Top 20 Yiddish Words You Should Know

Yiddish is the language of the Jews who settled in Europe. As they went from country to country, their private language, the language of the home, gathered local words, terms, and syntax, and mixed it into a linguistic “cholent”. As such, Yiddish reflects the unique way that Jews see and understand the world and cultures around them. In its rich vocabulary, you'll find words that describe the everyday perspective on the Jewish experience. Here are some of our favorite examples:

1. Geshmak ("Gish-mock")

adjective/noun

Definition: Tasty

Usage: Geshmak means delightful or enjoyable. A geshmak is also a passion and a drive for something one finds pleasurable.

2. Mamash ("Mah-mish")

adjective

Definition: Substantive

Usage: From the Hebrew word mamash ("substance" or "feel"), the word is used informally for emphasis to express the realness of a situation. It connotes a situation that is so real it almost seems literally palpable.

3. Yenta ("Yen-tah")

noun

Definition: Gentle

Usage: An ordinary Yiddish female name, which is derived from Yentl, meaning "gentle." yenta has, through the influence of characters in Yiddish theater and literature, come to mean a person, usually a woman, who is particularly talkative and constantly in everyone else's business.

4. Mentsch ("Mench")

noun

Definition: Person

Usage: A person who is a mentsch is a decent, upstanding, respectable person.

5. Plotz ("Plots")

verb

Definition: Explode

Usage: To plotz is to (emotionally) explode.

6. Schmutz ("Shmüts")

noun

Definition: Dirt

Usage: It can mean literal dirt or filth. It can, however, also mean a kind of metaphorical dirt, or sleaze.

7. Nosh

noun/verb

Definition: Snack

Usage: Nosh means both a snack and to snack, specifically on something tasty. The act of snacking in its own right is often referred to as "having a nosh."

8. Schmooze ("Shmooz")

verb/noun

Definition: Chat

Usage: From the Hebrew word shmueos, which means "tidings" or "news," the Yiddish use of the word covers any casual conversation.

9. Klutz ("Kluts")

noun

Definition: Wooden block

Usage: Literally a "wooden block," A klutz is a person who is awkward or clumsy.

10. Bupkis

noun

Definition: Nothing

Usage: Bupkis (which literally means "beans") is nothing or something of very little value. It can also mean nonsense.

11. Macher ("Makh-er")

noun

Definition: A doer

Usage: A macher ("maker" or "doer") is an important or influential person, or someone who behaves as if they are.

12. Kvetch ("Kih-vetsh")

verb

Definition: Squeeze

Usage: To kvetch (which literally means to "squeeze" or "press") is to complain. It can also mean to be emotionally squeezed or pressed.

13. Schlep ("Shlep")

verb/noun

Definition: Drag

Usage: To schlep is to drag in such a way as to emphasize the task being a chore. A schlep is a task that involves a lot of effort that is unpleasant or irritating, usually moving something or someone from one place to another.

14. Meshuggah

adjective

Definition: Crazy

Usage: This Hebrew word means "crazy." Something that's completely out of the ordinary is also meshuggah.

15. Halevai ("Hah-leh-vai")

Definition: It should be

Usage: Similar to "if only." Saying halevai (which is originally Aramaic) is expressing a wish for something that should have been or something that has yet to be.

16. Tachlis ("Tah-kh'lis")

noun

Definition: Purpose

Usage: Tachlis can mean purpose (its formal Hebrew meaning) but is often used to mean something like "at the end of the day…" or "in summary…".

17. Kvell

verb

Definition: To take pride in

Usage: Literally to "well up" or "swell," to kvell is to experience pride and satisfaction from seeing others (particularly one's children and grandchildren) excel.

18. Mishmash ("Mish-mosh")

noun

Definition: A mixture

Usage: A mishmash is a jumble of disparate things that have been mixed together and left without a distinct character. In fact, the word itself appears to be a mishmash of Yiddish (mish) and English (mash).

19. L'Chaim ("Lih-khai-yim")

exclamation

Usage: Hebrew for "to life," this is an exclamation when one is about to take a drink with friends. Similar to saying "cheers" in English, the word actually translates as "to life."

