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shamash.

The candle used to light the other eight candles of a Hanukkah menorah or hanukkiah.

7 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ʃəˈmæʃ/UK/ʃəˈmɑʃ//ʃɑˈmɑʃ/
  1. The candle used to light the other eight candles of a Hanukkah menorah or hanukkiah.

    Judaism
  2. A sexton in a synagogue.

Where this word comes from

From Hebrew שַׁמָּשׁ (shamásh, “waiter, sexton”). Doublet of shammes, via Yiddish.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.