hanukkah

Alternative Spellings

hannuka, chanuka, hanukka, hanuka, khanike, chanukah, hanukah, chanukkah, hannukah, channuka, channukah

Definitions

• The winter-time festival that commemorates the rededication of the Temple after the Maccabean revolt in the second century B.C.E. (lit. "dedication")

Example Sentences

• "We will be having a party on the first night of Chanukah."

Languages of Origin

Textual Hebrew

Etymology

חנוכה

Who Uses This

Jews: Jews of diverse religious backgrounds and organizational involvements
Non-Jews: (words that have spread outside of Jewish networks)

Regions

North America

Dictionaries

The New Joys of Yiddish, by Leo Rosten and Lawrence Bush (New York, 2003[1968]).
The Joys of Hebrew, by Lewis Glinert (New York, 1992).
Dictionary of Jewish Usage: A Guide to the Use of Jewish Terms, by Sol Steinmetz (Lanham, MD, 2005).
The JPS Dictionary of Jewish Words, by Joyce Eisenberg and Ellen Scolnic, (Philadelphia, 2001)

Notes

The "ch" sound is pronounced mostly by older Jews and younger Jews with religious backgrounds. The spelling is a source of popular discourse, e.g., http://ejewishphilanthropy.com/what-is-the-most-popular-way-to-spell-hanukkah/