20. Heimish ("Hey-mish")

adjective

Definition: Home-like

Usage: Something comfortable, home-like ("homey"), or familiar. To be heimish is to be a part of the "in group." It can also mean to be "overly familiar" or informal when one should really have more social grace, or to get comfortable where one is not welcome.

Join the Discussion

15 Comments

Newest

Oldest

Craig Hamilton Massachusetts April 20, 2026

10. Bupkis. I'm going to ask for a rewrite of this one. Beans are something of extraordinary value. Beans are not already dead when dried, but dorman. They are not expensive. Usually, the less expensive a food is, the more nutritious or important it is. Not as a hard rule, but as a general truth. For example, brown rice is more valuable that white rice, probably because it is more nutritious, it generally costs less. Beans are the same way. In fact, the way I remember binah, is bean-awe. I am absolutely in awe of the power of beans, not only can one bean grow if nurtured, but many beans can make an entire garden. A bag of lentils or beans should be about $1-2. I can't speak highly enough of beans. When my wife and I had only $43 a month we would buy a 50lb bag of brown rice ~$20 and a 15lb bag of lentils ~$10 and slow cook them with seasoning and oil in a crock pot, and I'd have the power to go on 10mile walks frequently. Just beans? Think again! Beans also have much fiber and protein. Reply

Me April 16, 2026

Interesting how you helping people speak lashon hara in more languages. Yenta and klutz, at best can be use for self depreciation which is not that great neither Reply

SJ USA April 16, 2026

A suggestion when describing how an unfamiliar word is pronounced. Don't just divide it into syllables, show which syllable is accented. Example: for "meschugge" describe proper pronunciation as meh-SHUG-geh. Reply

Blake Holukoff North York April 16, 2026

Yiddish is an important part of Jewish culture. Reply

Anonymous April 15, 2026

Thanks for this post! Was very interesting to see what the words we use all the time actually mean. Was wondering what the literal transalation for the Yiddish word "shande" is. Reply

Sela Berlin April 16, 2026

in response to Anonymous:

Shande is really interesting because its Yiddish connotation is quite unique. Its litteral translation is shame. Its of germanic origin.

But “Shande” in Yiddish isn’t just “shame” in the everyday English sense. It carries a much stronger sense of public disgrace, often with a communal edge. It’s less about how someone feels internally and more about how an action reflects on a family or community.

That’s quite different from how “shame” is often used in English today, where it can be softened (“that’s a shame”) or treated as a personal emotional state. “Shande” sits closer to “this reflects badly on all of us,” sometimes serious, sometimes delivered with a bit of dramatic flair.

By contrast, the word busha (בושה) of Hebrew origin is closer to inner shame or embarrassment. It’s more about the feeling within the person rather than the public perception. In some contexts it can even lean toward modesty or a healthy sense of shame.

So shande is outward, busha inward. Reply

Pramada Cave Junction April 15, 2026

I love your articles! I am not Jewish, but grew up on the east coast (a long time ago) and knew Jewish people and heard so many of these words, and many have come into popular usage by everyone. This was fascinating/ Reply

Sela Berlin April 15, 2026

Interesting and definitely very usable words. I would wildly appreciate Hebrew letters alongside the transliteration, some words made me really squint before i recocnised them 😅

I think in the shortness of explainations they are all well represented. Just in kwetch and tachles i am missing what i would regard the most common uses even in the longer explanations. Kvetch: as in streaching resources and talk tachles as in being very blunt. Reply

Paul Shapshak, PhD Birmingham April 15, 2026

So, did the formation of Yiddish as a form of high German in the Rhine valley in the 10th century predate the formation of German high German? Reply

Sela Berlin April 15, 2026

in response to Paul Shapshak, PhD:

Hi Paul, that depends on what u understand by high German. In modern usage it usually refers to standardisied german that got established after Luther. So 1500s. Linguisticalky speaking it refers to (and this is what your comment is hinting at) a large array of dialacts forming in the southern parts of todays Germany from about 500 c.e. so what u would call west Yiddish basically developed in this mingle, it does not predate it. Hope that helps. Reply

