The 5,000 most common Hebrew words
Ranked by how often they actually turn up in spoken dialogue, not by how useful somebody guessed they would be.
Every number below is counted from a corpus, and the corpus is named at the bottom.
What each step buys you
Learn the first 100 words of Hebrew and you follow 41.6% of everyday speech. The first 1000 take you to 68.0%. After that every thousand words buys less than the thousand before it, which is exactly why the order matters.
| Words known | Speech followed | |
|---|---|---|
| 10 | 17.8% | |
| 50 | 33.3% | |
| 100 | 41.6% | |
| 250 | 52.4% | |
| 500 | 60.3% | |
| 1,000 | 68.0% | |
| 2,000 | 75.1% | |
| 3,000 | 79.0% | |
| 5,000 | 83.8% | |
| 8,000 | 88.0% | |
| 10,000 | 89.9% | |
| 15,000 | 93.1% | |
| 20,000 | 95.1% |
Comfortable reading starts around 98%. Everything before that is still worth doing, but the first hundred words buy you a foothold, not comprehension.
The first 100 words of Hebrew
In order. The percentage is the share of ordinary speech you cover once you know that word and every word above it.
- 1诇讗3.15%
- 2讗转6.19%
- 3讗谞讬9.05%
- 4讝讛11.54%
- 5讗转讛12.92%
- 6诪讛14.3%
- 7讛讜讗15.26%
- 8注诇16.16%
- 9诇讬17.04%
- 10砖诇17.82%
- 11讻谉18.58%
- 12诇讱19.27%
- 13讗讘诇19.89%
- 14讬砖20.45%
- 15砖诇讬20.99%
- 16讻诇21.53%
- 17讘住讚专22.06%
- 18注诐22.57%
- 19讛讬讗23.09%
- 20砖诇讱23.59%
- 21讗诐24.08%
- 22讟讜讘24.55%
- 23讛讬讛25.01%
- 24讗谞讞谞讜25.45%
- 25专讜爪讛25.89%
- 26讗讝26.31%
- 27讬讜讚注26.7%
- 28专拽27.07%
- 29讛诐27.44%
- 30讬讻讜诇27.79%
- 31讗讜转讜28.14%
- 32讗讜转讱28.49%
- 33讬讜转专28.81%
- 34讙29.13%
- 35讻讗谉29.42%
- 36讗讜转讬29.71%
- 37讛讝讛30.0%
- 38砖讗谞讬30.29%
- 39诇诪讛30.57%
- 40诇讛讬讜转30.85%
- 41注讻砖讬讜31.12%
- 42讗讜31.39%
- 43讗讞讚31.64%
- 44诪砖讛讜31.9%
- 45讛讬讬32.15%
- 46爪专讬讱32.39%
- 47讻诪讜32.64%
- 48讗诇32.87%
- 49讻讱33.1%
- 50讗讬讱33.34%
- 51讗讬谉33.56%
- 52谞讻讜谉33.78%
- 53诇注砖讜转34.01%
- 54转讜讚讛34.22%
- 55诇讜34.43%
- 56诇谞讜34.64%
- 57砖讗转讛34.84%
- 58诪讬35.04%
- 59讝讗转35.24%
- 60砖诐35.44%
- 61讞讜砖讘35.64%
- 62讻讚讬35.83%
- 63砖讛讜讗36.02%
- 64讻诪讛36.21%
- 65驻砖讜讟36.4%
- 66讬讜讚注转36.58%
- 67讗讜转讛36.77%
- 68讗讜诇讬36.95%
- 69讘讗诪转37.13%
- 70讻讬37.31%
- 71讛讬讬转讬37.49%
- 72砖讝讛37.66%
- 73讙诐37.84%
- 74讝讜38.0%
- 75注讜砖讛38.17%
- 76讛讗诐38.33%
- 77讜讗谞讬38.49%
- 78讚讘专38.64%
- 79砖诇讜38.8%
- 80注讜讚38.95%
- 81讻讘专39.1%
- 82砖诇讗39.25%
- 83谞专讗讛39.4%
- 84砖诇谞讜39.54%
- 85诪讗讜讚39.68%
- 86诇驻谞讬39.82%
- 87讛专讘讛39.95%
- 88讘讘拽砖讛40.08%
- 89讛讜诇讱40.21%
- 90拽讚讬诪讛40.34%
- 91讗讜诪专40.47%
- 92讬讛讬讛40.6%
- 93讬讻讜诇讛40.73%
- 94驻注诐40.85%
- 95讝诪谉40.98%
- 96讗转诐41.1%
- 97注讚讬讬谉41.23%
- 98注讚41.35%
- 99诪诪砖41.47%
- 100讗诇讜讛讬诐41.59%
Open all 5,000 words in the codex →
In the codex you tap the ones you already know and the number moves. It stays in your browser, no account.
Where Hebrew comes from
Afro-Asiatic › Hebrew
Words are built from a skeleton of three consonants, and the vowels poured in between change the meaning.
Words Hebrew has that English never built
- 转讬拽讜谉 注讜诇诐 tee-KOON o-LAMRepairing the world, one piece at a time
- 驻讬专讙讜谉 feer-GOONBeing openly glad for someone with nothing in it for you
Where the numbers come from
Frequencies counted over the OpenSubtitles 2018 dialogue corpus, 159,280,905 tokens of Hebrew in total. Lists compiled by Hermit Dave, released under CC BY-SA 3.0. Subtitles skew towards conversation, which is the point: this is the language people speak, not the language people publish.