dreidel

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 15, 2025 is: dreidel • \DRAY-dul\ • noun A dreidel is a 4-sided toy marked with Hebrew letters and spun like a top in a game of chance. The game, played by children especially at Hanukkah , is also called dreidel . // All the kids in the family look forward to playing dreidel together during Hanukkah. See the entry > Examples: “The Jewish tradition has always been syncretic , adapting and responding to the culture around it, he [Rabbi Steven Philp] said. Hanukkah is ‘a great example of this,’ Philp said, noting that the holiday’s traditions—like spinning the dreidel , eating latkes or potato pancakes, and munching on ... jelly-filled doughnuts—are customs that were borrowed from neighboring cultures over time.” — Kate Heather, The Chicago Sun-Times , 25 Dec. 2024 Did you know? If your dreidel is spinning beneath the glow of the menorah , it’s probably the Jewish festival of lights known as Hanukkah. The holiday celebrates the miracle of a small amount of oil—enough for one day—burning for eight days in the Temple of Jerusalem. And though it’s a toy, the dreidel’s design is very much an homage : on each of its four sides is inscribed a Hebrew letter— nun , gimel , he , and shin —which together stand for Nes gadol haya sham , meaning “A great miracle happened there.” (In Israel, the letter pe , short for po , “here,” is often used instead of shin ). In the game of dreidel, each letter bears its own significance: the dreidel is spun and depending on which letter is on top when it lands, the player’s currency, or gelt , is added to or taken from the pot. Nun means the player does nothing; gimel means the player gets everything; he means the player gets half; and shin means the player adds to the pot. Wherever you land on holiday traditions, we wish you words of gimel: gratitude, grub, and, of course, gaiety .