Feigue Cieplinski Middletown April 16, 2026

in response to Paul Shapshak, PhD:

Paul: The origin of Yiddish is not complicated. I don't think is high German but Middle one. There were French Jews who, sadly, saw their lives in danger , and decided to immigrate to Germany. Therefore, they started to use German as a code. A German policeman that was there , and didn't trust their presence, started to write down the words that they used in German on their own way. Yiddish means the language of the Jews, probably that policeman named it. At any rate, Yiddish is composed of German but not only, it has a core of more than 500 words in Hebrew that were Yidishized like were the German words. As Jews moved from Germany to other Slavic countries they also used loan words from those places; so many words entered Yiddish that way. Yiddish is a rich language, it stopped being a just spoken language when some very good Jewish writers used Yiddish to tell their stories. An example, is Sholem Aleichem with the story about Anatekva which became" Fiddler on the Roof. " Reply

Marjan Pungartnik Slovenija April 15, 2026

Can you help me looking for origin of the word "žnudi". There are some yiddish words in our local speech, and I wonder if this one is of yiddish origin, too. It does not need to be, but if it is there any possibility ... It means "remains of a dish if not eaten completely". Plural tantum. It has some meaning of judging the eater not to eat all, a bad behaving. Reply

Sela Berlin April 15, 2026

in response to Marjan Pungartnik:

Hi. I suspect it's actually a Slovenian dialect from znoditi(?) definitely not a common Yiddish word. There is a Hebrew word that resembles a bit: tzniut but its meaning (modesty) does not quite fit. Reply

MARTIN HILL Seattle April 15, 2026

So interesting how many Yiddish words have become part of the English language. I find word derivation fascinating and this article illustrated an important sector of that. Reply

Sela Germany April 16, 2026

in response to MARTIN HILL:

I am tilting my head a little. Are there really many Yiddish words in English? From a Non-American stand I wouldn't say so. There are words, but not may: chutzpah, shlep, mazl that are certainly used in BE and South African English, other Commonwealth English i cannot really comment on...

But on American English it's actually not the amount of Yiddish words that is so amazing, but how Yiddish reshaped the language structure itself! If you want I can give u some examples because it might be difficult seeing it from the insight. Reply

Top 20 Yiddish Words You Should Know

1. Geshmak ("Gish-mock")

2. Mamash ("Mah-mish")

3. Yenta ("Yen-tah")

4. Mentsch ("Mench")

5. Plotz ("Plots")

6. Schmutz ("Shmüts")

7. Nosh

8. Schmooze ("Shmooz")

9. Klutz ("Kluts")

10. Bupkis

11. Macher ("Makh-er")

12. Kvetch ("Kih-vetsh")

13. Schlep ("Shlep")

14. Meshuggah

15. Halevai ("Hah-leh-vai")

16. Tachlis ("Tah-kh'lis")

17. Kvell

18. Mishmash ("Mish-mosh")

19. L'Chaim ("Lih-khai-yim")

20. Heimish ("Hey-mish")

More in this section

Join the Discussion

Synagogue Services

PALISADES JEWISH EARLY CHILDHOOD CENTER

Youth Programs

Holiday Celebrations

Women's Events

Camp Gan Izzy

1. Geshmak ("Gish-mock")

2. Mamash ("Mah-mish")

3. Yenta ("Yen-tah")

4. Mentsch ("Mench")

5. Plotz ("Plots")

6. Schmutz ("Shmüts")

7. Nosh

8. Schmooze ("Shmooz")

9. Klutz ("Kluts")

10. Bupkis

11. Macher ("Makh-er")

12. Kvetch ("Kih-vetsh")

13. Schlep ("Shlep")

14. Meshuggah

15. Halevai ("Hah-leh-vai")

16. Tachlis ("Tah-kh'lis")

17. Kvell

18. Mishmash ("Mish-mosh")

19. L'Chaim ("Lih-khai-yim")

20. Heimish ("Hey-mish")

More in this section

You may also be interested in...

Join the Discussion

Synagogue Services

PALISADES JEWISH EARLY CHILDHOOD CENTER

Youth Programs

Holiday Celebrations

Women's Events

Camp Gan Izzy