Pronunciations

Definitions

• n. "A title of honor for the rabbis and teachers who were the spiritual heads of the Babylonian yeshivot between the 6th and 11th centuries C.E." (JPS)
  

• "A rabbi whose learning was so great that he was given the honorary title of gaon" (Rosten), e.g. the Vilna Gaon.
  

• n. Modern Hebrew: genius. (JPS)
  

Example Sentences

Languages of Origin

• Textual Hebrew

Etymology

• גאון gaon '(one who is) prideful'
  

Who Uses This

• Religious: Jews who are engaged in religious observance and have some Jewish education
• Orthodox: Jews who identify as Orthodox and observe halacha (Jewish law)

Regions

• North America
• Great Britain
• South Africa

Dictionaries

• The New Joys of Yiddish, by Leo Rosten and Lawrence Bush (New York, 2003[1968]).
• Yiddish and English: A Century of Yiddish in America, by Sol Steinmetz (Tuscaloosa, 1986).
• The JPS Dictionary of Jewish Words, by Joyce Eisenberg and Ellen Scolnic, (Philadelphia, 2001).
• Dictionary of Jewish Usage: A Popular Guide to the Use of Jewish Terms, by Sol Steinmetz (Lanham, MD, 2005).
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Alternative Spellings

ga-on, goen, go'on, ga'on, go'oyn, gooyn