Kadosh
/kəˈdoʊʃ/noun
A Hebrew word meaning holy, sacred, or set apart for divine purposes.
Did you know?In Jewish liturgy, “Kadosh” is repeated three times in the Kedushah prayer, echoing Isaiah’s vision of angels proclaiming God as “holy, holy, holy.”
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Semitic
Proto-Semitic
*q-d-š
“Reconstructed root associated with holiness, sacredness, or separation from the ordinary.”
Biblical Hebrew
Hebrew
קָדוֹשׁ (qādōsh)
“Holy, sacred, or set apart; applied to God, people, places, and objects.”
First Millennium BCE
Biblical Hebrew
קֹדֶשׁ (qōdesh)
“Holiness or a sacred domain, from the same Hebrew root.”
Late Antiquity
Jewish Aramaic/Hebrew
קַדִּישׁ (qaddīsh)
“Holy; the related form became the name of the Kaddish prayer.”
Medieval Hebrew
Hebrew
קִדּוּשׁ (qiddūsh)
“Sanctification, especially the ritual blessing over wine marking the Sabbath or a festival.”
Modern English
English
Kadosh
“An English transliteration of Hebrew qādōsh, used in Jewish, biblical, mystical, and religious writing to mean holy or sacred.”