūkā) f, هانوكا (ar) (hānūkā) f
• Belarusian: Ханука (be) (Xanúka) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 光明節 (cmn), 光明节 (cmn) (guāngmíngjié), 燭光節 (cmn), 烛光节 (cmn) (zhúguāngjié), 再獻聖殿節 (cmn), 再献圣殿节 (cmn) (zàixiànshèngdiànjié)

• Czech: Chanuka (cs) f
• Dutch: Chanoeka (nl) f
• Esperanto: Ĥanuka (eo)
• Estonian: Hannuka (et)
• Finnish: hanukka (fi)
• French: Hanoukka (fr) f
• German: Chanukka (de) f
• Hebrew: חֲנֻכָּה‎ (he) (khanuká) f
• Hindi: हनुका (hi) (hanukā)
• Hungarian: hanukka (hu)
• Indonesian: Hanukah (id)
• Italian: Chanukah (it)
• Japanese: ハヌカー (ja) (hanukā), ハヌカ (ja) (hanuka), ハニカ (ja) (hanika)

• Korean: 하누카 (ko) (hanuka)
• Latin: Encaenia (la) f
• Norwegian: hanukka (no)

  Nynorsk: hanukká

• Persian: حنوکا (fa) (hanukâ)
• Polish: Chanuka (pl) f, Święto Świateł (pl) n, Święto Świec (pl) n
• Portuguese: Chanucá (pt) m
• Romanian: Hanuka (ro)
• Russian: Ханука (ru) (Xanúka) f
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: Ханука (sh) f

  Roman: Hanuka (sh) f

• Slovak: Chanuka (sk) f
• Spanish: Jánuca (es) f
• Swedish: chanukka (sv)
• Turkish: Hanuka (tr)
• Ukrainian: Ханука (uk) (Xanúka) f
• Yiddish: חנוכה (yi) (khanuke) f

References

• “Hanukkah” in The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition, Houghton Mifflin Company, 2000.
• “Hanukkah” in Dictionary.com Unabridged, v1.0.1, Lexico Publishing Group, 2006.
• "Hanukkah" in WordNet 3.0, Princeton University, 2006.