Chet
/xɛt/noun
The eighth letter of the Hebrew alphabet, ח, representing a voiceless pharyngeal or velar fricative sound.
Did you know?Chet has the numerical value eight in Hebrew gematria, and it begins the word חי (chai), meaning “life,” giving the letter a powerful symbolic association with vitality.
Etymological Timeline
Early Northwest Semitic
Semitic
ḥet
“The ancestral name of the eighth consonantal letter; its original pictorial meaning is uncertain, though “fence” is a traditional interpretation.”
1st Millennium BCE
Phoenician
𐤇 ḥet
“The eighth Phoenician letter, representing a guttural consonant.”
1st Millennium BCE
Biblical Hebrew
חֵית ḥēt
“The eighth letter of the Hebrew alphabet, written ח.”
Antiquity
Greek
ἦτα ēta
“The Greek descendant of Phoenician ḥet, whose sound and function changed substantially in Greek.”
Medieval English usage
English
chet
“An English transliteration used for the Hebrew letter ח, also spelled het or heth.”
Modern English
English
chet
“A standard English name for the eighth Hebrew letter.”