Definitions
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A cabalistic system of Hebrew Biblical interpretation, consisting in the substitution for a word of any other the numerical values of whose letters gave the same sum.
Wiktionary
Etymologies
- Aramaic, from Ancient Greek γεωμετρία (geōmetría, "geometry"). (Wiktionary)
Examples
“Centuries later, Jews would repay the compliment by appropriating the Greek word geometry and creating the word gematria, which is Hebrew for”
“According to this ancient system of ciphers (called gematria), the meaning of the Hebrew word for "serpent" matches that of another word: "messiah.”
“This practice is known as gematria - a way of deciphering information from ancient Hebrew texts based on commonalities in the numerical significance of certain words.”
“According to Jewish tradition, there are 903 kinds of death, as is elicited by a Kabbalistic rule called gematria, from the word outlets (Ps.lxviii. 20); the numeric value of the letters of which word is 903.”
Hebraic Literature; Translations from the Talmud, Midrashim and Kabbala
“The method of allegorical interpretation here used is that species known as gematria, in which the numerical equivalence of letters composing a word is employed as”
“Elijah applied the biblical analysis technique (still used today) called gematria, where the Hebrew letters are given their appropriate numerical values according to their sequence in the Hebrew alphabet, to the two spellings of the word for "line measure" and found the following.”
“Siblin cuts back and forth between these three narratives in a kind of dazzling verbal counterpoint, and he manages to touch on almost everything there is to know or say about Bach, ranging from the secret messages that Bach may have encoded into his compositions using the kabbalistic number symbolism called gematria to the improvisations of the Bach Remix Competition in Eugene, Ore., where "Bach's little organ fugue was mixed with hip-hop beats and spoken word by competing turntablists.”
“(known as gematria), the Baal HaTurim commentary remarks that the numerical value of the letters that spell "shalom" (376 - shin = 300, lamed = 30, vav = six, and mem = 40) is equivalent to the letters of the name "Esau" (376 - ayin = 70, shin/sin = 300, vav = six).”
“Professor Greg Snyder of Davidson College in the US, one of the leading experts in the study of the ancient practice of number mysticism (known as 'gematria'), says that the number 666 is most likely to refer to Nero Caesar (a Roman emperor who was particularly unpopular with early Christians, thanks to his habit of turning them into candles) because when that name is transliterated into Hebrew and the numerical equivalent of each letter is added up, the total comes to 666.”
“When his father isn't around, he finds himself searching maniacally for tattoos, the seemingly purposeless combination of numbers and letters, macabre gematria that adds up to nothing.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘gematria’.
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Most Obscure Words
acatalectic, acosmism, acuate, acuminate, adscititious, adytum, akratisma, alieniloquy, allelomorph, allochiria, allodium, alnage and 620 more...
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Words Covered in Faery Dust (G)
words that evoke magic, mystery, mayhem, magnificence or anything else that glimmers in the grass
gable, gaia, gala, galaxy, gallows, gambol, garden, garland, garnet, gauntlet, gazebo, gazelle and 105 more...
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Dain's Words
rabble, terminus, archaic, atavism, demiurge, waylay, syzygy, jocoserious, quark, entropy, cinnabar, shamble and 912 more...
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flannagan's Words
netop, kenspeckle, loden, framboise, providence, milquetoast, schism, cadence, thrush, asphodel, clandestine, aesthete and 196 more...
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Because I like Them: G --- H
gossypiboma, gymnophoria, ginglyform, goobermensch, gomeril, gump, grinagog, gorbelly, gound, hamesucken, hypobulic, humicubate and 93 more...
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Good word to know
celerity, obfuscate, incredulity, verisimilitude, cognizance, formidable, sonorous, sinuous, grapheme, semasiology, penchant, desiderium and 31 more...
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Back-to-Bach
A series of words discovered or revived from Paul Elie's Reinventing Bach
Victrola, Radiola, Cembalo, Lautenwerck, lautenwerck, well-tempered, Thuringia, Wanderjahr, fixity, 78s, Bonifatiuskirche, Widor and 26 more...
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ragnvaeig's Words
incarnadine, percolation, simulacrum, promethean, enchiridion, lugubriousness, adamantine, verisimilitude, cumulonimbus, silvern, sophister, hex and 50 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for gematria.
treeseed Gematria (Rabbinic Hebrew גימטריה gēmaṭriy�?, from the Greek γεωμετ�?ία; English since the 17th century) is the numerology of the Hebrew language and Hebrew alphabet, and is used by its proponents to derive meaning or relative relationship. Several forms can be identified: the "revealed" form, which is prevalent in many forms of Rabbinic Judaism, and the "mystical form," a largely Cabbalistic practice. The word itself comes from the Greek word 'geometry' and the concept or system is the same as the Greek isopsephy and the Arabic Ḥis�?b al-Jummal. There is also a gematria of Latin-script languages, dating from the early Middle Ages, and very possibly back into Roman times, too. Recent times have also seen an emergence of new gematrias, though these lack a length of exploration that more ancient versions have seen.
The most common form of gematria is used occasionally in the Talmud and Midrash and elaborately by many post-Talmudic commentators. It involves reading words and sentences as numbers, assigning numerical instead of phonetic value to each letter of the Hebrew alphabet. When read as numbers, they can be compared and contrasted with other words.
_Wikipedia Feb 6, 2008